The Steamboating Forum

At the (slight) risk of re-purposing this thread, one of things we're often trying to do is to increase the amount of available steam so that we can run a bit faster, or have the power plant be a bit more tolerant of less than ideal firing. Some changes that can help, in rough order of increasing ...

I would contact other steamboat owners in your state to determine if there are any state-specific details of which you need to be aware... these folks may also be able to help you find out more details of your proposed purchase of which the seller may or may not be aware. Failing that, I'd try ...

I think the Lune Valley burner would work w/ jet fuel (Jet-A) or a similar highly refined kerosene. Heavier distillates would not work well. I had a vaporizing burner in Otter's previous boiler. That burner definitely liked good quality kerosene.

The steam atomizing burner that is now in Otter has ...

For those puzzling this out, note that Dampfspieler's drawing is viewed from the rear with what is in the original.

The angle of the pin, plus the taper in the needle valve, determine how much fuel rate changes for a given motion of the control lever.

Producing the angled square hole in the needle ...

The pump at B is indeed typically called an air pump; it scavenges any air and removes the condensate from the condenser, causing a vacuum (pressure below atmospheric) to form therein. This is needed for engines that expand the steam sufficiently to bring the exhaust pressure below atmospheric ...

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- Bart

I've had good luck w/ preventing/reducing corrosion by drilling and tapping the cylinder and piston valve covers for small 1/8" brass pipe plugs. I remove these and squirt in some compounded cylinder oil (600W) and turn the engine over by hand to distribute the oil. I do this when the boat is to be ...

Thanks, Dietrich, for the information. I'm considering switching Otter's (our little 19' steamer) hand-fabricated shell and tube feed water heater I made many years ago with one of these units; the shell and tube is about 18" long and hides nicely under the boiler, but is quite difficult to purge ...

That flat plate heat exchanger looks quite interesting; they are very compact for the surface area provided. How does one choose the appropriate size of unit to avoid excessive back presure?

A specification of 12" of vacuum almost always means inches of mercury in a manometer. Now, 29.92 in Hg == 1 bar. So a 12" vacuum means 12/29.92 bar vacuum or 1 - 2/29.92 absolute pressure.

- Bart