For years I’ve been told that the only reason wackadoodle assholes commit mass shootings, ignoring black on black gang violence, is because I refuse to give up my guns.
Only in America, with our horrible love affair with guns do mass shootings take place.
Therefore, it is obvious that this never took place:
I’ve had a fascination in steam engines since my childhood. There are pictures of my brother in the museum in D.C. standing next to the drive wheels of a steam locomotive. The wheels were taller than my father.
What I didn’t realize as a child was that the actual engines were small compared to the size of the locomotive.
The engines of steam locomotives are the expansion cylinders that drive the wheels. Most of the rest of the locomotive is the boiler generates the steam for the engine.
As a child I was able to ride a steam locomotive a few times and always found them interesting.
Later I found out that steam engines are used for more than just locomotives. They were used to power tractors, steam shovels, boats, mills, and workshops. They were everywhere. It wasn’t until electric motors became cheap and plentiful that we saw the end of the steam engine.
An electric motor is used to convert power into rotational force. That power has to come from somewhere.
The most common “somewhere” is the power grid. If you are going off grid, that is not an option. It is also not an option when the grid is down.
Grid down is a common thing in these parts, it happens two or three times every year. It is so common that we do not depend on electricity for heat.
Yes, we have an oil fired furnace; no, it can’t be used without electricity. The burner unit requires power to inject the fuel and then it requires electricity to power the fans moving air through the system to warm the house.
This is used to describe a standard four-stroke engine. Each word indicates the purpose of a stroke of the piston. First the piston moves down, sucking in fuel and air; then it squeezes that fuel-air mixture; next a spark happens and the fuel-air mixture goes bang, pushing the piston down (this is the power stroke); finally the piston moves up, blowing the exhaust out of the cylinder.
There is one power stroke out of every four or one power stroke for every two revolutions of the crank.
To make this all happen, we have the camshaft. The camshaft consists of multiple lobes that push a rod upward to open a valve.
There is one lobe for each valve in an engine. For a single-cylinder engine, there are two valves.
That camshaft holds the magic timing for the valve train. It is synchronized to the crankshaft. The camshaft opens the intake valve and closes the exhaust valve at the start of the suck stroke. It closes both valves during the squeeze stroke and keeps them closed during the bag stroke. Finally, it opens the exhaust valve to allow the hot gases to escape during the push stroke.
Those camshafts are a engineering marvel.
A double acting steam engine generates power on every stroke of the piston. This is accomplished by being able to pressurize both sides of the piston, alternating between strokes.
Whereas the four stroke engine gets one power stroke in four, the double acting steam engine gets four power strokes in four.
Most steam engines use a slide valve; some use piston valves.
An internal combustion engine has the valves in the cylinder; slide and piston valve engines have an externally located valve.
There is a single passage for the steam to flow into and out of for each end of the cylinder. The slide valve moves in such a way that sometimes it is venting high-pressure steam into the cylinder, and then it vents that same passage to the exhaust port.
This single valve controls the ingress and egress of live and dead steam from the cylinder. It is very magical.
And just like that camshaft is an engineering marvel, so are these slide and piston valves.
A slide valve consists of three slots parallel to each other. The two outer slots lead to either end of the cylinder; the center slot leads to exhaust. The valve is shaped like an upside down square cake pan with large lips.
In the far end of the motion, the edge of the pan is between the steam passage and the exhaust passage. This allows the high pressure steam that fills the steam chest to push down on the cake pan/slide valve and flow into the exposed steam passage to one end of the cylinder.
At the same time, the center section of the pan covers both the exhaust passage and the steam passage to the other end of the cylinder, allowing the dead steam to escape down the exhaust passage.
As the valve slides in the other direction, the lip of the pan starts to cover the steam passage that had accepted the live steam. At the same time, the lip on the other side of the valve is starting to close over the other steam passage.
The size of the passages and ports, the size of the area under the valve, the size of the lips of the valve, the distance between ports all play a part in the efficient running of the engine. These have to be designed and manufactured correctly.
