The Steamboating Forum

@LopezMike: I definitely understand. I'm a machine guy too and the main reason I'm wanting to build is so I can mess with the steam toys and at the same time, have fun on the water. @PeteThePen1: I want to do both. I'd like to operate something that I have built entirely from scratch, something that...

I've been looking some more and have read that a water tube is 'safest' due to the lesser amounts of water held in the boiler compared to a fire tube. I think I might go for a 3 drum water tube boiler. I To make this clear, I did say earlier that I was thinking of welding my own boiler, but after re...

@malcolmd: It's looking good! I look forward to seeing the finished boat! @fredrosse: Interesting. I never thought that would happen. No matter what I go with, I will glass the outside and the inside. I've started to think that maybe I could start with a plywood boat, sell it, and then do a strip pl...

@lighthousekeeper: I'm excited to hear you got yours completed in that time frame. I'll definitely check out that forum. @fredrosse: 3 months is pretty spectacular. I assume the lessened build time is due to your usage of marine plywood vs strip planking? I had considered using marine plywood, but I...

Thanks for the replies! @asal0312: Concerning location, hoping everything goes near as planned, I will be building a house in the next year or so with a full garage on the ground level and a living area above, so space won't be an issue (planning a 24x43 garage, with a 10ft ceiling. The only main co...

Thanks for the replies! @DetroiTug: Noted. I'll get that book as soon as possible. I'm very confident in my welding skills (I was in the top of my class with a stick) and I was considering creating a test vessel to see how my welds would hold up and then pressurize it. However, now, I think I'll lik...

Hello All, I joined the forum this past weekend and after looking around some of the older topics I came across the typical costs of a custom built Steam Launch, which started at $25,000 to $30,000 and upwards. Now, I had originally considered having a boat built by someone, but, to be honest, that'...

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...

Thanks for the welcome!

@Lopez Mike, that was exactly my reasoning for choosing steam boats.

Hello All, My name is Ethan and I am from Texas. I've been interested in boats/ships for years and have been a member of a drawing site/forum called Shipbucket for over 6 years, drawing various ships and boats from the 1900s to modern day. I've always been intrigued by steam power and I've always wa...