Miniature steam engine

Daryl · Miniature steam engine

Hi folks

This is my first entry in Mamod and I look forward to being a member.

I have recently purchased the plans for the "River Queen" as they were the only plans I could find that closely represented the "African Queen". I have reduced the plans by 66% so that I am now building a model only 30cm long. Building the small boat is not my problem, but yes, you guessed it, the steam engine to fit it is now very small.

I would appreciate it very much if anyone could point me to where I can find/buy plans for miniature steam engines. I have an area of 7cm long by 5cm wide by 7cm high in which to fit both the engine and boiler.

A couple of members of our loval "Men's shed" are keen to take on the project of building it so all I have to do now is find the plans.

This if my very first attempt at both building a model boat and venturing into the steam world, so any advice will be greatly appreciated.

thankyou

Daryl

IndianaRog

Welcome to the forum Daryl...I'm the one who sent you here!!!

Now lets see if someone can point you to some plans, I'm betting they will.

Hope you can stick around with us...very helpful group that loves to share advice, photos, videos and just some BS at times...great bunch of folks.

xlchainsaw

welcome to the forum. i would suggest a midwest steam plant for a beginner into steam . there are more advanced options available but would require an advanced knowledge of "micro" steam.
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXAR01

mogogear

A big Oregon Welcome to you Daryl --Just look North East- and stare hard--I am waving right now!!

flywheel61

Hi Daryl, and another big welcome to the forum from OZ.

You don't say if you want to construct the engine from parts, as well as the ship, which is being done by the local Men's Shed. If you want to construct the engine & boiler Glenn's suggestion of the MidWestern unit, would be on the mark, as it is reasonable priced. Although it might be too big for your unit.

The other poosibility is the range of Philcraft minature engines, one of which may suite your purpose, and he supplies them from rough castings, all the way up to complete engines, his engines can be seen here,

http://www.toysteambible.org/Philcraft/index.htm

And he can be contacted direct at,

philgravett@hotmail.com

I have the beam engine, and it is beautifully constructed,

A couple of years ago, I constructed a steam boat, but about 30" in size, for a member of our local Men's group, and the member then donated it to the local group for display. Here's a couple of images of it.

Cheers

Chris

redryder

A big welcome aboard !!!

from Connecticut, USA

The Phil Gravett offering is the only marine set up I know of that is small enough for your boat. The midwest offering is way too big for your boat which will also be difficult to fit radio control geat in at that scale. Just wondering why you have chosen to reduce the size of an already small boat? In the link below, you will find forum member Roly Williams Philcraft Marine v-twin.

http://www.toysteambible.org/Philcraft/Marine_Engine.htm

Try to remember if you build your own , that while steam is very scalable up and down, when you get too small it is difficult have an engine that has enough power to do meaningful work beyond turning itself over.

Gil

xlchainsaw

St. Paul steam

A big St. Paul Indiana

Daryl, sorry i cant help with the boat project ( I'm a land lubber) , but there are plenty of folks here who can.

Steam Models

Welcome to our Site Daryl, I hope that you are happy here.

Huummm. The Men's Shed eh!, yeah I have thought about joining them more than once, but that's all I did think about it.
My guess was they they played around with an odd wood project, but of course that was just a guess.

Making a small engine, I wouldn't think that that should be too difficult if you have the fascilities to make a small piston.

I take it you're currently building the boat? I don't think that the engine should be a problem either.

Roly Williams

Swift Fox

Phil also made complete boats with the marine engine fitted, although i think they are quite rare and Phil didn't make them for very long.

BTW

to the forum Daryl.

Les

Hello and welcome to the forum.

colin

Welcome to the forum,and as you will have seen,
the help you can get from our very knowledgeable
members !!

Daryl

Thank you to everyone for your kind welcome messages and feedback. I have responded to your questions below and look forward to further discussion.

Since my first entry, I have found the plans for the engine for the "River Queen" and we are now in the midst of making it.

http://www.john-tom.com/MyPlans/S...ne/RiverQueenPlansInstruction.pdf

As you can imagine the scale is very small. Once I work out how to add some images I will show you how it is all going.

flywheel61 - Yes, we will be building both the boat and the engine from parts. I am building the boat and the "engineers" will be doing the steam engine.

redryder - Simple reason why I have chosen such a small scale. We have a rectangular water feature in our back yard and Kaye (my wife) wanted a small working "African Queen" to chug around in it. The original plans were too big and after reducing the plans to different sizes, the 30cm version was selected. Such are the challenges of life. The Philcraft engine is fantastic.

steam models - The Men's Shed is a fantastic concept for retired/older men to get together. Our shed has metal fabrication as well as timber. You would be surprised what a bunch of oldies with very mixed backgrounds can get up to. Most have large workshops at home so the projects tend to run all week in multiple sites.

Daryl

Dean W

Mile High Steamer

Heres a Mile High

to the forum from the Mile High city

MHS

46u

Welcome good to see you here. I use 40cm in my Philcraft Jenny wren. I get up to 12 minutes run time but I have to refill the burner once.