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Non Steam Discussions
Re: FUELS - 15 years ago
Jeremy, My point was using a non-food source would be better, based on the mess caused by the ethanol debacle. I like the jatropha seed myself because the plant is basically a weed, and will produce a crop on really marginal land. There's a lot of played-out cotton fields in the South, particularly south of me in Texas, so setting up plantations would not be tough. Of course the plants produby TH - SteamStuff
Re: Lear's steam-powered Monte Carlo - 15 years ago
Peter, My outfit is in the early stages of quoting some body parts for the Tesla. They may have a second car in mind with a lower price tag, to generate some volume. Volumes are tiny by auto standards, but who knows? I'm not surprised by the numbers you cited. I have had several heated exchanges over the years with GM engineers about their "eco-friendly' concepts. GM used to have aby TH - SteamStuff
Re: Richard J. Smith drawings and hardware - 15 years ago
Sounds good; a backpack boiler, tubes down the legs and the condenser is a large hat. Tomby TH - SteamStuff
Re: Richard J. Smith drawings and hardware - 15 years ago
Yuck, Graeme! I always thought of Australia as being like the American West, with relaxed attitudes about individual actions. 200 watts is less than a third horsepower! That won't move a small go-kart! That is about what the electric skateboards put out. I'm glad I don't have such a government breathing down my neck, at least not yet. Tomby TH - SteamStuff
Re: Lear's steam-powered Monte Carlo - 15 years ago
Tesla is not a good example of how to run a car company, at least in the standard business models I learned. They remind me of the line about pro sports : How do you make a small fortune with a professional sports team? Start with a large fortune. Tesla currently makes rich men's toys. There's always a group of wealthy folks that will latch onto the latest trend and keep it going for a whiby TH - SteamStuff
Re: Nancy Pelosi to introduce "Cash For Clunkers" Bill. Specialty Equipment Market Association SEMA opposes it - 15 years ago
Graeme Things are getting a bit more interesting. A number of dealers are complaining that the bureaucrats are pulling the old "check is in the mail" routine, and have stopped destroying engines until more money on completed deals shows up. They are threatening to resell the cars unless the Feds get their act together. Typical. So typical. These guys could mess up a 1 car funby TH - Miscellaneous Technical
Re: Nancy Pelosi to introduce "Cash For Clunkers" Bill. Specialty Equipment Market Association SEMA opposes it - 15 years ago
Practical? Congress? Graeme, you clearly are not from here. The point of this program is to make the Greenies happy, not accomplish anything useful. The fact that it hurts one of their proclaimed interest groups, the poor, by driving up the cost of the remaining used cars is irrelevant to saving the polar bears from a non-existant threat. Plus, of course, poor people don't donate muchby TH - Miscellaneous Technical
Re: Condenser Question. - 15 years ago
One of the primary old beefs about steam was startup time, right? As a most-of-my-life Midwesterner, I am very familiar with getting in and starting a frozen car, then waiting for it to warm up. This problem has resulted in a number of remote starter companies. Why can't this be done with a boiler? I realize that's a fairly sophisticated bit of engineering, but with current auto technology a mby TH - SteamStuff
Re: Condenser Question. - 15 years ago
Okay, since I appear to be the source of much of this crabbiness, here's my two cents. I'm going to see if this is practical, on my own, because I want to and I think there's something to this. I never had a good head for head transfer and dynamic balancing, but I'm REAL GOOD with metal. This is where I can contribute to this gang of mad tinkerers. If I can make a buck off it I intend to,by TH - SteamStuff
Re: Condenser Question. - 15 years ago
Bill, I haven't done a heat transfer calculation since I left school, so I will leave that discussion to others. The advantages I see are a significant amount of surface area for heat transfer compared to a plate unit; plus, since I am using a non-mechanical fabrication method, I can make the elements as close to the aerodynamic ideal as needed without astronomical fabrication effort. I jusby TH - SteamStuff
Re: Condenser Question. - 15 years ago
Hi Peter As I see it, your design ends up looking like this: < > < > < > < > < Air Flow --> Sorry for the less than wonderful graphicsby TH - SteamStuff
Re: Your Favorite Steam Engineering Resources - 15 years ago
Peter, Your comments about old books reminded me of my grandfather. My Mom's Dad dropped out after eighth grade, a common thing a hundred years ago, and got a job working for Glenn Curtis. Yeah, THAT Glenn Curtis. He ended up working on the Liberty Engine project for WW I. He was a constant reader of those International Correspondence School books. He must have gotten a lot out of them, sby TH - SteamStuff
Re: Condenser Question. - 15 years ago
Doctor F. Looking at the sketch, one thought comes to mind that a sorta simpler approach would be a three pipe assembly, with two steam feeds to one water pipe collector. It is condensing, after all, so why have the same size and number of pipe collecting the water as feeding the steam? A three pipe unit would be easier for me to make and work with than a thirty two pipe zigzag assembly. Thby TH - SteamStuff
Re: Condenser Question. - 15 years ago
Hi Peter, Found your sketch; seems like a good approach but a bear to fabricate with normal manufacturing. The plating process might handle this well, though. For ballpark planning, what rough size would the downcomers and side pipes be? In general the smaller the better, since that increases heat transfer, but it makes the armature more delicate and surface tension/capillarity issues becomeby TH - SteamStuff
Re: Condenser Question. - 15 years ago
