Anyone in UK got a small steam engine for sale?

I'm not sure what your project requirements are, if you need to generate any usable power out of it.
If its just to prove the concept of converting heat to a kinetic force, you could look at a Stirling engine instead?

Besides the marks stop at A*, looking at other projects that got A* makes me wonder why I put the effort in last year.

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It's probably not that important for school or college to aim much further than the top grade, but it makes the world of difference once you get to university.
Story Time:
I struggled at standardized exams but excelled with assignments. The BEng was a 70/30% split between tests and assignments.
If I hadn't put the effort to shoot past the '1st' boundary (70%) and get 85/95% in the assignments & final project, I would probably have left with a 2:1.

It's well worth it, don't burn yourself out though!

JimB said:

LG, are you off your head?
Where did this 200psi idea come from? That is one SERIOUS boiler.

The Flying Scotsman (L.N.E.R. A4 locomotive, no 4472) only has a boiler pressure of 220psi.

Using steam at that pressure, you will be able to run your mind at 100mph .

JimB

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LOL That isnt running pressure Jim! I cant find the info so was working from memory...........But from what I remember, when they test boilers they use 2.3 times the working pressure as a safety factor. Instead of air they pressurise with water, so if anything gives under the test, you just get a water spray and not bits flying around. For a little boiler I dont know what the test pressure is, but estimated that a compressor cylinder takes around 120 psi (at least mine anyway), so I used that as a guide.

Its only fairly recently I found out even 'toy' boilers are supposed to be tested and have a certificate. The test pressure on a steam boiler is fairly irrelevant from a cost point, they charge the same to test at 100 psi of water pressure as they do for 200 psi.

Sorry if I confused you, but to be clear the working pressure is likely to be way way lower than 100 psi, but because of the size I think it is supposed to be able to take around 100 psi (relief valve is set at 85 psi). So that gives roughly a testing pressure with water of around 200 psi. I could be out 50 psi or so for the test, but the cost is the same no matter what.

What I am likely to do is test myself, I am sure its going to run way lower than 100 psi, so I will fill with water and use the compressor to take that to 120 psi. I cant find the right size blow off valve under 85 psi, so if I build a boiler its better to go cautious and make sure it can take 120-130 psi.

Look at this one! Admittedly its alot bigger than a small one but the test is done at 400 psi with water.

Looks like 130 psi is plenty for the size of boiler I want. I dont need the compressor apparently, I can use a hydraulic pump or maybe the old well pump . I was spot on with 2X working pressure although I am sure its now a bit higher. Anyway 120-130 psi test is plenty for mine with a good safety margin. What it dosnt say in the video is its now a requirement to get a certificate. I knew about the test certificates because it was the reason we could team build a steam engine last year, the costs were too high.

REgarding repurposed tanks the typical propane tank or bottle has a pressure relief pop off valve setting of around 275 - 325 PSI and from personal experience of undenting old tanks for repurposing I have taken them to over 800 PSI with the pressure washer to smooth out dents and creases and have yet to ever split one.

If you feel you need to go even higher on pressure or tank robustness the high pressure bottles for welding gases go way past what any propane tank or bottle will. CO2 and similar tanks are typically rated for 1000 - 1500 PSI and the high pressure one for Oxygen, Nitrogen and such are typically 2000 - 3000+ PSI working pressure. If you're really going nuts the compressed air tanks can be had in pressures to o 4500 PSI!

However for simplicity sake if you are just wanting to turn raw heat into electricity simple Peltier coolers running in reverse make fairly decent thermo electric generators. Efficiency isn't so great but they have no moving parts and extremely long service lives if you don't get them so hot they melt the solder inside.

NO NO NO NO, I am not gonna build a boiler as big as a propane tank!!! Well not yet .

I am after something the size of the toy steam engines like the Mamood things. Like this


So I could do it out of copper tube, the reason I was looking to buy one was because its for my exam work. My main concern is it being school, there is a high chance that if I turn up with a home made boiler the teacher is going to ask to see the test certificate before they allow it to be demonstrated. The UK and especially schools are very much elf and safety, dot the i's cross the T's follow all the silly rules regardless.......

I got into trouble making water at school, same class (Design and manufacture). The brief was to develop a device to make clean water, you dont actually always have to build the stuff you design. Most people dont, but I always try and make it because its an easy way to grab top marks and stops it being a utterly boring course!

Anyway for a laugh I decided to make pure water, my machine was a stainless steel cooking pot with a acrylic lid clamped on it. Inside I put 3 balloons in.......the balloons were only 3 inch diameter, 2 with Hydrogen and one with Oxygen. I used a simple electric igniter wrapped around a non safety match, this was put between the three balloons.

Anyway it went bang a bit more than I anticipated................lucky the lid gave way, but I got in serious trouble because none of the class had ear defenders on, and because according to my teacher I had made a bomb. My Chem teacher got involved and got me out of serious trouble, but the point is that my school is really OTT with the rules and stuff like elf and safety. Plus I am on the watch list already with Mr Griffin (my teacher), he is the guy I corrected in class about leds . Does not like me at all

I can't relate at all but I do know I couldn't live there.

Where I grew up my school had hunters safety class and we had kids bringing assorted shotguns and low and high powered rifles to school on the busses all the time for class.