We can time the motion of the slide valve to the crankshaft. We can also adjust the valve so it is centered correctly. We can change the geometry of the valve without remaking it.
Which all takes me down the rabbit hole of learning about slide valves.
There are multiple textbooks, written during the age of steam, describing how the valves work and how to design them correctly.
And I haven’t even figured out what questions to ask to figure out what “wire drawing” in steam passages means and how to design the steam passages.
On the good news front, I will be able to get patterns made for everything that needs to be cast. Now to find a foundry to cast them.
Copyright 1899
Wow, isn’t that a mouthful.
The intention of the author in writing this work has been to furnish specific directions and correct dimensioned plans for small engines and boilers, used either for pleasure or power purposes, in lieu of sketches and gossip about such machines. It has been assumed that those who need a guide of this kind have some acquaintance with ordinary machine work, and the usual facilities for it, if even but a small lathe and a vice-bench; with this outfit a great deal may be done.
The boilers shown will do a great deal of work for their superficial dimensions, if properly managed. They have ample grates and heating surfaces, and will maintain a steady evaporation continuously with good fuel and management. The work also contains hints upon lathe-work, vice-work, and finishing metals, which it is believed will be of service to those who have had but a limited experience.
High expansion engines have not been treated, for the reason that they are beyond the mechanical and engineering experience of the majority of persons who will purchase a work of this character.
I have been known to use polysyllabic words when a monosyllabic word would work just as well. This guy writes at an entirely different level.
Here is the gist of it: This stuff used to be simple and well known. It wasn’t uncommon to have regular people just make a steam engine in their barn.
He talks about how easy it is to make some of these things, until you find that he strongly suggests that you have patterns and castings made by a good quality foundry and pattern shop. It is better to pay 10 cents per pound for your castings, knowing them to be good, than to pay 6 cents and struggle.
I know how hard it is to make good patterns. I’m horrible at it but am willing to try again; now that I am better at hand woodworking, it makes a difference.
So I did some looking around. Did you know that you can still hire people to make patterns? Or you can just 3D print them, and I don’t mean the 3D printers in your house; these printers are designed to make foundry-ready patterns.
I’m not looking for an iron foundry near me to cast the patterns. I could do it myself in aluminum, and I want to try iron, but I’m unsure of myself at this point. I still might give it a go.
One thing I do know is that the shrinkage between aluminum and iron is different, so I can’t use the same pattern for both unless I design for it.
On the other hand, it might be nice to be able to have a place where I can get castings done.
This is the third major attempt I’ve made to read this book. I realized today why I was having so much difficulty. I am not used to illustrations being fully dependent on the text.
This is a perfect example of what I’m talking about. This looks like a mechanical drawing, something to build a model from. It isn’t. It is a “skeleton diagram”. I think I got the term correct.
What this shows is the relationship between the different parts of the engine so that you can know how big it needs to be.
The figure shows the cylinder, frame, cylinder brackets, packing gland, packing nut, piston rod, theoretical cross slide, connecting rod, and theoretical crank. Oh, and the base plate.
The connecting rod is 3 times the length of the stroke. The diameter the crankpin travels is the stroke of the piston, so 2 inches. From the length of the connecting rod, the location of the crank at center of the cylinder, it is possible to determine the clearance needed for the connecting arm.
But the words aren’t what I expect; the top double circle is labeled “Top Center”. Today we would call this Top Dead Center (TDC). Likewise, “bottom center” is Bottom Dead Center (BDC), which we use for timing car engines today.
I studied this figure for hours and never did figure it out. There aren’t enough dimensions to make anything from this.
That’s because it isn’t a drawing to make things from; it is a diagram to help you with your design of an engine.
And this is why it is so hard. This is a mechanical drawing that was well within the ability of the target audience of this book to read and understand. Yet it would be nearly impossible for someone with the same knowledge base to use it as is today.
First, we don’t draw objects this way. It is missing views.
This would have been drawn with at least a top and side view as well as from both ends. The cross section would have been indicated with a cut line in one of the other views. Instead, all of that information is buried in this one figure and maybe something in the text.
