Office of Steam Forum for Model & Toy Steam Gas & Hot Air Engines

Ok, let's wind this up...

Just before assembling the B31, I managed to get all the parts together in one place for a "group shot":

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Everything went together pretty easily. I installed the 2 cartridge heaters in the bottom of the boiler, using some boron nitride paste on the heaters and the plug. Here's what it looked like with the heaters installed:

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I cut out a piece of insulation for the bottom of the heater plug... :

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...and a thicker piece to go between the heaters and the bottom plate:

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Here are some pictures of the finished engine (I added a small pressure gauge at the last minute):

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As I suspected, the performance of the finished engine is not exactly overwhelming. It works, but it's kind of like me... only able to go flat out for less than a minute. 

Here's a short video of it pulling a modest load (for a modest amount of time!):



I think this engine could definitely benefit from a third 150 watt cartridge heater. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to add a third heater, but I will most certainly use three heaters on any future applications of this type.

Thanks for watching!