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Posted by Daniel Who Wants to Know on April 24, 2008, 6:21 pm
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>>> You could try it out with compressed air first. Find a cheap air
>>> powered drill or polisher/buffer, connect it to a DC generator/
>>> motor and see what you get with the compressor set to your
>>> steam pressure.
>>
>>That's a cool idea - ISTM that those tools use a turbine to change
>>pressure into rotation. Maybe I could find one at a garage sale for
>>cheap?
>>
>>Does anyone know what kind of guts they typically have?
>>
>> (Personally, I think your pressure cooker might
>>> do a lot better than 15psi.)
>>
>>Yeah? I saw that somewhere on the 'web.
>>
>>My problem so far is that I can't find specs for any fo this stuff. The
>>typical spec for miniature steam engines is "will power a small boat" or
>>"plenty of power for a model bandsaw" and similar.
>>
>>
>>> You could then try it with steam from the pressure cooker on
>>> your stove at home, through the tools.
>>
>>That alone sounds like fun. Garage sales, here I come...
>
> Air tools typically use a vane motor. Comprised of a cylindrical rotor,
> with longitudinal
> slots, mounted eccentrically within a slightly larger cylinder, In the
> slots are vanes
> made of light, stiff material, like phenolic resin board, and these vanes
> are
> spring-loaded so as to make contact with the inner surface of the outer
> cylinder. As the
> inner cylinder rotates, the volume of the spaces bounded by any pair of
> vanes varies
> smoothly with the rotational position of the inner drum w.r.t. the outer
> ones. So an air
> inlet is positioned at a point where the volume of such a space is small,
> and an outlet
> where the volume of such a space is large. Admit compressed air to the
> inlet, and it
> expands by causing the inner cylinder to rotate.
>
> Such a motor would probably run on steam, for a while. Remember that they
> require a shot
> of oil in the air inlet on a daily basis, if used daily. Even in
> compressed-air service,
> they usually don't run continuously. I doubt such a motor would run for an
> extended period
> on steam, or that it would be very efficient.
>
> Autos back in the '70s and '80s used to use a "smog pump", a vane-type air
> pump of similar
> construction. They were intended for more or less continuous service,
> albeit pumping
> filtered air, and were driven off the engine via a V-belt. If you could
> find one of those
> that isn't seized up, it would be an ideal unit to experiment with.
>
> Gordon Richmond
>
I was going to suggest an air tool motor also. As you said it will probably
require an automated drip oilier to keep working for very long without
locking up.
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