Ken, The more I think about it, the more I think I can replicate the process they used, and do it cheaper. I had a question about how to control thickness variation, but I think I have that licked. Odds are I won't have anything made by this year's meet, but before the year's end... I was looking at nickel and chromium prices. The LME price is about $10 a pound for nickel and $4 for chromby TH - SteamStuff
Re: Nancy Pelosi to introduce "Cash For Clunkers" Bill. Specialty Equipment Market Association SEMA opposes it - 15 years ago
Compared to Pelosi, a Siberian shoe factory manager could win the Nobel Prize for economics. How can someone married to a rich guy be so totally ignorant of how the real world works? Millions of jobs making windmills and solar cells? What an idiot. Based on back-of-the-envelope engineering, one of these electric cars needs about 20KWH overnight to recharge. So for 50,000 you need a gigawattby TH - Miscellaneous Technical
Re: Condenser Question. - 15 years ago
Peter, I did a search for the Phillips/Saab condenser, and the only thing that came up was your post! Anyplace I can see this elusive beastie? Tomby TH - SteamStuff
Re: Condenser Question. - 15 years ago
Peter, While the image of having Igor dancing around my lab to the sound of crashing thunderbolts has a certain appeal to me, the reality is a little more humdrum. If I assume a surface area of about 15 square feet (sorry, metric types, I'm an old engineer) .020" thick, the power needed should be around 18 kWH. Lots of amps, very low voltage. About two bucks with my current home electby TH - SteamStuff
Re: CYCLONE WHE TESTS 6/30/09 - 15 years ago
Jeremy, this was interesting, but it would be helpful if you would do a voice-over to explain what you are trying to show. With all the computer marvels available that should not be difficult. Since the whole point of this forum, and posting videos like this on YouTube, is to get more folks interested in steam, an explanation would go a long way to promote that end. I saw a corn-burner steam pby TH - SteamStuff
Re: Condenser Question. - 15 years ago
Jeremy, I suppose that's ok, as long as you don't care how many man-years the project will take. Having some production parts in my inventory that take hand-welding to produce, I know how bad the labor cost can be. You are talking thousands of dollars of labor for a competent aluminum welder to tackle something this complex, and that's after you have a buildable design. And that's not countinby TH - SteamStuff
Re: Condenser Question. - 15 years ago
Ken, Roughly what sizes are you looking for, both in condenser and boiler elements? Tomby TH - SteamStuff
Re: Condenser Question. - 15 years ago
Since there appears to be some interest in this, I'm going to try a few experiments. I will start with plain copper, since I can get scrap pure copper easily. Nickel and chromium are still in the stratosphere for price, so they can wait. One question I have is the cost of alternate products. Do any of you have quotes on fabricating a condenser? I would like to know if this is going toby TH - SteamStuff
Re: boiler/engine/auxillary balancing - 15 years ago
Harry, I assume it was some mush-brained reporter that came up with the line about ghoulish fuel for your self-fueling robot. Sheesh! Talk about unwanted publicity! Tom Sorry, this was supposed to be one the Cyclone post. Tomby TH - SteamStuff
Re: How many steamers? - 15 years ago
Peter, Mark I was talking recently with a Tesla engineer about making some of their body parts. Aluminum, which is anathema to an old steel rat like me, but what the heck, business is business. They are not the most practical folks, avoiding steel even when the cost is seriously higher and the benefit marginal. The important thing was they got the Federal money they were looking for, so they aby TH - SteamStuff
boiler safety - 15 years ago
I just had an awful thought. We have evaded the long arm of our benevolent government by being only hobby-size projects, but I know one of our goals is to get a real steam car to the market. I just pictured the face of a NHTSA bureaucrat faced with the description of a Lamont boiler, which will contain the energy of a decent-sized bomb when fired up. It was not a pleasant thought. The possibilby TH - SteamStuff
Re: How many steamers? - 15 years ago
Peter, your analysis has a lot of good points, but you pass over one of the T's basic advantage. It was dirt simple to operate. Steam cars require dedication. Even the twenties vintage Stanleys had a lot of quirks and things to monitor. To drive a T you just had to switch it on, prime and choke it, then crank it. Nothing to monitor but your gas. Once Kettering came up with the electric starby TH - SteamStuff
Re: Condenser Question. - 15 years ago
Ken, I thought I sent a reply to your last post, but it's MIA. I'm looking at some writeups that appear to say you can plate alloys. Since nickel and chromium are fairly similar electrochemically, it should be possible. I will do some poking around and get back to you. Gee, I always wondered if those classes in metallurgy would come in handy. Tomby TH - SteamStuff
Re: cyclone engine - 15 years ago
Harry, I like the new website. Just curious, why did you drop the stock price graphic? Tomby TH - SteamStuff
Re: Condenser Question. - 15 years ago
Ken, To qoute Spock, "Facinating." One way to make a very complex structure. Productivity would be lousy, but not a bad technique for the volumes of cars made then. Wonder how long it takes to plate on a structurally sound thickness? One alternate to reduce cost might be using wax cores with a graphite coating for the cathode. Have to try this... Tomby TH - SteamStuff
Re: the steam bike promotion on my country - 15 years ago
If I'm not mistaken the language is Malay. I'm also functionally illiterate about getting this stuff to work (still looking for the slot to feed my punchcards in). How about one of you computer whizzes figuring out how to make the tranlation for us geezers. Great work Rustam, glad to see your bike works. Keep at it, you may start a big trend. Tomby TH - SteamStuff