Search found 64 matches
- Mon May 23, 2022 5:18 pm
- Forum: Live Steam
- Topic: Mosley Generator
- Replies: 7
- Views: 4457
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...
- Mon May 23, 2022 5:10 pm
- Forum: Live Steam
- Topic: Mosley Generator
- Replies: 7
- Views: 4457
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...
- Mon May 23, 2022 4:49 pm
- Forum: Live Steam
- Topic: Lifting transfer table.
- Replies: 14
- Views: 6513
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...
- Tue Jun 29, 2021 5:35 pm
- Forum: Live Steam
- Topic: Turbulators on propane boiler
- Replies: 51
- Views: 34433
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...
- Mon May 10, 2021 2:55 pm
- Forum: Live Steam
- Topic: looking for long life light bulb
- Replies: 42
- Views: 22569
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...
- Thu Mar 25, 2021 7:27 pm
- Forum: Live Steam
- Topic: Turbulators on propane boiler
- Replies: 51
- Views: 34433
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...
- Sun May 10, 2020 6:38 pm
- Forum: Live Steam
- Topic: Class Lamps and Smokebox Heat
- Replies: 15
- Views: 10852
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...
- Wed Sep 18, 2019 2:29 pm
- Forum: Live Steam
- Topic: To Turbulize or not
- Replies: 12
- Views: 10492
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...
- Mon Jul 22, 2019 6:51 am
- Forum: Live Steam
- Topic: Around the country
- Replies: 18
- Views: 11556
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...
- Thu Jun 27, 2019 10:21 am
- Forum: Live Steam
- Topic: Radius of an arc or segment
- Replies: 10
- Views: 7700
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...
- Wed Jun 19, 2019 5:44 am
- Forum: Live Steam
- Topic: weird RR machine
- Replies: 19
- Views: 14681
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...
- Sun Mar 31, 2019 5:48 am
- Forum: Live Steam
- Topic: FRUSTRATED with threading tubing
- Replies: 18
- Views: 10886
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 ...