The bore of this is defined as 3 inches, and the depth of the bore is 5 11/16 – 5/16 or 5 3/8 deep. But that is not called out. From this diagram, today, we would assume that the critical dimension is the 5/16 thickness of the rear wall. We can guess that the front flange is also 5/16, but there is no callout for that.
And while the steam passage is called out to have a 3/8 diameter, the distance from the steam passage to the front face is not defined. We also have radii that are not defined. This being left to the workman.
I made it most of the way through the book today. I need to go back over a couple of the paragraphs. The important thing for me was to stop focusing on the figures and instead to focus on the text.
Go ahead and enjoy some light reading:Small Engines and Boilers
Well, the trolley system is done but waiting to be mounted. Once done, we move on to installing the window, finishing with insulating the lower part of the hut and other “stuff”.
I am treating this hut as an off grid experiment. To me this means a 2 or 4 battery bank at 24 volts and a 200W PV panel to keep it charged. Inverters and such to match, but with most of the hut infrastructure, lights and such, running off DC power.
This took me back to my love of machining. In particular, I want to be able to recharge the battery bank when the PV can’t keep up. Think snowstorm or such. Or just too much draw for the PV to keep up with.
A quick bit of research says that I can drive a low cost EV motor, think electric bike, from a mechanical source to produce the required voltages for charging.
So what is the mechanical device? A steam engine, of course!
So a discussion with Grok, and she finds the Elmer #33 horizontal engine. I’ve already built a couple of Elmer engines, so this is something I think I can do.
I’ve become a better machinist since those engines, and I have a few more tools to make it possible.
I asked Grok to find me a steam engine plan that would produce 300 watts. The Elmer #33 was her answer.
(½ in bore × 1 in stroke, double-acting slide-valve engine)
| Parameter | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Bore | 0.500 in | |
| Stroke | 1.000 in | |
| Swept volume per revolution | 0.393 in³ | 2 power strokes |
| Boiler pressure | 80 psi (same as our upsized engine) | |
| Mean Effective Pressure (MEP) | 44 psi (55 % of boiler – locked) | |
| Volumetric efficiency | 90 % (locked) | |
| Effective volume per rev | 0.353 in³ | |
| Indicated power @ 600 RPM | 46 W | Theoretical cylinder power |
| Mechanical efficiency | 80 % (locked) | |
| Theoretical brake power | 37 W | @ 600 RPM |
| Real-world reported | 25–35 W | Typical Elmer #33 builds on 80–100 psi air/steam |
So, Grok told me this engine would easily produce 300 watts when choosing the engine, when we get down to the math, she says 37 W with reported values of 25-35 W. This is not nearly enough.
Over the course of the last week, I’ve had X.com Grok, Android Grok, and grok.com all work the problem with me. And they all give different power answers. And they all have gotten equations wrong.
In one case, grok.com reported a design with match claiming 3400 W at the crankshaft, but she reported it as 340 W, which didn’t match the math she had shown me. She had auto corrected to real world numbers that were at odds with the theoretical values she calculated.
When called on it, she claimed it was just a typo, that she had “slipped a decimal.”
In 1969 a local news station in New York aired this public service announcement. It was a full admission that many children were feral and that the people who knew better knew you should have them inside, under control.
It was New York, so they might have a point. A child or minor out after 10pm was likely up to no good or was at risk. The city was much riskier then than now. So asking parents to verify the location of their children wasn’t a big deal.
Unfortunately, this spread around the country; by the mid-70s hundreds, if not thousands, of TV stations were saying the same thing every night.
The facts of the time were that children knew darn well that being in the house was bad juju.
The worst words a child could utter in most households were “I’m bored.” This was an invitation for Mom to find chores for the child to do. Many chores. There were as many chores as there were “I’m bored” utterances.
You were supposed to be outside. The exceptions were when it was too cold or it was too rainy. Other than that, a child should be outside playing, with interruptions for daily chores.
The rule of thumb for those in suburbia was, “You should be home when the streetlights come on.”
I know I lived that way.
In general, people believed they lived in safe places. Those neighborhoods might not be safe for others, but they were safe for you and your kids. Every mom was a part of the neighborhood mom group.
