Just came across a great deal, across the street from a nuclear power plant- a miniature power plant! Has a roughly 8" by 12" propane fired aluminum boiler, single stage turbine and generator, and a large cooling tower that looks like it's full size neighbors! It was donated to a local school, and after some time they went to toss it, and one of the contractors installing sprinkler systems was lucky enough to grab it! I intend to mount it all in a more compact assembly, and remove all the pesky data collection systems from it. (DAC doesnt work, not worth replacing) I have a lot of work ahead of me getting the burner working again, as there were no less than 5 safeties that could all turn it off when certain conditions were met. I guess that is a good thing considering kids would be around it. I also need to hydro the boiler, as I trust aluminum like I trust a gun to not be loaded before checking. Who knows what life it has had, or if Distilled water was ever used. Now I need to find a large small engine that will use some big quantities of steam! I love turbines, but piston is unmatched in coolness haha
That is awesome!! Can’t wait to see more of it
OH WOW!
That is such a unique piece, I would definitely think twice before reconfiguring it in any way!?!?
You could always simply "T"-off a separate line with shutoff or otherwise rig it to be able to run a piston engine off of the boiler when you want to but still retaining the original configuration.
Congratulations on an absolutely amazing acquisition!
I would love to keep it as is, but that stand takes up more floor space than I have in my main bathroom haha! I guess the first step is just to test the boiler and turbine to see if they are even worth putting effort into, I fear what water does to a machine here in southern wisconsin winters!
I would love to keep it as is, but that stand takes up more floor space than I have in my main bathroom haha! I guess the first step is just to test the boiler and turbine to see if they are even worth putting effort into, I fear what water does to a machine here in southern wisconsin winters!
Yep .... unfortunately, I do "get" that, just a little too well!
Finally got a chance to tear down and start inspecting the boiler, turns out it is an all stainless boiler, and appears to be very little runtime, or the operator was actually diligent about using distilled water! Looks quite good. Odd positioning of the boiler nipples, but I think I can work with them for a layout. May want to weld on another for a larger steam whistle, but that gets into additional issues haha, my buddy who does stainless is just okay haha, not sure I trust a boiler to "just okay." No offense intended to him haha. An odd detail I found was that the sight glass had check valves (completely rusted in place) on both ends of the sight glass. If anyone has any idea why that would be desired, I'd love to know! I was thinking perhaps they were a safety that would cut off flow to the glass in case of a break, but would allow movement at lower pressure differentials and rates. I really want to hydro this, but my boiler feed pump I usually use needs some new rings... Guess the tree of projects will grow lol
You have acquired a wonderful piece of hardware!
I would also leave it configured as is.
Your household water supply might have enough pressure to leak test it.
As for not fitting in your bathroom, I would keep it elsewhere and run it outside or in the kitchen.
Haha I would not keep it or run it there, just using that to illustrate how little room I have in my house. I hope it one day will run a benchtop line shaft drill press in my shop.
Gave my pump a rebuild and sand blasting. Was from a pile of parts I got off eBay years ago. Larger boiler feed pump, but it builds (or built previously haha) decent pressure. I will actually build this into the layout for this boiler, as the scale is nicely matched. [ Guests cannot view attachments ]