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Author Topic: Wilesco T125 Turbine Running on Steam, Esbit Fuel Fired  (Read 736 times)

crazydoug

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Wilesco T125 Turbine Running on Steam, Esbit Fuel Fired
« on: January 26, 2021, 10:25:12 am »
Thanks to some earlier encouragement from an earlier post, I ordered some Esbit fuel, and decided to give it a try.  I started by boiling water on the stove.  After filling the boiler with this already-heated water, I put two rows of tablets into the burner and lit it up.  It took another four minutes for the boiler to reach fifteen psi, and from there it ran for a good seven minutes, and was able to maintain pressures from 15 to 20 psi, even while running the turbine and operating the whistle intermittently. 

I must say I was very impressed with its operation on Esbit fuel, and surprised that it didn't leave any discoloration to the boiler or housing.  A small amount of soot was evident on the boiler, but it wiped off easily with a soft cloth.  I'm sure that continued use of the Esbit fuel would eventually lead to its showing evidence of being run, but I'm okay with that!



St Paul Steam

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Gosh these sure are a fun engine aren't they. Nice and well done Doug 😊👍
Bruce, St. Paul Indiana, USA
"Originality thrives in seclusion free of outside influences beating upon us to cripple the creative mind."
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classixs

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Well done Doug :) 

Does it have a "porcupine" boiler, like the old plastic turbine (Wilesco T90) had?
Cheers
Jan
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St Paul Steam

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I watched it again Doug and was wondering... Didn't they give you the extension for the pressure gauge in order to put it up front & higher up from the boiler ?
Bruce, St. Paul Indiana, USA
"Originality thrives in seclusion free of outside influences beating upon us to cripple the creative mind."
  Nikola Tesla

Nick

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Well done Doug :)

Does it have a "porcupine" boiler, like the old plastic turbine (Wilesco T90) had?

Yes, they do

Nick

crazydoug

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I watched it again Doug and was wondering... Didn't they give you the extension for the pressure gauge in order to put it up front & higher up from the boiler ?
Well, I had to go find the box for another look- no extension-maybe I'll make one when I get back out to the shop.
crazydoug

Nick

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I watched it again Doug and was wondering... Didn't they give you the extension for the pressure gauge in order to put it up front & higher up from the boiler ?
Well, I had to go find the box for another look- no extension-maybe I'll make one when I get back out to the shop.
crazydoug

No extension came with mine... guess Bruce got lucky!
Nick

schipperke

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Was ist ein "Porcupine boiler"? Those fingers in the photo?  Does that improve heating?



That turbine looks like a Karsten Gintschel , very well made.  I recall Wilesco had one with a plastic turbine housing.

Nick

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Was ist ein "Porcupine boiler"? Those fingers in the photo?  Does that improve heating?



That turbine looks like a Karsten Gintschel , very well made.  I recall Wilesco had one with a plastic turbine housing.

Yes, the little “fingers” and they are attached to a plate with round holes that’s soldered to the bottom of the boiler. This should improve heating, and appears to do a good job of it as I ran mine out in the cold and it held pressure.

The T90 is the plastic turbine and turned me away from buying the T125. It wasn’t until I realized it was a Karsten Gintschel turbine and seen how well they worked that I decided to buy one.
Nick

SteamyTiger

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I saw Nick had a T125 turbine video posted 10 months ago, and I could've sworn I saw the T125 on Wilesco's website a month or two ago, and while the shop said out of stock for a long time until then, its out of stock again, but their webpage says order-related production is possible, so is it still possible to get it (likely in the new year, 2022?)

Nick

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I saw Nick had a T125 turbine video posted 10 months ago, and I could've sworn I saw the T125 on Wilesco's website a month or two ago, and while the shop said out of stock for a long time until then, its out of stock again, but their webpage says order-related production is possible, so is it still possible to get it (likely in the new year, 2022?)

Welcome to the forum, unfortunately as far as I know, it will not likely be made again due to the turbine being built by Karsten Gintschel  :-\
Nick

SteamyTiger

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Interesting, then why were they available in the shop to buy normally a month or two ago, (and they're not doing production-by-order?)  Are you sure Wilesco can't?  Ministeam also says out of stock, but right underneath the line says NOW IN STOCK!  at $909 something.

Nick

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Probably just a screw up on their computer end of things… Ministeam in the US was the last that I knew to still have them (10 to 12 November of 2020), but likely all gone by now  :-\  Wilesco cannot build it by themselves, they would need the turbines supplied by Karsten
Nick

SteamyTiger

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That really sucks, is Ministeam not updated, because it says Out of stock, and right underneath "NOW IN STOCK!"  If not is there any other way I could buy one, like if Wilesco contacts Karsten Gintschel and ask him to build just one more of the actual turbine, and Wilesco builds the rest of the machine?

Or maybe one more option is they contact Karsten to ask for one more of this series

Nick

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As far as I know, Karsten “retired” last year (maybe longer ago now) from supplying big customers like Wilesco/Jensen, and was only doing some private building. I have always had good luck with him, but have heard from others that he wasn’t always reliable.

You can try emailing him direct at gintschel-modellbau@mail.de  You will probably have better luck doing that than you would asking Wilesco to build anything custom for you…
Nick