Nyitra I

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cyberbadger
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Re: Nyitra I

Post by cyberbadger » Sun Jul 24, 2016 11:44 pm

Lift!
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Heave!
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Ho!
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Dance around the deck till you get in the right spot!
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The boiler has landed!
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-CB

P.S. I think Nyitra is now a steamboat as of today!
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cyberbadger
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Re: Nyitra I

Post by cyberbadger » Mon Aug 15, 2016 5:58 am

Been working on the transmission. Photos in several threads ..

http://www.thesteamboatingforum.net/for ... f=7&t=1709

http://www.thesteamboatingforum.net/for ... f=8&t=1712

It's been raining every day in Ohio. It's too humid to paint outside, and there is moisture in the basement that the dehumidier hasn't caught up with. We don't have central AC - so the only choice is paint in my room in low humidity and wear a gas mask until enough aeration happens so I can breath it without compromising my health!

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BTW I highly recommend the Finnish Military M61 gas mask if you are preparing for WWIII. I have an adapter so it also accepts other cartridges. NATO or Russian cartridges.

It is easy to adjust, doesn't fog up, and it is comfortable to breath in. I could sleep in it without trouble. Visibility is is also quite good.

Sanding middle portion of 15hp 2-stroke outboard as a strut for propeller shaft. Propeller shaft detailed in thread mentioned above.

Using Rustoleum Self Etching Primer.

-CB
Last edited by cyberbadger on Mon Nov 22, 2021 12:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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cyberbadger
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Re: Nyitra I

Post by cyberbadger » Tue Aug 16, 2016 3:56 pm

In order to let the public/friends/family interact but keep more technical discussions separate(here) I have created a blog for Nyitra.

http://nyitra.blogspot.com/

I still plan to post a lot on this forum.

-CB
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cyberbadger
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Re: Nyitra I

Post by cyberbadger » Wed Sep 21, 2016 4:23 am

In case you haven't seen it yet...

The Launch was successful!


Technical Trip Report:
Monday Sep 19 2016 afternoon - Nyitra maiden voyage.- Lake WIngfoot Akron, OH USA

Trailering went well. I learned that if you plan for a lot of contingencies murphy might somehow leave you alone. The license plate on the trailer was lost and a very minor burn from Istvan my #2 was really about the worst that really went wrong. Absolutely Beautiful day 80 Deg F and sunny with clouds and demonstration of movement and propulsion by steam.

Of course there were the little things:

The trailer which is brand new got the lights all shorted because I drilled into the frame to put a beefier jack on it and hit wires inside of the trailer rectangular tube. Doh! We used temporary towing lights magnetized onto the boiler which was quasi-legal. The lake was only 30 minutes from my house via highway. On the way back the trailer didn't have the license plate, but I had the registration for the trailer and a photo of us swimming at the dock looking for the license plate - which might convince a cop around here. I've found if you can make them laugh sometimes they will let you off in such circumstances. I once sped in a parking lot near where I live and showed the officer I was speeding because I was upset that my Wendy's pay check was only $25 and he laughed and let me off. :)

The Timing belt skipped at higher than 2-3 mph - so speed was limited to this. We did not push this, the Toledo had a lot more to give but we couldn't use it without destroying the belt. It was sufficient speed to conduct the maiden voyage with a big grin on my face.

The steering seems good in the video but was found to be not terribly effective. I think it's the rudder is a little small and needs to be scaled up a bit. But maybe that was because the speed was so low? I also would have liked to have made a second linkage in the tiller. I don't know what that's called but I have used them on small sailboats and it makes it more comfortable to steer.

The hinge for the propellor was made from two chain link fence post tops that has an eyelet in it. That and some clevis+cotter pin and it was rugged and functional. Better than hardware store (big box, Lowes/Home Depot) brass hinges which all are not really brass when they say they are brass. I used the new style gray plastic electrical conduit for the tiller material.

Wingfoot lake had lots of algae spores and seaweed. The algea made it too difficult for the penberthy injector to pull(suck) through the clogged houshold water filter. However - the water transfer electric pump from harbor freight worked like a champ and pushed the initial cold water fill of 25 gallons through the filter in maybe 5 minutes from the lake. This was what took the most time at the dock futzing/fixing - connecting the 11V 5AH lithium polymer battery to the pump. I forgot to bring the cable and murphy showed up. I ended up cutting the cable, using a deep cycle 12v battery that I brought with me, and a pair of jumper cables. :)

The propeller got seaweed on it to the point where it was considerably degrading it's performance several times. Again low engine and propeller shaft speeds may have made it not able to fling of or chop the seaweed successfully. We just stopped, isolated the steam to Toledo engine with two separate valves for safeties sake and reached in and grabbed it off easily by hand. Switching forward and reverse with the Stephenson linkage also cleared the prop at lease once but not reliably every time.

