Member postings for Luker

My neighbor said I should make a video of the live steam locos I design and build, but compressing 5000hours into a video is a little daunting. I thought I would give a machining video a bash just for fun... Nothing has been sped up, and most of the techniques are very simple especially for the old hands. Audio has been removed because apparently my lathe sounds like a good tune, according to the record companies; I agree!

If you watch, its 10 min of your life you never going to get back

Yep it does... I would guess its similar to a vacuum cleaner.

If you're melting brass fines rather pour them into ingots, you might end up with too much super-heat. Gunmetal and the bronzes work a little better when pouring directly into moulds from fines.

Yep please give it a go and let us know how the burner works for you.

Thanks Graham. There's a few more I've submitted to ME about casting, from methoding to furnace linings, and alternative-simpler alloys from base metal scrap for the model engineering. I hope you guys find them interesting!

The running joke in our house is that anyone who looks over the wall and complains about someone casting metal should rethink their strategy. At least the person casting has a hobby and doesn’t get up to mischief. Seriously though, I live in a city suburb and have asked all my neighbours if the furnace makes a noise and they all said it does not. I have a large box covering the blower (this makes most of the noise) with inverted egg boxes glued to the inside which dampens most of the noise. The furnace itself isn’t too noisy.

Hi Pat,

Many ways to make a furnace… My furnace uses a simple atomization tube, and gravity to feed the fuel with a simple gate valve to control the flow. If the furnace is designed properly the tube should never get red hot and should only run a little over the vaporizing temperature of the fuel (the supply air keeps it cool). Most of the combustion should occur at the bottom of the furnace. When I started I used normal MS tubing and this lasted around 5 heats, with each heat roughly 5 hours (I tend to plan my castings to get a batch done). When I changed the tube to stainless it lasted until I broke out the furnace for a reline recently (three trains later) and the lining glassed.

Generally I run waste oil for anything with a melting point below cast iron; the tank has a simple strainer from a French press coffee maker. For cast iron I mix 50/50 with diesel although I have melted cast iron with straight waste oil. You do need a little extra heat if you making the cast iron from scratch using pig iron.

Nice to see the different ideas!

Luker.

Beautiful!!

I found this article in our library this afternoon. Lovely 6 pager on one of the Pioneers built by a Mr Goves which won an award at the ME exhibition in 1936. Thanks for the reference, much appreciated!

Dave you need to be careful interpreting information from the internet. Flame temperatures vary depending for what application the specific tests were done. Adiabatic flame temperatures of diesel can exceed 2300DegC if you run slightly lean. These tests were specific to diesel burners used in large industrial smelting furnaces. Diesel will most certainly melt bronze, in fact it melts pig iron, cast iron and I have even melted BMS in my furnace.

My burner is incredibly simple, with no nozzle and the diesel is fed by gravity. i.e. no compressed air. The fuel air mixture is easy to get right with a simple gate valve. I have melted using propane, waste oil, diesel and a few other fuels. You would be hard pressed to melt cast iron in a gas furnace without freezing the valve (depending on the ambient temp).

We need to be careful not to steer people in the wrong direction based on internet searches, especially when it comes to foundry work which is inherently very practical. The heat and mass transfer also requires an in depth understanding of the governing equations and not only the flame temperatures...

Hi Clogs, there's more than flame temperature to consider in the mass transfer equations. Specific heat etc. Big melting temperature difference between cast iron and bronze. Bonze will melt no issue with propane, can be done in a ceramic fiber lined dustbin with a blow torch if you want to. Very difficult to get poor bronze castings if you do the basics right...

Oil fired furnaces shouldn't be dirty, mine runs clean. Certainly no smoke...

Thanks Dave... videos aren't really my thing, was actually for a FEA conference I presented at.

There's quite a step in heating requirements for cast iron compared to zink and the brasses, but with diesel added you shouldn't have any issues. Please keep us updated!

