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Jensen #45 live steam engine, restored with replacement modern heater , build thread
Posted by St Paul Steam on 29 Aug, 2020 20:19 -
Hi folks
I believe I've found what may be a good replacement heater for the Jensen #45 candlestick steam engine.
here is a brass boiler Jensen #45 steam engine that I have completely restored. it came to me needing restored & had a non-functioning heater, I finally decided to see if I could come up with a modern replacement & I was fortunate to find something that worked quite well, here is the title to the little stove on E-bay right now "Portable 110V 500W Electric Mini Stove Hot Plate Multifunction Home Heater DIY" it was US $21.48 & was the least expensive I could find of this type. with a little modification this heater worked quite well ,the advertised watt was 500W, but my Digital Power Saving Energy Monitor Watt Amp Volt KWh Meter Electricity Analyzer say its right at 600W , you will need a voltage reducer /variac to be able to run your steam engine at a realistic speed. this #45 has a brass , dent free boiler & all the part were in good shape before I started the restoration. I use powdered (fine) graphite in the axle tube to see if that was slicker & gauld free...time will tell. it runs nice & slow @ 40V/75W & at that speed I expect it will run well over an hour.
If you have the time , please follow along ...
here is the new donor heating single burner electric stove , its called a YQ-105, they're probably all the same, just find the cheapest one you can.
this is what your after
I trimmed about 1/4" off of it to fit , in hindsight i would only trim off about 1/8" so i could drill right into the cast iron lip & tap it 6/32" to accept the 3 bolts that hold the boiler onto the heater base.
this step could be removed in the future as the 3 afore mentioned bolts hold it firmly in place from the topside.
While I was at it, the (2) 5/16-24tpi ports in the top of the boiler were rather worn & 2 new brass bushings were made for a lifetime of robust use.
the heater now set in place
insulated in
A double layer for inside the base (this worked better than i thought it might)
nearly finished.
finished
https://youtu.be/REg_K1yvaOY
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Very good find Bruce, these could get a lot of Jensen #45's steaming and operational again.
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Once again you've come up with a great idea and demonstrated excellent execution in that upgrade restoration.
I may have to pick up a couple of those little hot plates ... one to save for if I ever need a new heater in my #45, and one for making a little coffee out in the shop ... could prove handy!!! ;c) -
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Nice find and a great save Bruce!
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Very good find Bruce, these could get a lot of Jensen #45's steaming and operational again.
That is my hope Jim , a metal cutting bandsaw is useful , but this could be done with a hacksaw or grinder to remove the 1/8" off the outside diameter of the hot plate. -
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That's a great repair!
This reminds me I have a pretty nice vertical Jensen sitting in the attic which got the threads pulled pretty hard because the Ebay seller shipped with the whistle installed.
I need to get that fixed and I might have to use a similar fix to the brass bushing to get working threads.
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Great build and use of an ebay special.
The hotplate from a coffee filter machine might be a similsr size and only 300w might be a little lower heat. -
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Nice work! What paint did you use to paint the boiler?
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That does the trick, well done Bruce !
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Nice work! What paint did you use to paint the boiler?
I buy the paint from Walmart, here are the photo's of both the Blue & the green that I use for most bases, the blue is my favorite,
and the green
I had a little trepidation about using this paint for the #45 as the heating base gets so hot , so far the color has not changed with a 300W initial heat up , the paint gets a bit tacky but is not discoloring , hopefully with a few more heat/cooling cycles it will cure in hard. -
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Well it took me 2 days to complete...but I was able to get 4 hrs & 10 minutes out of one tank of water @ 40V/75W with periotic oiling.
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I suppose everyone else knows but how big is the boiler and how long is a run with the old element?
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I suppose everyone else knows but how big is the boiler and how long is a run with the old element?
Most people probably don't know the actual boiler size , it's 3" x 3 .5" tall. The original 300w heater is more than adequate , but since they aren't available anymore this replacement heater is just one more option for non-functioning #45's , the max wattage has no bearing on the matter when we're talking about minimal voltage running...any #45 should be capable of the same 😊 -
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Hey Bruce @St Paul Steam, what were the dimensions of this new burner that you found? And what’s the smallest diameter you can trim it down to? Wondering if it will work in my new D.K.
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Hey Bruce @St Paul Steam, what were the dimensions of this new burner that you found? And what’s the smallest diameter you can trim it down to? Wondering if it will work in my new D.K.
I had to disassemble another heating plate to know , here is the information the OD is 3 7/8" & the smallest (safest) it can be trimmed down to is 3 3/16" & that leaves a thin cast wall around the heating element. the heating element has a threaded post that can be used or removed (the cast heating plate is threaded for it) -