Here's a real itty bitty filter. I could drill out the base to fit the pipe maybe ...
RU-5162 - K&N Universal Air Filters, Universal Rubber Filter
RU-5162 - K&N Universal Air Filters, Universal Rubber Filter
Did you ever get to see an old oil bath (I believe Ford) air filter from the early 1950's,
Now ain't that a perfect steam bike piece or what? So, maybe a pair of 1" end caps and a really short piece of pipe between them, one end soldered, the other a nice snug fit due to the pipe section being enlarged slightly. Drill some breather holes in the end that slips on and a solder joint/fitting arrangement on the other end that leads to the intake. Put some sort of filtering stuff inside.Just a thought on the air filter breather deal. Maybe some variation on the gas filter I made for my Worksman Indian build last summer would work. I used one inch copper pipe and fittings, drilled holes in the end caps for copper tubing soldered in place and compression fittings on the tubing. Inside is stainless steel wool crammed in there from one end to the other. I haven't ridden that bike much, but so far so good. It would breathe and have an old time look in keeping with the rest of your build. You'd want different sized tubing and compression fittings. I don't know...
Looking forward to seeing that steam baby in motion one of these days...
SB
Sorry ... couldn't help but meander off on some foggy memory lane ... there have been a lot of oil bath air cleaners in my past ...The air filter reference was to show that air passing through a larger opening (All the way around the edge of the inside of the air filter)is slower and the oil spray can be traveling slower also and won't shoot past the mesh
I just came across this build. I know you're quite far along, but I've heard that some kinds of automotive air conditioning compressors can be adapted into steam engines. You can only use the older piston-type compressors and not the newer wankel-type. But they have the valves already built in.
Now that's a really cool compressor. Would make a great looking steam engine and it has a crankcase, too. Two pistons means it might even be self-starting, which my single-action piston won't be. Hmmm ... well too late now ... maybe next time. I wonder what the guts of it look like, whether it has conventional pistons and rings or a wobble piston. A cutaway diagram would be worth checking out.I don't know too much about how compressors are built, but the type in the story I heard was an old Mopar A/C compressor like this one:
It looks pretty durable to me (probably all cast iron) but again I don't know how the valves, lubrication system, or piston rings work. In the story I heard some guy living in the Alaskan wilderness used one of these hooked up to a homemade boiler/stove and an alternator to charge batteries and power his house, in conjunction with solar panels. Apparently they put out something like 3 hp with the right boiler. I haven't found much more info beyond that though.
I've thought about buying a compressor (they're pretty cheap on ebay) and building a boiler like yours, then mounting everything in an old motorcycle frame. But I don't know too much about what it would take to adapt the compressor into an engine, and I don't have the space, time, or money for a new project.
Looking GOOD, this is fun watching you work your A## off and I can hardly wait to see the video.
With all the weight that's going to be on the bike you might think about running a no flat tire.
I was wondering too if the holes are adequate, but there isn't much of an opening in a stock carb either. I guess I could do the math, but you know, if it isn't enough I bet it just pops that press-in tube cap right off. If it doesn't, then I'd say we're all set. How's that for scientific?Looks good but you may have to lengthen out the tube to the filter and maybe make the holes a little bigger, reason being the piston displaces X amount of air/oil and if the tube is long enough the outgoing air/oil will still be in the tube as the piston rises letting the crank case breath but not push the mixture out the holes and the reason that you may have to make the holes bigger would be to let the mixture out without putting it under pressure, once you get it running it will be clearly evident if you have to do this.