Has anybody built Beng’s Danni Steam engine.

[Brian JohnParticipant @brianjohn93961]

Lawrie : your chuck probably weighs as much as my lathe

I spent the afternoon mucking around drilling and tapping holes and finally ended up with something I am happy with. I have drilled and tapped the 6mm thick aluminium plate to take two M2 X 14mm cap head screws which pass through the engine frame and the plate. These are further secured on the under side of the plate with two M2 nuts ( not necessary but I did it anyway). The plate was then screwed to the wooden block using five 5/8'' #2 wood screws ( five was overkill). I fitted the large flywheel and it all runs well.

Tomorrow I will glue the wooden lagging to the cylinder. That large bare space on the cylinders always looks a bit odd to my eye. I was going to file a flat on the crankshaft for the eccentric grub screw but then I realised that I would not be able to make any fine adjustments to the timing if I did that. Any thoughts on this ?

NOTE : I did think about painting the Al plate brunswick green but decided against it. And the same with the engine frame… it's really not worth it. The wooden lagging will give it a lift.

Edited By Brian John on 26/08/2017 11:41:56

Edited By Brian John on 26/08/2017 11:43:14

Edited By Brian John on 26/08/2017 11:48:23

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

best to leave filing the flat until you have tweaked the settings to what works best, you can then mark the shaft, take of eccentric and file the flat.

[Lawrie BradlyParticipant @lawriebradly72996]

Well, maybe the chuck AND tailstock!

i've been thinking for a while about grubscrews gripping on the crankshafts on my two engines. I intend milling flats for the flywheels straight off, but thought I would initially just lightly clamp the eccentric grub screws onto the shaft until I am sure the timing is optimal, then use the marks made by the grubscrews to mill flats in the right place.

[Lawrie BradlyParticipant @lawriebradly72996]

Jason beat me to it – again!

[pgk pgkParticipant @pgkpgk17461]

Posted by Lawrie Bradly on 26/08/2017 10:27:55:

……To cut a long story short I bought it for (I think) $1,200. It is a Tida model TD-4A and has 10" swing over the bed. Made in Taiwan in 1984. It is a gem. To get it home, I harnessed five mates to a pallet trolley early one Sunday morning and we pushed it, in places up the middle of the road. I'll post a photo!

And I thought we'd get a pic of the pushing down the road bit – disappointed

pgk

[Lawrie BradlyParticipant @lawriebradly72996]

Yeah, I should have got a photo of that. It was though before the advent of smart phones. Still, no excuse.

[Brian JohnParticipant @brianjohn93961]

That is one engine finished. It looks quite elegant with the timber lagging on the cylinder. I don't have any more of the thin strips of timber to do the second engine the same way so I will have to think of something else. I also have to add displacement lubricators to the engines before running them on steam.

 The second engine is giving me problems : the solder joint between the cylinder and the steam chest keeps ending up with two or three pin holes along the seam. It looks like air is blowing out of there while the solder is setting. I pulled it apart and re-soldered it a second time but I am still having the same problem. I am not sure what is going on there as this did not happen to the first engine. I would take a photo but I do not think it would show up very well with my camera.

Edited By Brian John on 01/09/2017 02:49:37

Edited By Brian John on 01/09/2017 02:50:07

Edited By Brian John on 01/09/2017 02:52:25

[Lawrie BradlyParticipant @lawriebradly72996]

Brian, My unreserved congratulations. The engine looks fanstastic. I have every confidence that you will resolve the other engine's pin hole leaking problems. Some time, some day, I might similarly be able to report on the success of my engine projects, but don't hold your breath. Regards, Lawrie.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Brian you have not plugged up any of the other holes have you? That can trap air that will expand and bubble out when heated. Excess flux boiling off can also give similar bubbles.

Looks good, ice lolly sticks and wooden coffee sterers can be used for lagging.

Whats the next project?

[Brian JohnParticipant @brianjohn93961]

The only holes I plugged were those holes from the steam chest to the cylinder as I did not want them to fill with solder. I used cut off toothpicks to do that. It was not a problem with the other engine but perhaps they were a tighter fit in this one.

UPDATE : I have watched closely to see if any air is coming from those holes and I do not think there is. I placed a few drops of water with a bit of detergent and I could not see any disturbance or bubbles. I think my air compressor has died this afternoon so I am not sure if I have an engine problem or not !

I will make the Al plate to go under the engine frame while I wait for a new compresssor to arrive from ebay.

Next project is a beam engine from Sussex Steam which I purchased from ebay. It is their old model beam engine and there is a lot more work in it than I expected. I suspect that is why the original owner sold it. Their newer version is much simpler to build but unavailable now due to illness according to their website.

Edited By Brian John on 01/09/2017 12:08:48

Edited By Brian John on 01/09/2017 12:26:51

[Brian JohnParticipant @brianjohn93961]

I bought a new Ozito compressor from Bunnings today. The old compressor was most of the problem. Danni 2 runs very well now but there is still a small amount of air escaping from the front cover to the control valve. I will make a new one and see if that helps. I am still not sure about the pinholes in the solder so I might apply some 180 degree solder to them to plug them up.

