DetroiTug's Tug is going together

[DetroiTug]

Den,

You say you're having the same feedwater/dropping pressure issue with your boat? I should have mine on and tried over next weekend and I can let you know how it goes.

-Ron

[DetroiTug]

Ron, The superheater, I'm going to leave as a last resort.

-Ron

[farmerden]

Thanks Ron I have a list of things to do on the boat but the rest of my life seems to get in the way! And when you are neck and neck with a faster boat and you have to add water you'll find out what a few pounds less pressure will do!! And it seems forever to get that pressure back up! It's all in fun and it's amazing how much one can learn from this forum.Thanks everyone. Den

[DetroiTug]

Den,

I'm not really too concerned about speed, would just like to see it operate in a pressure range somewhere near blow off. I know what you mean, it's difficult to get that pressure back up when it goes down. Mine will climb until I close the pump bypass, then it slowly starts dropping, and that's keeping right on top of the fire, ramming it full of seasoned wood every 15 minutes. Soon as I can fit 3 or 4 more logs, in they go. We must've used about 300 pounds of wood running 8 hours. All under the wheelhouse floor was loaded with firewood, makes a great bunker. I bought the wood and we used about 10 dollars worth. Pretty cheap to operate.

Thanks, Ron

[DetroiTug]

Found a video of my boat taking off on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-ktQ-mc ... re=related

[DetroiTug]

Someone from the last show sent me a video.

[kno3]

Great, it would be nice to see more videos of it.

[DetroiTug]

Ever have a dimension logged mentally over a long period of time, and it turns out to be totally wrong? Well I did. I have been shopping for a prop with an 1.25" bore on Ebay, one close to the same diameter I have with about 20% more pitch. I found one, received it and it turns out the present prop is 1.375" bore. So the adapter I have made would have to be redone. Instead I'm going to rebore the prop taper to the correct size.

I'm using a spiral-helical tapered toolpath. it's concentric, I just hope the prop trailing edges are on a plane square to the bore. If they weren't, they will be. Ahh steamboating, you have to love it..

Going from 20X20 to a 19 X 25. not sure if it's the manufacturers methods or what, but the two props are within a half inch diameter of one another, not one inch as they are marked.

The economizer is in and piped, if the weather holds, I'll take it out and try it tomorrow. These two changes should make a huge difference. The engine, I felt was spinning too fast before.



-Ron

[DetroiTug]

Worked perfect, taper is right on and the prop spins true. No vibrations. Matter of fact the other prop had a slight balance issue obviously, the boat would shake a bit (I thought it was the engine), perfectly smooth now. This should help greatly with holding steam pressure.

-Ron

[Aheadslow]

The Tug is looking great , a little fine tuning work is always needed with anything mechanical.
I just finished helping a friend lap in the slide valve on his Case Traction engine. When we finished
making the part we had to hand lap it to get a proper fit to the original surface.
You have built yourself a beautiful little tug . You do however realize such a project is never truly finished.
There will always be something that comes to mind to make it just a little better.
Isnt life grand.!