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Author Topic: mini steam car  (Read 12390 times)

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Re: mini steam car
« Reply #90 on: June 18, 2019, 09:53:01 am »
Not entirely sure what Jan (classix) may have been referencing, but I do recall that there was a method to prevent a single cylinder engine from coming to a stop at top or bottom dead center, thus giving it a chance, but only a chance, of being able to self-start, if not acting against too much resistance. I'll look through my old references and see if I can find anything on it.

Just thinking about it now however, it seems that it would need to be a double acting single cylinder engine to have much chance of actually working in practice.
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Re: mini steam car
« Reply #91 on: June 19, 2019, 04:02:21 am »
Daniel i`m not a 100% sure but i think it was a Wilesco don`t remember the name or the number for the sake of argument let`s call it model x but it was an early version of model x the later version of model x did not have the same functions which i think made the early version rarer that`s how
 i understood it the early version of model x was made so that the piston always stopped in the same position and i assume that would be just after TDC. when the press was on making it a self starter. Jan must have described it because at the back of my mind it had something to do with the flywheel what that exactly was i also don`t remember but at the time i thought it was clever. When i try to do a search there has been so many post`s its now a hundred miles down the road. So i think the question should be reversed i.e.who made a stationary engine that the piston always stopped in the same position and how did that work.
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Re: mini steam car
« Reply #92 on: June 19, 2019, 07:11:01 am »
A steam choke instead of inlet valve might do that. That's because there will be a buffer of steam that the piston stops against. At least I suspect so...

On a full size, if you move the wolf gear to the center and then shut off the steam it will be generally restartable.
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Re: mini steam car
« Reply #93 on: June 19, 2019, 10:06:47 am »
If my memory serves, the method I'm thinking of to make a single cylinder engine self starting has something to do with putting pins in the flywheel with a set orientation to TDC & BDC and then having a linkage connected with the throttle / reverser valve such that when the valve is opened the linkage pushes on the flywheel pin enough to ensure that the engine is moved off TDC / BDC in such a way that it can have a chance at self-starting. I believe the set-up that I recall was servo actuated, so the linkage was perhaps a bit easier to hook-up.

I haven't found the actual bookmark to this yet, but given the number of steam related bookmarks that infest my computer, that is not at all surprising. ;c)
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Re: mini steam car
« Reply #94 on: June 20, 2019, 04:06:08 am »
Daniel i think you have hit the nail on the head a flywheel with pins seems to ring a bell at that time there was no photo of the set up and maybe i was the only one that thought the piston stopped at the same place every time but your explaination using servos makes sense would like to see a photo from anyone if possible i think it would make a good winter project maybe flywheels with different weights would stop the piston at a different place. Many thanks for that input.
CBWho  i`m afraid your knowledge of steam far outstrips mine and i don`t know how i could reply again many thanks for your input
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Re: mini steam car
« Reply #95 on: December 12, 2019, 09:45:45 pm »
@RON any updates?
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