The new compressor only runs for about 15 minutes before it gets very hot. Would purchasing a compressor with a tank increase the length of time the compressor can be run continuously (the duty cycle) ?

https://ozito.com.au/products/150w-mini-air-compressor-and-airbrushkit/

 

 

Edited By Brian John on 02/09/2017 07:53:29

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

Brian, a tank would be helpful, but you would want the regulator, and water trap on the outlet of the tank(probably leave the current ones on the compressor. Yes compressors get quite hot.

I'v got a similar, but smaller one, but unregulated, it runs up to 30psi, it's an ex medical ventilator .

Ian S C

[Brian JohnParticipant @brianjohn93961]

I am building a steam plant for both these engines. Danni #1 is done but I am losing quite a bit of steam through the pipe work so it keeps running out of puff after a few minutes. I will solder some of those connections and see if that improves things. I am hoping to fit a dynamo and light also but only if I can get the engine running fast enough.

[Lawrie BradlyParticipant @lawriebradly72996]

I made a bit of progress today on the big end bearings for the twin cylinder version.

Hi Brian,the steam plant is looking great.

The parts on the left are from the Bengs 'Danni' kit. It wasn't possible to replicate the radius on the scratch-made bits for the twin cylinder, so I settled for an approximate profile.



The opposing faces will need sanding down (on plate glass) to get the (now slightly oval) holes round and 5.8 mm diameter, then to be reamed to 6.00 mm. Drilling and tapping the M2 holes for the screws that hold them together is going to be a bit fiddly, but I've already done similar for the main bearings, so hopefully it'll be okay.

[Brian JohnParticipant @brianjohn93961]

Lawrie : How will you connect the two engines ie. from where to where on the steam chests will you make the connection with a steam pipe ?

Danni #1 does not run all that well with the vertical boiler. I am surprised as it runs quite readily on air. The engine runs much better with the horizontal boiler which produces more steam. I am modifying the steam plant to take the larger horizontal boiler.

I have put the timber lagging on Danni #2 and it should be ready for steam testing tomorrow.

Edited By Brian John on 16/09/2017 17:46:45

[Lawrie BradlyParticipant @lawriebradly72996]

Hi Brian, for connecting steam/air to the single cylinder engine I'll follow the plans, but like you will add in a displacement lubricator. It'll probably look a lot like yours.

I haven't worked out yet the details for getting steam/air to the twin cylinder, but have in mind a displacement lubricator on a copper pipe centrally between the cylinders, then a T piece with a branch to each across the top. I might need to mount the lubricator on a brass post. I'm yet to explore the availability of pipe fittings.

[Brian JohnParticipant @brianjohn93961]

I recently bought some pipe fittings from PM Research in the US. I have my first order with them on the way now. I used to use Executive Model Design but their postage rates are getting quite high. PM Research have their own thread : UST (Universal Straight and Taper). You can read about it on their website. It should match all my existing threads which are 3/16-40 and 1/4-40 ME.

I don't know of anybody producing a similar range of pipe fittings in the UK or Australia….or anywhere !

Edited By Brian John on 17/09/2017 01:45:10

[Brian JohnParticipant @brianjohn93961]

I have been trying to build a steam plant using Danni #1 and my standard vertical boiler but this engine is not a good match with this boiler. Like the Liegende engine, it keeps running out of steam after a few minutes. I tried all the usual tricks such as inserting a piece of 1/8'' pipe inside the 3/16'' steam outlet but even that did not work. Plugging the chimney caused the flame to go out. So I had to redesign the steam plant using my larger horizontal boiler. I had to re-drill every hole in the base board  but it does run well now.

I am not sure of the quality of the videos I get with  my very cheap smart phone. I will try to get a better video tomorrow in the daylight if I can.

https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&feature=vm&video_id=HiuP38gzlp4

As usual, the links are not working and this time I used Google Chrome !  Any suggestions ?

Edited By Brian John on 18/09/2017 15:01:24

[RichardNParticipant @richardn]

This link might be better for people to click on for the video…

**LINK**

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Or this

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Well done Brian,

The engine and steam plant is definitely a better job than the phone

Neil

[Brian JohnParticipant @brianjohn93961]

I just remembered that my camera has a video/movie option so I tried that today. The youtube result is much better but I still cannot get links to work on my new computer. What am I doing wrong ?

Edited By JasonB on 19/09/2017 07:31:51

[Lawrie BradlyParticipant @lawriebradly72996]

The camera image is much, much clearer and the engine certainly runs beautifully. I am expecting to see a dynamo and light mounted shortly.

[Brian JohnParticipant @brianjohn93961]

Jason : thank you for sorting out the video link.

Lawrie : I had to move the engine back to line up with the steam outlet on the horizontal boiler. I don't have as much room to mount a dynamo. I will see what I can find on the internet.

[Lawrie BradlyParticipant @lawriebradly72996]

Hi Brian, I only mentioned the dynamo because you said you might be fitting one (if you could get the engine running fast enough), in one of your previous posts. It certainly looks like it's got plenty revs of oomph now in the video. In the past I've thought a bit about generating a bit of gas-fired electricity myself, but actually I think I've decided I'm just as happy to see engines run for their own sake.

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