Show all posts by user

Re: Full Steam Proposal for Auto Mfrs - 1 year ago

Hi Rick, Ken FYI about Ford's F-150, my brother ordered one last winter. He is still waiting. Tom

by TH - SteamStuff

Re: Anyone recognize? - 1 year ago

Hey Ken, The old Navy designers seem to agree with you. The battleship Texas has two triple-expansion engines, with a pair of 83" diameter low pressure cylinders. Just a bit bigger than this case. Tom H

by TH - SteamStuff

Re: lighter stronger tubing - 8 years ago

I was surprised to see the Bainite Steel website crop up here, since the target market for the tubing is not boilers. I know the inventor of the process, used to be a neighbor of mine in Washington Township outside Detroit. Ken is right about bainite not being a grade, it's a steel microstructure made by specific cooling rates. Not quenched and tempered, actually remarkable stuff for properties

by TH - SteamStuff

Re: Steam motorcycle land speed record - 8 years ago

Bill, Not to be critical, but the linked YouTube video was not very helpful. A shot of the bike with an unintelligible conversation? I see a lot like this, and wish someone would just do a simple voice over to explain what's happening. Talking over the equipment noise rarely gets the point across. Sorry, just one of my pet peeves. Post more stuff when you can. That said, congratulations

by TH - SteamStuff

Re: Chuk Williams Accident at Bonneville, may be hurt - 8 years ago

Ken, You know some of the test track folks. It might be useful to see if any of the failure study guys might be interested in this project. Since it's not clear what happened, might be worthwhile to have someone that looks at broken stuff for a living see if this was an equipment failure. Tom

by TH - SteamStuff

Re: "Jakuba's Compounding article in the Bulletin" - 8 years ago

Bill, If I had to pay California gas prices I might consider it, but his was an '08. Guess they got better. Drove by a station selling unleaded at 2.89 yesterday. Man, I love Texas. Tom

by TH - SteamStuff

Re: "Jakuba's Compounding article in the Bulletin" - 8 years ago

Bill, My former employer had some dealings with Tesla about making parts. Talk about champagne tastes and beer budgets!! They wanted engineering at GM levels with Studebaker resources. Knew almost nothing about building car bodies, and wanted aluminum to behave like DQAK sheet steel for panel contours. Fortunately for my old shop they could not do what Tesla wanted, and backed away before the

by TH - SteamStuff

Re: solar steam - 8 years ago

Jim, I don't know about the Cyclone building being empty, but the stock is. Seems the assets are being moved to another company, and the stock is showing zero value, while all sorts of good news is being posted on the website. Tom

by TH - SteamStuff

Re: Bash valve concept musings - 9 years ago

Bill, You could probably use steel shim stock for that. It should last roughly forever at that temp and small deflection. It's been a while since I used it, but tool and die suppliers should have it in all sorts of sizes and thicknesses. Tom

by TH - SteamStuff

Re: Bash valve concept musings - 9 years ago

Just how hot are you planning to run your steam? Depending on your material selection you should be able to get over 500C for a very long time. 600C, that may start to be a problem. Also depends on how you got your strength, by quench and temper versus cold work or alloying. Tom

by TH - SteamStuff

Re: Doble Book-by Jim Crank - 11 years ago

George, I'm in the process of buying a house, so I don't have any real cash available, but I would be glad to pay for a copy up front. If enough of us do that, maybe someone will have the balance needed. Tom

by TH - SteamStuff

Re: AAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!! - 11 years ago

One friend told me in his metallurgy classes at Ohio State all papers got two grades. They were marked by the professor for technical merit, then turned over to an English prof for literacy. Poor papers had to be rewritten, which in the days of typewriters was a real pain, so they got better quickly. Tom

by TH - Miscellaneous Technical

Re: Tata Motors Compressed Air car available August 2012 - 11 years ago

I have a friend that keeps inventing over-unity stuff. I keep trying to explain it won't work, and that what he thinks is success is just bad measuring techniques. Very intelligent guy, totally self taught, and that's the problem. He's learned what fits with what he wants to believe. Everything else must be wrong, or part of the conspiracy. Tom

by TH - Miscellaneous Technical

Re: Steam rate required for the Surrey - 11 years ago

Seeing that reference to slugs brought back memories of one professor with a rather warped sense of humor, that wanted answers converted into units such as slug-furlongs per fortnight. Ah, the English system of units! Metric is boring! Tom

by TH - SteamStuff

Re: New to this Forum - 11 years ago

Jan, I'm really curious where you are. With the price of copper scrap these days, I am amazed a loco with serious amounts of copper in it still exists. Some of the power metering wiring disappeared from our company substation. Either the thief was incredibly lucky or it was one of our electricians, because the circuit being measured is at 13,000 volts. You gotta REALLY want to get that scrap

by TH - SteamStuff

Re: Cycle Circle engine - 11 years ago

It's really amazing how brazen some of these guys can be. I remember one exhibit at an early 90s SAE conference for the "split-phase" engine from Australia. It would supposedly run at a compression ratio of less than 2 to 1. Very complex action, hard to figure what was happening. They even had an honest to God WW2 hero, knighted by King George VI, as their CEO. I guess they figured

