cylinder material

hi can a steam cylinder be made out of aluminium i would be using a bronze liner obv car and bike engines are made out of aluminium but i was worried as to slide valve surface being ally and what type of meterial i should use for said valve.

im going to the metal supplie shop tomorow and was gunna try to pick up some of the material i need the reason for using ally was i need a block 3.5'' square and it was the cheapest route

cheers for any help

Is this for your traction engine?

If so I would tend to say no, if just for a little stationary engine then yes

I'd go for a block of cast iron, cost about £5 more than aluminium but you would save on the cost of the bronze liner.

Edited By JasonB on 07/10/2013 20:55:27

hi yes it for the traction engine the only reason i was going to use the liner mainly was because on the plans for the smaller version that i have scaled up used a wastited cylinder linder around the outside to direct the steam up in to the regulator chest i supose tho with abit of thinking i could redsign it to do away with this part and reposition the steam ports

Its more a problem of corrosion that I was thinking of.

If your design is steam jacketed then you can still do it with a CI block and CI liner which will still be cheaper than ali/bronze. This one of mine is an iron casting with a liner cut from iron bar. You can do it by drilling two steam passages to get around the cylinder but the heating effect of the jacket is helpful.

as JasonB says, corrosion would also be my main worry. Some aircraft grades of aluminium may be ok, others most definitely not.

Steam can be a very demanding fluid.

to be frank - yes, no problems. Sure it will oxidise, but do you realy intend on running it for the next 120 years...thought not. Having said that, i would opt for cast!

By corrosion I was thinking more along the lines of galvanic/catalitic attack being bolted to a copper boiler with bronze fixings all in a damp warm enviroment, rather than surface oxidation