If Billy needed discipline, any of the neighborhood moms would dish it out; if it required physical discipline, then that neighborhood mom would deliver Billy to his mother for instant discipline.
The children were safe.
We talk about this within the Ren Fairie circuit. Children of performers, vendors, and staff are always under the watchful eye of fairie moms and dads. Young girls always have a chaperone.
More than one girl, turning 18, has wondered where all the protection went, only to find out that they were only a loud voice away.
This was the way back then.
In 1979, Etan Patz was taken while waiting for a school bus in New York. He was nearly seven years old. His parents had agreed to let him walk to the school bus stop two blocks away on his own. He never made it to school. He never made it home. He was never seen again.
The search was massive. There was no luck in finding him. Etan became the first milk-carton kid. The case expanded to cover more than just the local area.
The police were convinced that a stranger had taken Etan. Parents’s fears skyrocketed. Leading directly to “Stranger Danger”.
“Stranger Danger” became the watchword. It was drummed into kids at schools, at Boy and Girl Scouts, on TV. The FBI and McGruff the Crime Dog all pushing it.
It wasn’t until the mid-1990s that it started to fade. Research indicated that most child abductions were by family members, not strangers.
The harm had been done, though. Mothers were much less likely to let their children do anything outside alone. Instead, they kept them inside next to the family or acquaintance that was much more likely to kidnap their kid.
The first of the electronic babysitters was the radio. A child could listen to the radio for hours, music, and audio plays to keep the mind alive.
Many a child learned to tell time so they could be in front of the radio when the latest episode of their favorite show was aired.
TV followed. Most parents limited the amount of TV time a child got. Most children of my age had limited TV time, my family rule was 1 hour per night and Saturday morning cartoons.
This made TV Guide the most important periodical in the house. You had to know what was showing to plan correctly.
It having been more than a few years, it could have been a certain number of hours per week. With my brother and I each getting the same amount.
Visiting my grandparents was strange. Grandpa would get up and turn on the TV. The TV stayed on all day long, even if nobody was in the living room watching. It was constant noise in the background.
As a kid, it was wonderful to have unlimited TV time.
Unfortunately, for busy mothers, the TV became the babysitter. You could put a kid in front of the “boob tube” and they would be entertained for hours.
The first video games did not have the same level of lock in that today’s games do. Regardless, there were thousands and thousands of kids that got video games, which turned them into even more of a TV junkie.
We had successfully traded free-range children to couch potatoes consuming CRT rays almost constantly.
What did they call organic food in the 50s and 60s?
Food.
Children were expected to be outside. To be playing. To be making games and skinning knees.
Parents might set physical boundaries, but most boundaries were set by how far you could get on foot or a bike.
Learning to ride a bike was a giant step towards freedom. To go from a mile or so radius from home to 10+ miles was freedom unlimited.
I don’t believe my children went to the movies on their own until they had cars of their own. They never had the thrill of chaining their bikes to the nearly full bike rack that every theater and mall had and choosing their movie.
There were two theaters within bike distance when I was in 8th grade. One was only 2 miles away; the other was almost 7 miles away. It was worth it on a hot summer’s day to pedal to the big theater and then enjoy popcorn, AC, and a newly released movie.
There were baseball games in the cul-de-sacs and football games in the fields. Kids exploring the deep dark woods or going fishing. Building forts, treehouses, and playing hide and seek with friends.
Squirt gun battles and digging holes. Taking the canoe out, paddling upriver for an hour to work on your own VC tunnel system in the side of the bank. Taking a bag with some food and soda and a paperback book. Just living outside.
Those were the feral children of yesteryear. Those were the free range children of 40 years ago.
Today they are all but gone. The fears of the 70s and 80s. The electronic babysitters. The mothers that need their kids to be “engaged” constantly.
What have we taken from our children and grandchildren?
When I was searching for the feature image for today’s post, I put in the search “bicycle boy” There was only one picture in the first 100 that didn’t have a helmet on. Most of the images were organized groups, or there was a parent involved.
