The Steamboating Forum

Well they go ON a boiler so I thought I would put this here.
I thought I would share a few photos of building sirens but I don't want to give away any secrets. (this post is intended to be a bit funny) So here are the siren building photos.





So who wants a siren???

Frank

Not that I have a steamboat to put one on, but I sure do LOVE seam sirens!

One of these would definitely be fun to have on a boat... Whoop Whoop Whooop.

- Bart

barts wrote:One of these would definitely be fun to have on a boat... Whoop Whoop Whooop.

- Bart

Well, I do have 5 available

Frank

Wish the steam siren I got "new" that looks similar to these - but is not the same actually worked.

Sadly I can't spare the cash for one of these puppies, but they look great...

-CB

cyberbadger wrote:Wish the steam siren I got "new" that looks similar to these - but is not the same actually worked.

Sadly I can't spare the cash for one of these puppies, but they look great...

-CB

Do you have a photo of your siren? What does it do/not do when you try and blow it. possibly it just needs a little "tweek" to make it work. I've done repair work on quite a few sirens (Starr Brass, Foster, Stevens and Sruthers)

Frank

Quite a common fault with home made sirens is that people tend to make them too precisely . The spool/rotor/whizzy-thing-inside-the-body should be a fairly loose fit .

My siren doesn't go whoop whoop whoop , it doesn't have a brake and was , I think , designed for a working pressure of 100-120 psi , certainly lower than my optimum pressure of 150-175 psi . Anyhow at my working pressure it screams like a banshee having its tail and one or two other parts of its anatomy twisted off.

Edward

Edward,

Do they have some sort of bearing inside or does the rotor just spin suspended in a cavity?

-Ron

DetroiTug wrote:Edward,

Do they have some sort of bearing inside or does the rotor just spin suspended in a cavity?

-Ron

The sirens I build the rotor just spins in a cavity. The new sirens sold by Preston Services in the UK also just spin in a cavity
There is or was a maker, Old Time Tech---Jerry Blain, their sirens are a bit larger than mine but I believe on theirs, the rotor is on a shaft that runs in a bushing/bearing.

Naval sirens made by Starr Brass had bushings, Foster sirens had bushings, Stevens and Struthers from the UK was a rotor spinning in a cavity.

Edward wrote:Quite a common fault with home made sirens is that people tend to make them too precisely . The spool/rotor/whizzy-thing-inside-the-body should be a fairly loose fit .

My siren doesn't go whoop whoop whoop , it doesn't have a brake and was , I think , designed for a working pressure of 100-120 psi , certainly lower than my optimum pressure of 150-175 psi . Anyhow at my working pressure it screams like a banshee having its tail and one or two other parts of its anatomy twisted off.

Edward

Several thing could be done to make it whoop whoop instead of scream like a banshee with it's tail on fire. the easiest may be to put a ball valve in the line and use it only for flow/volume adjustment. The other things that could be done involve making a new rotor that has more mass so it takes more time to come up to speed or a rotor with the same/more mass with slots that are sized and angled so it comes up to speed slower.

When I first started making these sirens I made 8 or 9 stator and rotor sets until I was satisfied with the design I use now.

Frank