Search found 64 matches

by BillF
Mon May 23, 2022 5:18 pm
Forum: Live Steam
Topic: Mosley Generator
Replies: 7
Views: 4294

Re: Mosley Generator

Note added after seeing Chuck's reply: You can exploit the AC generator output by using two (preferably identical) LEDs in parallel, but wired in opposite directions, both in series with the same resistor. The idea is to use the LED itself as a "shunt regulator," which is preferable to the...
by BillF
Mon May 23, 2022 5:10 pm
Forum: Live Steam
Topic: Mosley Generator
Replies: 7
Views: 4294

Re: Mosley Generator

An LED lamp will provide an excellent voltage (and therefore turbine RPM) regulator in itself. Just put a modest resistor in series with the LED, driving them directly from the generator. Choose a resistor so that its voltage drop at the desired LED current is about 0.1 Volt. (Ohm's law V=IR) The LE...
by BillF
Mon May 23, 2022 4:49 pm
Forum: Live Steam
Topic: Lifting transfer table.
Replies: 14
Views: 6461

Re: Lifting transfer table.

Just a comment on the old-style in-floor cylinder garage lifts: They were banned in new installations due to concerns about un-detected hydraulic fluid leaks into the ground. (That's why all the hydraulic cylinders in new lifts are out in plain sight.) I acquired one about ten years ago from a gentl...
by BillF
Tue Jun 29, 2021 5:35 pm
Forum: Live Steam
Topic: Turbulators on propane boiler
Replies: 51
Views: 34100

Re: Turbulators on propane boiler

Bill, I find the 80% of heat transfer in the firebox plausible, if you are burning coal, because radiative transfer will be a major effect. If you are burning propane, I think that radiative transfer has to be a far smaller effect. Most of the difference is due to the density of material that will b...
by BillF
Mon May 10, 2021 2:55 pm
Forum: Live Steam
Topic: looking for long life light bulb
Replies: 42
Views: 22432

Re: looking for long life light bulb

Why focus on a light bulb? Why not just get a high-power-rating resistor and wire it to a 120V line cord? 50 watts would need about 300 ohms, but a 500 ohm resistor will still give you about 30 watts. Mouser Electronics (https://www.mouser.com) has many such parts listed, including an Ohmite HS50 50...
by BillF
Thu Mar 25, 2021 7:27 pm
Forum: Live Steam
Topic: Turbulators on propane boiler
Replies: 51
Views: 34100

Re: Turbulators on propane boiler

If you do a search for "stainless steel turbulators" on Google and look at the images, you will find a number of similar designs shown. They are known as "wire matix" or "petal" designs, and seem to be manufactured mostly in Europe and India. It would still be very inte...
by BillF
Sun May 10, 2020 6:38 pm
Forum: Live Steam
Topic: Class Lamps and Smokebox Heat
Replies: 15
Views: 10777

Re: Class Lamps and Smokebox Heat

I would worry more about melting the electronics-grade solder used to connect the LEDs (unless you have some appropriate crimp-on connectors). That temperature is usually right around 370F. One potentially clever scheme might be to incorporate one of the many finned black-anodized heat sinks, made f...
by BillF
Wed Sep 18, 2019 2:29 pm
Forum: Live Steam
Topic: To Turbulize or not
Replies: 12
Views: 10473

Re: To Turbulize or not

I like this idea so much that I went searching the net for a source of suitable material. I found a 21-foot roll of 0.5" wide 304 stainless (no thickness given) on Grainger for under $9. (Item 3A550) Apparently this is the feedstock for a (presumably very heavy-duty) Dymo label maker. Does this...
by BillF
Mon Jul 22, 2019 6:51 am
Forum: Live Steam
Topic: Around the country
Replies: 18
Views: 11487

Re: Around the country

For your eastbound leg, let me suggest that you avoid I-90 or I-80 but head south from Montana to Colorado. There are a few clubs in the Front Range area and the Colorado Live Steamers are out on the plains near I-70. There appear to be a few clubs in northeast Kansas and more in Missouri. From ther...
by BillF
Thu Jun 27, 2019 10:21 am
Forum: Live Steam
Topic: Radius of an arc or segment
Replies: 10
Views: 7679

Re: Radius of an arc or segment

On this topic, let me ask: Is there a recommended technique for hand-bending rail? I suspect that clamping in a vise and forcing will likely result in a tight bend at the edge of the vise and an otherwise straight section. I purchased a disassembled layout a few years ago, and have been able to sele...
by BillF
Wed Jun 19, 2019 5:44 am
Forum: Live Steam
Topic: weird RR machine
Replies: 19
Views: 14638

Re: weird RR machine

Mechanisms like this were also important in high technologies in the small-power-transfer, high-precision regime as "mechanical integrators" (as in machines that performed the basic operation of integral calculus). Such technologies reached their peak of development at the same time as ste...
by BillF
Sun Mar 31, 2019 5:48 am
Forum: Live Steam
Topic: FRUSTRATED with threading tubing
Replies: 18
Views: 10866

Re: FRUSTRATED with threading tubing

One thing that I find helps a great deal is to use the Sherline to pre-cut a taper on the end to be threaded and then (with the headstock still offset) use the threading kit to cut threads to maybe half the final depth. Then I hold the tubing in a flaring-tool jig. Now the NTP/MTP die aligns easily ...