Office of Steam Logo_1

Author Topic: Remedial questions from a newbie..  (Read 172 times)

Billy

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 22
  • Location: Seymour / Bristol Connecticut USA
Remedial questions from a newbie..
« on: April 14, 2019, 12:17:28 pm »
Hey fellas..  I've got a few questions regarding  small steam engines.. Low end ones are all I can afford now but I do enjoy them..
What is the long spring looking things that drive the governer and accessories called? Where do you get them? Is there anything else I can use to run accessories?
I have a Weeden and the buner is a flai metal box with 3 wicks.. What do I use for fuel?
What do you guys use for air compressors for running them on air? I would like to get one for initial testing purposes before putting steam to them..
Do they make burners that you can run off a propane cylinder like a map gas type cylinder? Source?

Thanks for taking the time to read and respond.

Billy

Pete the steam

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 173
  • Location: Eastwood, Notts
Re: Remedial questions from a newbie..
« Reply #1 on: April 14, 2019, 12:23:30 pm »
Its a Drive band Billy, and you can make your own with rubber cord.
Wrestling ferrets since 1959.

Stoker

  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3616
  • Wherever you go ......... there you are!
  • Location: Eastern Sierra
Re: Remedial questions from a newbie..
« Reply #2 on: April 14, 2019, 12:31:36 pm »
Hey fellas..  I've got a few questions regarding  small steam engines.. Low end ones are all I can afford now but I do enjoy them..
What is the long spring looking things that drive the governer and accessories called? Where do you get them? Is there anything else I can use to run accessories?
I have a Weeden and the buner is a flai metal box with 3 wicks.. What do I use for fuel?
What do you guys use for air compressors for running them on air? I would like to get one for initial testing purposes before putting steam to them..
Do they make burners that you can run off a propane cylinder like a map gas type cylinder? Source?

Thanks for taking the time to read and respond.

Billy

Hello Billy and welcome to the Forum!

To give at least partial answers to your questions:

1.) The spring "things" are generally referred to as drive belts, and they can also be made from various kinds of vinyl materials. Traditionally they were just twine tied to the right length, but many things will do.

2.) Sources for this belting can be most amy of the regular model and toy steam dealers, or even industrial supply houses, all of which can be found with internet searches.

3.) A Weeden wick type burner most typically uses denatured alcohol or methylated spirits like ethanol for fuel.

4.) Typical air compressors for running toy steam engines range from aquarium pumps through airbrush compressors all the way up to regular high pressure and volume shop compressors .... just depends on what you really need, and what other uses you may put it to.

5.) Yes propane and especially butane burners are available for toy and model steam engines, mostly from the same sources as the belting. Sterno and other gel fuels are also a common alternative heat source for these engines.

Hope that helps!
"Information is not knowledge, Knowledge is not wisdom, Wisdom is not truth, Truth is not beauty, Beauty is not love, Love is not music: Music is THE BEST...   
Wisdom is the domain of the Wis (which is extinct). Beauty is a French phonetic corruption of a short cloth neck ornament currently in resurgence..."
F. Zappa ... by way of Mary, the girl from the bus.

Nick

  • Administrator
  • Engineer
  • *****
  • Posts: 8116
  • Location: Minnesota, USA
Re: Remedial questions from a newbie..
« Reply #3 on: April 14, 2019, 01:09:00 pm »
If you're in a pinch or don't want to wait for drive bands or belting material to arrive... plain/waxed dental floss will get you by on most light weight accessories... in fact, it works very well  ;)

In this video I have floss running from engine to lineshaft & lineshaft to windmill (you can see the knots) and my favorite green belting (that you melt together) from lineshaft to Mill House

Nick