On Sun, 16 Oct 2011 09:57:49 -0400, clare wrote:

On Sat, 15 Oct 2011 21:53:49 -0500, Sunworshipper SW@GWNTUNDRA wrote:

On Sat, 15 Oct 2011 16:54:16 -0500, Tim Wescott
wrote:

On Sat, 15 Oct 2011 15:02:10 -0400, dav1936531 wrote:

Guy builds a steam powered whatever it is.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a15_1318636799

Very useful for.....well....nothing as far as I can tell, with the
exception that it could make some personal injury attorney alot of
money.

Of course, if you looked and thought while you were looking, you'd see
that it's an antique four-stroke gas engine (started by another antique
four-stroke gas engine). Probably all of 10 horsepower, but it's a
_steady_ 10 horsepower.

The only steam involved is cooling the engines.

I believe it is a hit an miss. Only fires when the fly wheel slows
down, would be great around here with the frequent power outages.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihnpL...eature=related


SW
And it was NOT started by the little 4 stroke engine. It was started by
"rocking" the huge flywheel on the big engine past top dead center a few
times to draw the fuel into the cyl and get it lit. That 10HP engine
likely has a top speed of 120 or 180 RPM. At 120RPM 10 HP is a whopping
437 ft lbs of torque!!!!! The huge flywheel is required to carry the
load between firings - which under no load can be as few as one every 10
seconds or so, and under full load 0ne every second.

If the big engine started perfectly well by rocking it, why did he need
to use the little engine to get it up to speed before he turned the big
engine on? Why, in fact, did he need the little engine at all?

--
Tim Wescott
Control system and signal processing consulting
www.wescottdesign.com