by TH - SteamStuff

Re: green steam company - 11 years ago

Going back to your November post, I remember seeing a bunch of exotic designs at the Detroit Historical Society. Also, the GM Tech Center always brought their bright ideas to the Auto Show. They had the Volt's great grandfather at the '89 show, a van with a 10 horse diesel driving a generator, and Ni-Cd cells powering wheel-hub motors, same as the EV-1. Makes you wonder what they could have don

by TH - SteamStuff

Re: US Land Steam Record!! - 11 years ago

Ken, If you are serious about that head design, how big a chunk of steel would you need? I routinely make plates up to 4" thick, and from 40 to 60 KSI yield strength. My trim cuts might be big enough to get a tryout piece. Dragging it from Houston to Detroit could be interesting... Tom

by TH - SteamStuff

Re: AAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!! - 11 years ago

Y34H, Y34H... 4M421NG 1ND33D!

by TH - Miscellaneous Technical

Re: New member in Michigan - 11 years ago

Hi Ken, Totally divorced from the auto industry now, unless you count making plates for presses. I'm the metallurgist for a plate mill in Texas, one of the biggest in North America. Foreign owned, like a serious chunk of the American steel industry. Making steel for oil rigs, pressure vessels, barges, earth movers, and line pipe. I've swapped emails with Harry and Frankie about a possible w

by TH - Miscellaneous Technical

Re: green steam company - 11 years ago

Ken, You are joking, right? I recently rented an Aveo and looked under the hood. If you are going to tell me someone actually tried to make that thing service-friendly, I want to know what the guy was smoking. Tom

by TH - SteamStuff

Re: scrap yard stainless - 11 years ago

Richard, See if a magnet sticks to it. If it does, it's a 400 series. If it doesn't, it's probably 304, possibly 314L. If it doesn't stick, and they will sell it for less than a buck a pound, grab it. Either series will last longer than carbon steel, but build your design for eventual replacement. Actually, 309 is a good one for high temp. Not much on high temperature strength, but it wil

by TH - SteamStuff

Re: Engine Generator for the Rural Poor - 11 years ago

Jim, in the past I have seen designs to put Fresnel lenses in front of the cells to concentrate the light, but as far as I know no one is selling them. The concept was make smaller cells with higher density input per cell. Even then, you still have the basic problem. Sun goes down at night, then what? Every solution so far is very expensive. Heard an interesting POV on a PBS program tonigh

by TH - Miscellaneous Technical

Re: Engine Generator for the Rural Poor - 11 years ago

While my first reaction is to push this sort of project, I want to add a cautionary note. Large chunks of these poorer areas are being deforested by people just looking for some cooking fuel. What effect will harvesting biomass for fuel have? Generating any meaningful amount of power takes significant fuel. Unless you have some ready source of easily obtained weeds, scrub or other useless form

by TH - Miscellaneous Technical

Re: New member in Michigan - 11 years ago

Never fails. Wait til I move away, THEN start a local chapter. How's the engine going, Ken? Tom

by TH - Miscellaneous Technical

Re: green steam company - 11 years ago

Andy, the fuel economy nazis dictate the car must be the minimum size to contain everything, for aerodynamics. So the body and drivetrain engineers figure out the minimum volume needed to hold everything while not getting in the way of installation. Once the engine's in, it's your problem. If it breaks, throw it away and buy a new one. Boy I miss my old F150. With a straight six there was e

by TH - SteamStuff

Re: additive machining for lenno's cylinder ? - 12 years ago

I've seen it done at Southern Methodist U a few years ago. Prof Kovacevic was doing this with several techniques, using plain old welding guns on a six axis robot arm, and laser welding, up to vacuum electron beam melting with robot manipulators.. He had a solid printing setup, like the plastic model one, that used titanium. The robot welder was using H12 tool steel wire, and the results were r

by TH - SteamStuff

Re: A few thoughts on existing and potential energy sources. - 12 years ago

I find it a little odd to see someone claiming to be a Republican, then citing an article published by Alexander Cockburn, who writes for the Nation and thinks Obama is far too conservative. Of course, Cockburn does think Human Induced Climate Change is mostly hooey, proving you can't be wrong about everything. Tom

by TH - Miscellaneous Technical

Re: A few thoughts on existing and potential energy sources. - 12 years ago

I've been interested in alternative energy since Carter was screwing things up. I never bought into the save the planet nonsense, To paraphrase George Carlin, the planet is fine. We might be in trouble, but it will be here millions of years from now. I like the idea of alternatives as an intellectual challenge, and to see if they make economic sense. Using waste oil to make biodiesel seems to

by TH - Miscellaneous Technical

Re: Pyrolysis chamber - 12 years ago

A company I worked for in 1980 was testing a fluidized bed combustion unit for tires, to make steam for recapping operations. We used dolomite limestone and magnesia for the pebbles. Worked well on the pollution side, with very clean exhaust, trapping the sulfur as calcium sulfide. The problem was the steel tire cords, which would sinter together, interfere with feeding and gas flow, and made c

by TH - SteamStuff