Hey Dave, Nice videos! Glad to see other foundrymen on the site! Some humble advice for your burner... If you ignite the oil in the furnace and combine it with the vacuum inlet you'll get better and cleaner combustion. The furnace will also run much hotter. For anything with a melting point below cast iron you probably don't need any diesel. Here's a section of a video with my setup... hope I've done this right.

Thanks Jason, I've made a note and I'll have a look next time I'm in our library...

Hi Everyone,

I need a little help with some research I'm doing. We have a 0-6-0 5g 'Pioneer' that was designed in 1932 by ND Willoughby. There was a 'marketing article' describing the loco in ME Vol 66 pg 449, and some comments in Vol 67 pg 47 which I have dug up from our library. Has anybody got drawings for this loco or information on the designer? Or possibly any other information of interest?

Thanks,

Luker.

High tensile strapping works perfectly as springs, I've used it on a few builds. Also works as thin stiff angles where you don't want to go too thick, provided you bend perpendicular to the as-rolled direction. Makes nice stiff thin levers, but all shafts need to be hardened. Perfect for making thin ‘special’ spanners for difficult to get to spaces. Also good for special spring clamping tools like an injector cone removal tool. Stuff is gold!

HI Tom,

That’s great! Please post pictures as you guys go, even if you don’t follow my design. I’d love to see how other builders tackle the same loco! I’m sure the other forum members following the series would also be interested in different build options.

Making the wheels from a disk and laser cut pieces will work perfectly. These will probably have better wear characteristics than any commercially cast wheels simply because most foundries won’t know how to chill the running surface.

Looking forward to some pictures!

Luker

The YouTube video I mentioned in Part 6 for setting up the lathe to turn parallel is embedded below. I put this video together a number of years back for a course I presented.

Apologies in advance for the amateurish video!

The new ME is out for the digital readers (ME 4679), which has part 6 of the Ballaarat construction series dealing with my method to machine cylinders. I mentioned that the pistons need to be mechanically free but steam tight, and I gave two different methods of practically checking this. I used the technical term of the piston ‘oozing down’ in one of the tests… the video below shows this ‘new’ measure. I do mention this in the article but I like to remind the young chaps that it's great getting this perfect but practically with steam oil and piston rings you would need a decent rattle fit before you’ll notice any blow-by.

The following might help with the diagnosis:

First you need to make sure none of the linkages got snagged or damaged, and everything moves freely. With the reverser full forward (then backward) the loco can be pushed on a flat surface or track if you have. The wheels and everything should move freely. With the reverser in the mid position and the drain cocks open the loco should also move along happily. If the wheels get stuck open the drain cocks and see if the same happens (this would indicate a valve timing issue).

With the system under air pressure (15psi as mentioned), and the reverser in mid position – regulator open, close the blast nozzle with your finger. If you do have any leaks you’ll pick it up with this test (any leak you can hear is worth sorting out).

With the loco on a flat surface where it can’t run off a table and do damage, open the drain cocks, pressure the boiler to 5psi, and crack open the regulator in full forward. If you move the loco (forward) you should get sequential blasts from the drain cocks, then you know the air is getting to the pistons. If you don’t get blasts from all the drain cocks this is a good indicator the valves aren’t opening properly. The blasts from the drain cocks should be more or less at the end of stroke (slightly before with the older designers) from the drain cocks where the piston is. Make sure you have full control of the loco when doing this test.

Please let us know how you get along…

I would start by looking at the valves. I'm not sure if piston valves or sliding valves are fitted but if they have shifted then the air will bypass the cylinder completely and go out the chimney like you've mentioned. If the sliding valve has lifted and some thing has found it way under the valve you would also get this. This is of course assuming the reverser is in the full forward or backward position.

I would also check that the air is in fact coming out the blast nozzle (vertical tube that lines up with the chimney) and you don't have another leak in the smokebox that's blowing out the chimney bypassing the cylinders completely.

I very much doubt the problem would be with the pistons, you would need a large amount of blow-by for the loco not to turn on air.

BTW this is assuming the loco does move when pushed and nothing has seized.

Hope this helps...