Hi all, been a while since my last post, and this one is a bit of a novel! At my work we are using an orbital tube welder to make large diameter welds, and we run this machine on a bulk dewar of argon. Well this dewar will occasionally vent to keep its internal pressures below burst (thank goodness) but it seemed to me to be a pretty big waste of compressed gas. So I hooked up a steam engine to the tank. This is a microcosm S10, and it has been running darn near continuously for almost 2 months on argon. I will stop it once a week or so to oil it all over and in the cylinder. I run it as low as it will run which is around 60-80 rpm. I have taken some close ups of the places that I am sure people tend to worry about on these engines. I am pleased to say that nothing is near the point of what I would consider excessive wear, and the engine will still run off the slightest puff of air without much blow by on the return stroke. Very pleased to see the governor did quite well, I feared the pulley shaft would wear right through from the belt tension, but there is not much difference between when I first received the engine and now. there is about .01" of play up and down from horizontal on the cross slide, I am not worried about this, but that is the worst observable wear, and probably most of that was there originally. I didn't start into this to make an endurance test of the engine, but it has proven its mettle and has now earned a retirement from continuous service, but I think it is probably ready for the next 1300 hours of running!
@Jin, incredible work on these engines, please let me know if you are aware of any other engines that have more hours than this, so I can beat them!
Just to prove I am not a complete animal, I did clean it all up and give it some fresh clean oil. Here is after that, ready for more.
That is some incredible hours on that little guy, very ingenious of you to think of capturing the otherwise wasted gas & letting it do some work powering this engine. neat story & thanks for sharing it with us.
Awesome & ingenious!
That little puppy has really been put through its paces and is now really the "proof of the pudding", as they say!
Of late, I've come to respect the overall quality of Microcosm's work far more than were my initial impressions. Now if they could just get out from under their totalitarian regime, but that's a totally different story. Heck, more and more, it looks like we're needing to get out from under ours!!!
Awesome & ingenious!
That little puppy has really been put through its paces and is now really the "proof of the pudding", as they say!
Of late, I've come to respect the overall quality of Microcosm's work far more than were my initial impressions. Now if they could just get out from under their totalitarian regime, but that's a totally different story. Heck, more and more, it looks like we're needing to get out from under ours!!!
Now where's that "like" button at ?
Wonderful idea. I'll bet everyone is used to the regular sound
of your steam engine. If children could visit the shop they
would love it. Does this make you an Argonist?
Happy Argoning,
Wayne
I would love to post videos of the setup, but the area that this resided in is occupied by a rocket engine capable of 35000lbs of thrust. Pretty strict rules on cameras and whatnot hahaha! The slight ticking of the connecting rod is certainly soothing for me, not sure if everyone else agrees!
This is a great story! Thank you for posting it here.
Mrs RedRyder has one here at the office of steam.
I felt it was a quality piece the moment we opened the box.
If your work ever gets declassified you can tell the world you've be working on an argon engine!