Hello

Read this first then introduce yourself here.
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andrew52
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Boat Name: Leprena

Hello

Post by andrew52 » Sun Jun 28, 2015 2:28 am

Hello new member Andrew from Hobart Tasmania Australia here , I have a 16' steam boat named Leprena. I will have a go at attaching a pic !
Image

Image

Image
Last edited by andrew52 on Tue Jun 30, 2015 10:50 am, edited 4 times in total.
Happy steaming !
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Lopez Mike
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Boat Name: S.L. Spiffy
Location: Lopez Island, Washington State, USA

Re: Hello

Post by Lopez Mike » Sun Jun 28, 2015 2:32 am

Very nice boat!! Please post more pictures and a description of the hull and power plant.

I'm interested in the canopy. Any information and detail pictures will be most welcome.
If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.
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ezgo394
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Location: Texas

Re: Hello

Post by ezgo394 » Sun Jun 28, 2015 2:56 am

Agreed, that's a nice looking boat.

As for images, I can see you're uploading with Dropbox. I've used Dropbox for uploading images for some time now, and the best way to go about that is to put the url between the img tags like normal, but also change the www.dropbox.com to dl.dropboxusercontent.com and the image will show up.

Cheers!
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andrew52
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Boat Name: Leprena

Re: Hello

Post by andrew52 » Sun Jun 28, 2015 3:24 am

Thanks I am new to the forum posting thing so please be patient ! I have some pics on Google drive so I will give that a go also , Leprena was the 6 oared rowing boat on a 110' sailing ship named Leprena built here in 1922 but wrecked in 1925 the tender was then fitted with a petrol engine and wet well as a lobster fishing boat and restored and the steam engine fitted around 25 years ago . I have owned it for nearly 5 years re built the engine and fitted the canopy and converted the boiler to run on wood pellets .
Last edited by andrew52 on Tue Jun 30, 2015 10:43 am, edited 1 time in total.
Happy steaming !
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Lopez Mike
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Re: Hello

Post by Lopez Mike » Sun Jun 28, 2015 3:30 am

How did you make it work with pellets??? I'm trying to make a new grate for my boat to use them.
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andrew52
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Boat Name: Leprena

Re: Hello

Post by andrew52 » Sun Jun 28, 2015 4:21 am

Where to start ? the point of burning pellets is that as distinct from throwing lumps of solid wood or coal of unknown density or moisture content onto a fire with an unknown or not very accurately controllable combustion air flow
pellets have a carefully controlled density and moisture content about 300% density and 30% moisture compared to solid wood and they are small lumps 6 mm diameter X about 20 mm long so they can be accurately mechanically fed to the fire combined with a variable speed or flow forced draft fan both fuel and air can be controlled to give optimum combustion with no smoke or smell or condensation .
This is the same principal as pellet heaters or boilers work on . You cannot burn pellets successfully unless you mechanically feed them at the correct rate as you only need a small amount burning at any time you would need a person full time with a spoon and a stopwatch ,I have tried it and still made a lot of smoke ! you also must have adjustable forced draft natural draft is not accurate enough , having said that once you can control the fuel/air ratio they don't seem that critical you realize how inaccurate solid wood and natural draft can sometimes be.
Pellets produce about 3 times the heat of solid wood so the grate only needs to be about 30% the area ,mine was about 450 mm diameter and is now a 200 mm cast iron cooking pot with 6 mm holes drilled in the bottom and sides for combustion air .
Happy steaming !
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Lopez Mike
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Re: Hello

Post by Lopez Mike » Sun Jun 28, 2015 9:14 am

So some sort of auger feed to the pot and a fan?? Any rough ideas of how many amps this all draws?

When I'm in my home waters I have a fairly bottomless supply of wood but sometimes I trailer well away from wood country and most places have pellets. I'd want to build a system that was removable.
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andrew52
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Re: Hello

Post by andrew52 » Sun Jun 28, 2015 10:54 am

My original prototype was an auger from an old meat mincer driven by a car wiper motor controlled by two electronic timers one for ON and one for OFF time ,the OFF time set so the fire didn't die down too low and the ON time determined the size of the fire . I built the prototype in a few hours from a drum with a hole in the lid for the fire pot and a small blower fan in the bottom . I will try and post my first video of the prototype and you should see what I mean and how well it worked first go [Youtube]https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8pHVt ... sp=sharing[/Youtube]
[Youtube]https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8pHVt ... sp=sharing[/Youtube]
I am now on Mk 2 feeder and Mk 3 control system after about 4 years development !
Please let me know how the videos come through ?
Happy steaming !
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Lopez Mike
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Re: Hello

Post by Lopez Mike » Sun Jun 28, 2015 11:39 am

The links aren't clickable from the post. When I cut and paste them to a new browser window they load but don't run. The second problem may be a glitch with YouTube though.

So the only air to the fire is from the fan? That feeder tube must get really hot. Do you think that the whole design would scale up at all? Like I need a fire a foot in diameter to have it be under the tube cluster in my VFT. Or would the fire just be in a small area where the pellets drop out of the feeder tube?
Mike Rometer
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Re: Hello

Post by Mike Rometer » Sun Jun 28, 2015 11:51 am

Hi Andrew, and welcome. I'm having the same trouble as Lopez Mike with the links. I am working from a Tablet though, as my P.C. has died.
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