For a long time I was a Grizzly fan. If there was a tool that I was buying new, it was likely to be from Grizzly. The thing I quickly learned was that there was a price point for quality. If the price was above around $100, then the product would be good out of the package. For less than $100, expect to interact with their excellent customer service.
I stumbled on Vevor as a low cost brand and gave them a try with a rotary table.
The table was precisely what I expected. I had to deburr parts of the inside, clean some metal out of the oil bath, but since then, perfection.
It was so good that I built mounts for a dividing plates and used it for cutting gears, worth every penny.
Then I purchased a hydraulic lift table. This goes from about 10 inches to 10 inches with a foot pedal. It locks in place at around 36 inches, a good working height. The wheels are heavy duty. I purchased the 500-pound version, but they have a 1000-pound version as well.
The lift table allows me to slide heavy things off workbenches to move into storage and back again.
Again, a great purchase for a reasonable price.
The trolley system is using a Vevor trolley and a Vevor chain hoist. Again good quality, good gravity.
Finally, for the railing I’m putting in, I picked up a manual pipe threading kit from Vevor. The build quality is wonderful; everything fits well. Tomorrow, after the beam is up, I’m going to be building a railing from 3/4 inch black pipe.
The threading kit was around $30, it comes with a 1/2 in, 3/4 in and 1 in die. All I’ll need in the next 10 years.
I can recommend them. They are all over Amazon.
According to Ally this is the ONLY version worth listening to.
And this shows a different take.
A grinder and paint make me the welder I ain’t.
Well, I did a couple of things differently. I used the good welding helmet. I used my shop safety glasses. I got the angle more vertical.
I have two and a half welding helmets. Two auto-darkening, one by Jackson with a 3 or 4 inch tall window, the other by somebody with a 1 inch window. The cheap 1 inch window is on the welding cart. The good 4 inch window is hanging up safely.
Which did I find easier to get to when starting this? Yes, the one on the cart.
Today I fought my way through the garbage, four lathes, two milling machines, two bandsaws, a table saw, a jointer, a planer, a shaper and more to the Kennedy to get my shop glasses.
With that and the good helmet, a remarkable thing happened: I could see the puddle. Not only could I see the puddle, I could see the intersection of the two pieces of metal. I got welds that looked like a trained monkey made them instead of an untrained monkey.
All seven hangers have been attached to the beam. All hangers have been hit hard with a hammer. All rang beautifully and stayed attached.
The rattle can yellow failed, something about being good to 50° and I was spraying at 10°.
Tomorrow, the beam gets mounted, and I’m done with this part of the project. I can then move forward with window installation and completing the insulation of the lower part of the hut.
Oh, I have decided to install a handrail on the steps. 3/4 inch nominal black pipe.
I do not look this cool or this hot. More than a few years ago, I gave up on stick welding. I got tired of cussing all the time. I wish I had spent more time learning how to do it well, but I never did. I “upgraded” from a Lincoln Electric “Tombstone” to a Lincoln Electric 140HD. Got a cart and a tank of gas and went to it.
I suck at this. Today I got three of the 8 hangers welded on. That includes the breaker popping twice, because of the extension cord. I’ll get rid of the extension cord today and finish this up.
You might have heard the term “stacking dimes.” There is nothing that pretty happening here. The only thing I can say with confidence is that the hangers ring when struck with a hammer, and they show no signs of cracking off. I’m now to the point where I can get nearly consistent bacon sizzle.
I’m also going to use a different pair of glasses tomorrow. I’m pretty sure that I’m blind through the visor, and not from arc flash. Just the distance isn’t right for my normal progressives. If I tilt my head to focus, the visor window no longer has the arc in view.
Wish me luck. If this gets done, a rattle can worth of yellow paint goes on this monstrosity, and then up into the loft with it.
I am a failure at welding; the fact that it works at all is a happy accident from reasonable equipment.
“How bad?” you might ask. I just picked up the magnetic right angle to weld the other side of the hanger and the hanger came with it. This is why each hanger is individually tested. Yeah, I ran a very pretty bead about 1/16 in above the root.