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I found a D3, it survived shipping with only the outboard bearing tower leaning away about 1/16 inch, a little careful adjustment and all was well.
I fired it for the first time on gel fuel, started with fairly hot water and I had enough steam to run in about 2 minutes....ran pretty decent for what it is....
My only "issue" was a Bunch of water came out the exhaust and had to be cleared before she would run on steam, I know this is somewhat normal but I lost a little less than 2 Tablespoons of water and this is a significant portion of what the tiny boiler holds!
After the run, I was study the steam pipe trying to think if there would be a "better" bend shape to not allow So much water to collect in the steam pipe?
Also my Machinist eyes told me the steam pipe looked smaller than standard Wilesco so I fished out a section from a D10 parts engine and sure enough! The Micrometer came out and D3=3mm pipe and D10=3.5mm pipe...would bending a new pipe from the larger tube reduce the amount of condensed water pushed out to Cylinder? My thought was as the water vapor forms on the walls it does not have to get very large drop before it fills the tiny tube, once it bridges the hole it is easily pushed to Cyl.
This is not a prized engine so I plan to heavily modify (some day). I have admired the "looks" of Weeden Candlestick style engines and found a source for Weeden replica flywheels, I would like to get the smallest Weeden flywheel the guy makes and mount it perhaps similar to the Weeden engine in photo below, near base of boiler. I will likely need to make a new steam chest or heavily modify stock unit as the cylinder Will be vertically mounted. I would also like the tin firebox to possibly be round. I am not trying to build a Weeden replica but give the Wilesco a little Weeden flavor...Perhaps a Wilesca-Weeder?!
I did briefly consider route the steam pipe thru the chimney to slightly super heat the steam, but doubt that would help much with the heavy condensed water issue? I will run it some more tomorrow, I suppose I may have over filled the boiler. Any tips on not wasting my tiny boiler capacity water would be appreciated!
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The Flywheel mount on this Weeden is somewhat the style I am looking to replicate.
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Having a 6mm bore and 12mm stroke, i doubt the steamline is the issue.
IŽd (as you) assume that you simply overfilled it. -
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Update: I made a new run with the D3 this AM and this time more care was taken on boiler fill, I did not use the Wilesco funnel but injected water slower by syringe and only covering bottom view port plus a little more, but no water showing yet on top view port. With this slight Under fill the startup was Very Good! I will continue to slowly increase my water on future runs.
Now I am beginning to suspect the rather tiny view ports can easily get an air bubble and give false reading. In the end my issue was my own fault and my sincere apology for my rather lengthy first post!-Ben -
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those tiny view ports are near worthless & if you can put a PMR sight glass in there as a replacement I would highly recommend it. a D3 can be a fun engine....with a ton of work. watch for port alignment from the steam chest into the cylinder assembly , mine was off by quite a margin & significantly made the engine an underperformer, a simple drill bit of the proper size slid into both pieces to check for alignment will give you the answer.
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those tiny view ports are near worthless & if you can put a PMR sight glass in there as a replacement I would highly recommend it. a D3 can be a fun engine....with a ton of work. watch for port alignment from the steam chest into the cylinder assembly , mine was off by quite a margin & significantly made the engine an underperformer, a simple drill bit of the proper size slid into both pieces to check for alignment will give you the answer.
Now that you mention it, I Bet my ports ARE miss matched! I have watched a video of Bruce's modified D3 and it is capable of revving like a race car
My stock unit runs more like a really fast idle right out of the box, I had lined the Wilesco fire tray with aluminum foil to keep a full load of gel fuel from leaking out the air holes and this setting wanted to boil over the edge(to full) then once it burned 1/3 down from level with top it wanted to go out...i believed it was starving for air so I dumped the gel and made a new short aluminum foil tray liner that only went up the sides of Wilesco tray about half covering the stock air holes, then a toothpick to rub the foil thru the holes to get full air supply (and holds foil in tray well) Although this setup holds a Lot less gel fuel, it does burn nice and reliable. All this fussing with the fire tray distracted me and I was not thinking about the RPM, thanks Bruce!
On the port matching note: Many of the Mamod Roadster videos I have watched, even the person operating the steam car noted it wants to run Faster in reverse! I want to take some careful measurements and see if I can optimize my Roadster steam ports for Full speed and power in the forward position. -
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any progress with this Ben ?
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any progress with this Ben ?
I am sorry Bruce, I have so many projects, I put this one on the shelf as a "someday" project, the Weeden replica Flywheel will need to be ordered among other things. I wish I had even half your ability to complete projects in a timely fashion!
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You have nothing to apologize for Ben , there are many of my projects I don't complete timely...sometimes not at all , no worries here my friend.🙂👍any progress with this Ben ?
I am sorry Bruce, I have so many projects, I put this one on the shelf as a "someday" project, the Weeden replica Flywheel will need to be ordered among other things. I wish I had even half your ability to complete projects in a timely fashion! -
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Don't we all have this "problem"? You run across an interesting thing, you think about how you should approach the project, even get parts and then have to put everything on hold because more important things have priority.
Always remember, it is "only" a hobby. But I love my hobby... -
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Don't we all have this "problem"? You run across an interesting thing, you think about how you should approach the project, even get parts and then have to put everything on hold because more important things have priority.
I agree with this, when I am standing on hard concrete for 10+ hrs a day at work + 45 min commute each way....I have a good bit of time to "Dream up" all the fun things I would like to do to an engine when I get home, at my age, when I finally Do get home, then putting my feet up and resting in my Favorite oversize chair trumps the project.
Always remember, it is "only" a hobby. But I love my hobby...
I keep hoping retirement will be soon enough that I will still have the desire for puttering in the shop on all my projects!
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I am convinced that when you retire you will have the necessary interest to finish all your projects.
I have made a firm commitment to myself to do that. It won't take that much longer. On 31.12. of this year is the end. -