Something new and kinda sorta 100 years old looking

GoldenMotor.com
fishguts

fishguts

New Member
Sep 7, 2010
313
0
0
southeastern MA
Dan said:
LOL! I was thinking the same thing Fish. Do it just to see if it will work. Nothing is ever a failure. If nothing else, ya end up with some extra parts for the next debacle and on a good day, learned some thing cool. If ya survive, get to write about it, snork.
Click to expand...


Now having said that ....

Steam in a conventional containment boiler, which is what the guy in the clip has, can be extremely dangerous. KABOOM even! There are potential hazards with anything steam powered (the flash boiler I'm building minimizes this a lot) but basically, the higher the pressure and the more water in the system the scarier it gets. I have temperature and pressure controls and a tiny amount of hot water and steam in the tube that runs through the boiler and hardware that can operated safely in the range I'm running this thing. It's all being carefully balanced. Pressure is limited to 100 psi and temperature will be regulated at 300 degrees F, albeit, manually. The old Stanley Steamers, by the way, ran at 400 psi.

So if anyone is planning to try this - do your homework and be sure to build a safe machine.
 
fishguts

fishguts

New Member
Sep 7, 2010
313
0
0
southeastern MA
Some goodies I've been waiting on arrived today.

A gentleman's steam bike needs luggage! The bigger box will be mounted on a bracket on the left side of the rear wheel, saddle bag style I guess, a visual balance to the boiler on the other side. It will house the water pump, battery and electronics. The smaller box will mount behind the seat and will house the LP bottles. Tan leather straps will hold them in place. The flywheel I found on a web site from an outfit in Germany and it looks to be perfect - cast iron and 5 1/2" in diameter. I need to drop it off at the machine shop to get it drilled and keyed to fit the 2-stroke/steam engine shaft.



 
I

IamTheBear

New Member
Oct 6, 2010
77
1
0
north florida
really liking the looks of the bags. Do wanna see a follow up of the steam punk gathering(just can't call it a convention) when all is said and done. BTW your probably gonna get hammered by questions for years to come from this one thread.
 
Allen_Wrench

Allen_Wrench

Resident Mad Scientist
Feb 6, 2010
2,784
26
36
Indianapolis
Ted said:
Love those box's,,,trouble is their both right handers :)
Click to expand...
Okay, now I'm looking again. And I'm looking...still looking... I must be going blind. How can you tell? They look to me like...a box. Very nice boxes that open on top. I must be missing something...
 
corgi1

corgi1

New Member
Aug 13, 2009
2,272
3
0
KCMO
Allen_Wrench said:
Okay, now I'm looking again. And I'm looking...still looking... I must be going blind. How can you tell? They look to me like...a box. Very nice boxes that open on top. I must be missing something...
Click to expand...
I almost asked too,remember to wear your helmet and tall boots help,lol
.duh.
 
T

Ted

New Member
Apr 20, 2010
208
0
0
Leavenworth Wa.
Fishguts caught on real quick,,,with the project he has going on he better be on top of things or he'll find his butt in the next county..xx.
 
fishguts

fishguts

New Member
Sep 7, 2010
313
0
0
southeastern MA
Ted said:
Fishguts caught on real quick,,,with the project he has going on he better be on top of things or he'll find his butt in the next county..xx.
Click to expand...
I should be OK now that I found a left-handed smoke shifter and installed new muffler bearings.




I was going to say "You don't have to be crazy to build something like this, but it helps!" But no, you DO have to be crazy. dance1
 
fishguts

fishguts

New Member
Sep 7, 2010
313
0
0
southeastern MA
happycheapskate said:
Fishguts, I think it is really good you capped the system at 100psi and have multiple relief systems.

YouTube - 50 Gallon water heater explosion

(50gallon water tank, at 330psi, explodes. Tank is airborne for 16 seconds!)
YouTube - 50 Gallon water heater explosion
Click to expand...
Gee I wish I could launch this thing in the air 500 feet and keep it up there for 16 seconds! How cool would that be!

Sorry to say, though, it won't have enough water in it to do anything quite that spectacular, even if all the safety measures failed and it did explode. There won't be any real reservoir of water in it, just what a piece of 3/8" of tubing can hold. Worse case scenario is that it would burst a line. It has a flash-tube boiler which is a coil of tubing. Pretty ho-hum actually. It's more like the instant water heater units that don't have a tank.
 
corgi1

corgi1

New Member
Aug 13, 2009
2,272
3
0
KCMO
It was great ,love the giant wheels,the hubs looked like a tow behind hay rake we had when I was riding my first bikes ,50's
 
happycheapskate

happycheapskate

New Member
Nov 26, 2009
1,989
3
0
Rockwall TX
I am excited to see Fishgut's steam bike coming along. I think a trike is a good idea. It seems natural, since it will support a lot of weight and help with stablity. If you get yours together and it feels top heavy or inertia prone, perhaps you could make a sidecar for it.
 
fishguts

fishguts

New Member
Sep 7, 2010
313
0
0
southeastern MA
happycheapskate said:
I am excited to see Fishgut's steam bike coming along. I think a trike is a good idea. It seems natural, since it will support a lot of weight and help with stablity. If you get yours together and it feels top heavy or inertia prone, perhaps you could make a sidecar for it.
Click to expand...
Hopefully it won't be top heavy ... shouldn't be as most of the hardware is being carried really low. It will have a fat butt though - boiler on one side and a box full of gear on the other. I do think a trike would be perfect as it would give ample room for all the associated junk. I'd use a more upright version so I could hang a water tank under the seat. It would probably still have a fat butt.

I'm pretty sure this is the trike I would use: http://www.terratrike.com/rover.php

I'm real close to finishing my steampunk sculpture/model - maybe one more day. Then I'll put up a photo of it and jump headlong into getting the bike together.

A side car is a really great idea, by the way. It could carry the whole steam apparatus. Maybe I should build one of those after the trike ...
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom