The Ship Model Forum

Thanks Richard. I thought I would try posting here to see if there is more interest in live steam projects. Live steam Civil War seems to be a pretty narrow area of interest.

There definitely is an interest. Also from my side! I'm not good at anything metal like welding or soldering, but I just love to see talents at work, and if I see your plumbing it looks pretty awesome to me! Also the type of ship is pretty cool and "strange".
All in all it has everything it needs to have to be interesting

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The merchant shipyard

Glen
The civil war era is one of my greatest interest .I am working on a Bloakade Runner the will be sutiable for live steam . Hope to generate more interest for Civil War and live steam .Found a sight in England that has working feathering paddle wheels .

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If you are not living on the edge then you are taking up to much space

Yes I'm looking forward to seeing your Banshee finished. That is a fine looking ship - very sleek for its time. I am trying to come up with a functioning Fowler Wheel so I can do a USS Alarm.

I certainly does for me! This small Keokuk is an experiement to see how much steam machinery I can stuff into a 60" hull. I have a 1/16 Keokuk under construction as well that has a scale engine room. The link is: http://www.wmunderway.8m.com/cgi/yabb2/ ... 1301959816

I needed to take a break from that one as well as work through some of the construction issues in a smaller scale.

Starboard propulsion unit successfully test run. It leaks a little more than I hoped but at least now I know where and will install water traps accordingly. Pressure peaks at 40 lbs under load, which is about twice as much as I need, so my search continues for a couple pressure regulators. It seems to have plenty of gas - water is the issue as each boiler only holds 16 ounces. I didn't do a run time because I was too busy tightening nuts and sopping up water, but I'm thinking it's good for about 20 minutes of normal running as it sits. It is critical to know the run time so I don't run all of the water out of the boilers and damage them. A lot like letting an empty copper tea kettle sit on the burner. The aluminum trays make great heat sinks but after tonight I have decided to paint the non-visible interior wood areas with high heat white paint. I was also originally going with wood for the 1/16" shims I need under the trays, but those will now be made of aluminum.

As a former USN Machinist's Mate and currently a boiler inspector, I am finding this extremely interesting, Glen.

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Carl Musselman
(Formerly Back-Aft Models)

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Great Carl! If you see me screwing up anyplace, throw the BS flag! I wanted hard brass piping and fittings instead of the thin wall copper tube running all over the place. It's a whole lot more work but worth it to me.

You're doing great, Glen! I'd prefer the brass, myself.

Do you have any idea about the steam pressure that you'll be creating? I see a pressure gage. Is the gage functional or just for looks? What is the range on the gage?

What will be the heat source? Electric?

I'm curious about the "manifold" that supplies and supports the pistons. Did you design and cast that yourself?

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Carl Musselman
(Formerly Back-Aft Models)

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Nice little boiler u got ther. Glen,

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1/192 uss Iowa, build still in progess.
1/72 USCGC Resolute still in progess.

Right now it's running about 40 lbs but I only need 20 so I need to find a couple pressure regulators. Yes the pressure gage is functional and reads from 0 to 80 lbs. The safety valve is set at 60 lbs and the boilers were tested to 200 lbs. The boilers are fired by gas burners. The tank ahead of the boiler holds the butane.

Really great work! I'm anxious to see this one come together. Great tutorial on what's involved in a true steam system.

Carl, given your background when can we expect a 1:700 life steam ship?... 1:35?th? .... okay...

Dave

I've tried it already, Dave.

IT MELTED INTO A PUDDLE!

Glen,

What precautions are you taking to accommodate for the ambient heat that the boiler will make and prevent affecting the structure of the ship?

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Carl Musselman
(Formerly Back-Aft Models)

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The boilers run at about 350 degrees surface temperature, so there can't be anything resin, plastic, etc. used in construction. Everything has to be wood or metal. I have installed the propulsion units on large 1/8" thick aluminum heat sinks. And the wood frames that they sit on will be faced with 1/16" aluminum strips. The original Keokuk had a designed-in air circulation system with open tops and bottoms on the casemates and steam powered blowers. There was also a large fresh air intake surrounding the smokestack and three pretty good size hatchways. I will check for hot spots around the boilers and add internal aluminum flashing as needed. Absolute worst case I will add circulation fans.

There are two boilers and between them I plan to add a homebuilt smudgepot to make black smoke, so heat is not my friend!

Glen,

Most boilers were insullated with abestos with a steel jacket over. My loco has a ceramic paper insulation about 1/16" thick, with a brass jacket. It still gets hot, but not as hot as the boiler. Here is a link to ceramic paper:

http://www.cooltools.us/Ceramic-Fiber-Paper-p/kln-805.htm

Hope this Helps

Bob W

Thanks Bob, my dad (WWII Machinists Mate on Dahlgren DD187) was asking last night what I planned for insulation. I don't think I will need any on this little guy, except maybe to increase my run time on one fill of water. That being said I have been looking for something to wrap the pipes because I think it looks nice. This paper certainly has a use on my big Keokuk though because those boilers are huge! Plus I am planning to add copper cladding with a scale rivet pattern.

Starting to get crowded in here!



This last picture shows up on my screen as close to full size.

Glen
Cool now but soon to be hot .

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If you are not living on the edge then you are taking up to much space

Glen,

Just for scale's sake, could you get your hand in a photo with the boilers just for something to compare the size of them with?

Thanks,

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Carl Musselman
(Formerly Back-Aft Models)

Photobucket
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YouTube Channel:
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Sure Carl, I will do that the next time I take pictures, but the boilers are 10" long x 3" diameter.