The Toledo performed well but wasn't really challenged. It was a bit squeekier, especially in the video. It was getting plenty of steam oil - it sprayed the back port side of the deck with emulsified steam oil. I manually put green velvet pin bearing and journal on the eccentrics, crosshead, piston valve slides? (not sure if that's the right term). The crank pins have zert fittings which I lubricated with marine grease. These can't be original can these? Wikipedia says 1929 for these?

The boiler fired up quickly with bags of small thin wood scraps and latter some bituminous coal. Very lazy fire didn't mess with it, just threw the fuel in and used the manual steam draft. The penberthy could not lift through the clogged filter - but we just pulled one 5 gallon bucket up from the lake and made sure it was somewhat clean.

harbor freight pump and household water filte - filter full in in 3 seconds but pump managed to pump 25 gallons in!
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Other than that, sort of such a very exciting day, and it happened so quickly and I almost don't believe it happened! Basically I thought about a steamboat for a few years and then when I got the new boiler and decided to really try and get it launch by early fall in late spring - I cobbled Nyitra together in 4 Months! If I had to write a book about making a steamboat from my perspective it would be entitled - "One bolt at a time". I relied on this extensively in redecking, modifing the hull with the third pontoon and the whole drive train which was the most difficult/tedious bit for me at the time.

Had some people who saw us trailering and got what it was and smiled. When we started no one was at the boat ramp or on the lake. Two came from across(around) the lake when they heard the whistle and just arrived as we were coming back to the dock. I gave them the Nyitra blog business card and told them video would be up. The one asked what the schedule would be. :) I basically told him Nyitra wasn't for hire. :)

-CB
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Re: Nyitra I

Post by wsmcycle » Fri Sep 23, 2016 2:18 pm

Congratulation Nyitra
Were you able to pump water into the boiler with that pump? What pressure. I want to have an electric pump backup but haven't found one that pust out enough pressure. about 80#s wouldn't be bad.
LIGHT THE FIRE!!
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cyberbadger
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Re: Nyitra I

Post by cyberbadger » Fri Sep 23, 2016 2:41 pm

wsmcycle wrote:Were you able to pump water into the boiler with that pump? What pressure. I want to have an electric pump backup but haven't found one that pust out enough pressure. about 80#s wouldn't be bad.
I only used it to fill the boiler cold and unpressurized. That's my only "cheat". I'm too lazy to hand pump 25 gallons, and I'm not trailering with water in boiler - don't want to deal with the water sloshing and the extra weight.

Once it's got steam I use one of my dedicated water sources - I only had the chicago and penberthy injector available this time. I used the penberthy for the maiden voyage. I plan to add my worthington steam pump - didn't include it this time because I was worried about how heavy it is.

-CB

P.S. When the penberthy couldn't suck through the household filter shown I had the thought of using the electric pump with it to help the penberthy - but we opted to just dip a 5 gallon bucket in the water and make sure it was relatively clean for this outing.
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Re: Nyitra I

Post by wsmcycle » Fri Sep 23, 2016 3:16 pm

I pull water straight out of the Arkansas river thru a strainer. I have an eccentric pump on the 6A , a hand pump(yuk) and a pennberthy. The injector sometimes won't get going at 60#. I don't want to blow-down to fill. it must be able to put out at 80#. I bought a few that claimed 120 but the flow was nil at 60.
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cyberbadger
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Re: Nyitra I

Post by cyberbadger » Sat Sep 24, 2016 3:03 am

wsmcycle wrote:I pull water straight out of the Arkansas river thru a strainer. I have an eccentric pump on the 6A , a hand pump(yuk) and a pennberthy. The injector sometimes won't get going at 60#. I don't want to blow-down to fill. it must be able to put out at 80#. I bought a few that claimed 120 but the flow was nil at 60.
Yeah. My pb with work down to 50PSI no problem. It's a high pressure one and it works clear up to my MAWP of 200psi.

-CB
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Re: Nyitra I

Post by cyberbadger » Sun Oct 16, 2016 5:41 pm

Just ending a 2 week trip to Europe (Germany & Hungary).

I was able to find the exact spot in Györ Hungary where my Great Grandfather Emil Fricke had his steamboat Nyitra!!! The building in the background is still there.

The building was a boathouse - it was partially saved because it's an odd architecture for Györ Hungary - it's a German style of timber framing. The boathouse is called the Spartacus boathouse, it's near the center of Györ on the Raba river which flows into the Danube.

I made a cross fade video - wait till the end!


-CB
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Re: Nyitra I

Post by wsmcycle » Mon Oct 17, 2016 4:50 pm

"spending all of your time fussing with the power plant instead of navigating."
I have done this to the point of nearly running into the NON-navigable side of the river.
Ah! steam boating. an overwhelming challenge for the solo operator! and yet So fun!
LIGHT THE FIRE!!
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