A Marine Condensing Engine

[Ramon WilsonParticipant @ramonwilson3]

Hi Jason, yes, well pleased with the outcome. Though for the greater part I kept to the design and certainly the dimensions as converted, I did make one or two changes to suit myself. I changed the make up of the expansion link from a closed to an open one and yes did have to shorten the LP valve considerably. The HP piston valve is as designed and a apart from a thin spacer to centralise it took very little adjustment of the eccentrics to get it running on the HP cylinder. The original called for the eccentrics to be an integral part of the crank shaft so these were made separate and adjustable. Once the LP valve was shortened very little tweaking of the LP eccentrics was required to get it all running smoothly. It certainly is a good design drawn by someone who really knew their business, both in design and accuracy.

Brian – Yes it does take me some time to finish things at times but always worth it in the end. Hope you are well

Andrew – is that a tongue in cheek reference to the Wide a Wake by any chance😊 I don’t have room for two for sure 😲 As for age – it’s not the age just that there’s far too many things left to do to fill what time is left

It’s been a good adventure but as you can see there appears to be little interest in projects like this these days so I’m going to fade away now – it’s been a pleasure to contribute on here over many years but this is the last I’m afraid

Have a great time in your workshops everyone

Best – Tug

[parovozParticipant @parovoz]

Just came across this….. Most impressed with the ‘Fabricated’ castings. Nice job and definitely inspiring as to making good looking cast parts from solid iron.

Appreciated…..

[ZanParticipant @zan]

Fantastic Ramon. Congratulations on finishing it to such a high quality, although from what I have seen of your work it’s on a par with all of them!

i hope mine will look something like yours and run  so well!

It looks as if there’s zero clearance between the air pump cover and the condenser, which gives an example of  the quality of the design and dimensioning.

mine is started, but it’s very slow going, recovering from a seizure in bed at the moment, and it looks as if the gestation period will be very long.   The condenser body  is mostly completed. I have made a few changes to the overall shape of the bed plate.

here’s the milling of the pockets on the front of it. I have also changed your method of attaching the extension for the hotwell, making the seating for the condenser outflow part of the bed rather than being on the top of the extension piece.  The connecting passageway  to the hotwell being drilled through the end of the well ( and plugged) rather than milling out for the plate on the base What is certain is that the engineering is very very interesting

[Ramon WilsonParticipant @ramonwilson3]

Hi Zan,

This design, I’m sure, lends itself to a decent degree of personalisation but do make certain of any dimensional changes as there are so many parts that need to be in more or less perfect alignment. I think I made a calculation error on the hotwell extension, not realised until I fitted the pump levers when it became noticeable – not much but enough to realise that somewhere I had made a mistake despite double, and more, checking of everything. I did in fact have to take the slightest amount off the top to give a tiny clearance. I went back over my figures but could not find where the mistake was made.

Looks like you are off to a good start – I hope your journey with it proves as enjoyable as mine has been👍

‘paravoz’ – thanks for your comments. It is a good way to make a ‘casting’ and though the method will certainly withstand steam temperatures of 60 psi it is absolutely perfect for anything to be run on air without any real safety concerns if carried out carefully.

Best – Tug

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