As far as science and shop class safety. Blood stops on its own eventually. I know because we all shed lots of blood in both classes when I was in school. In my day if you couldn't leave a bloody drip trail from class to the bathroom or the big first aid kit in the main office you didn't have an injury worth talking about.

Today I had to bury a old horse of my dads that died of old age yesterday so today I went driving down the road with a dead horse hanging upside down by a chain wrapped around its ankles held high by my backhoe tractor. I'm guessing the animal right people would have had me in jail over in your area fro cruelty to a dead animal before I got out of the coral for that?

tcmtech said:

I can't relate at all but I do know I couldn't live there.

Where I grew up my school had hunters safety class and we had kids bringing assorted shotguns and low and high powered rifles to school on the busses all the time for class.

As far as science and shop class safety. Blood stops on its own eventually. I know because we all shed lots of blood in both classes when I was in school. In my day if you couldn't leave a bloody drip trail from class to the bathroom or the big first aid kit in the main office you didn't have an injury worth talking about.

Today I had to bury a old horse of my dads that died of old age yesterday so today I went driving down the road with a dead horse hanging upside down by a chain wrapped around its ankles held high by my backhoe tractor. I'm guessing the animal right people would have had me in jail over in your area fro cruelty to a dead animal before I got out of the coral for that?

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Worse than that! Seriously over here you cant bury a dead horse!! It breaks alot of laws if you bury stuff like that (even sheep), horses here have passports, so if one dies you have to call a fallen stock company. They come pick it up (charge you for doing it) and give you a certificate to say you have done it. Without the paperwork from them its serious trouble!

I cant remember how many laws it breaks now (I knew in Devon: England it was 6 laws) but in Scotland I think you would be guilty of 8 crimes by 3 different agencies. Bury a dead sheep and get anything from £500 -£5000 fine or upto 12 months prison. Bury a dead cow and its alot more............A dead horse is roughly as serious as a cow but you break more laws.

Its also illegal to move untreated (dirty) sheep fleeces off your farm unless by an approved contractor with all the gear. Its classed as a grade 3 animal by product. Technically any fleece caught on a filed fence has to be removed and disposed of correctly!!! I kid you not. If the wool comes off the fence and blows into a neighbours field then................Technically your breaking bio security rules as well.

So when sheep snag on the fence and leave some wool, and a bird picks it for nest building, if the bird nests on someone else's land it has just landed you in trouble lol. Even more stupid but serious offences............

I cut a cabbage in the veg garden and go wash it indoors, I then remove the outer leaves and feed to a animal (say a chicken or pig), serious crime here!! If on the other hand I pick the cabbage and while out side I pick off the leaves, I can feed those to the animals. The difference? Well as soon as you go inside with it then it becomes domestic/commercial food waste and cant by law be fed to animals. But if you dont take it inside then its not classed as waste food.

Obviously I would never break these laws

These are European laws, and people wonder why the UK voted out of Europe!! No idea why Scotland wants to stay in the EU! Then again Scotland has alot of different laws to England, they seem to love rule books up here. Great place to live, but the laws etc mean in another 18 months when I reach 18, I am out of here and back to England.

tcmtech said:

I can't relate at all but I do know I couldn't live there.

Where I grew up my school had hunters safety class and we had kids bringing assorted shotguns and low and high powered rifles to school on the busses all the time for class.

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Which probably explains why people are always walking in to school and shooting lot's of people

Nigel Goodwin said:

Which probably explains why people are always walking in to school and shooting lot's of people

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Imagine that ... Just this January, seven new gun control laws went into effect in California, to join all the other existing laws. How did the laws fail?

Now thats a loaded question sorry couldnt resist

I think alot comes down to people. Take tax or laws, if it reasonable then most people will comply. You will always get those that lay each end of spectrum, dosnt matter if tax or law is reasonable they are not going to comply, and those that will comply no matter how unreasonable something is. The trick is hitting the spot where most people are happy. Rarely is that done though.

I dont think anyone from the UK will ever get their heads around guns, it too far outside of our normal.

Nigel Goodwin said:

Which probably explains why people are always walking in to school and shooting lot's of people

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Yeah our bad guys have to steal a lorry or 4 X 4 and run people over!! Maybe cars should be illegal?

We know the answers but no one is ever going to speak about them (including me).

Nigel Goodwin said:

Which probably explains why people are always walking in to school and shooting lot's of people

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Not in my area. We train our kids how to shoot back (and with accuracy) in school.

Just let a few of us experimenters have the keys to the chem lab stock room, no need for anyone to shoot anybody .

Meh. Poisonings too boring plus your victim rarely knows it was done or what is happening.
Getting shot with the intent for them to die by bleeding out gives them a well defined understanding and time to think about what happened to them and why on top of loads of immediate pain as well.

As for school shootings they are not new. They happened 25+ years ago when I was in school and even way before then. For those of us raised around guns and hunting the whole acts just came off as stupid and sad. For the amount of ammunition used for the number of injuries and kills its always disappointing. Anyone who knew how to use a gun should have had a far higher kills to shots fired ratio than what happens.

Heck anyone who had hunters safety and any degree of game hunting knowledge would have known their best strategy would have been to set up outside the school in a camouflaged location and use basic sniper tactics to take their intended targets.

tcmtech said:

Meh. Poisonings too boring plus your victim rarely knows it was done or what is happening.
Getting shot with the intent for them to die by bleeding out gives them a well defined understanding and time to think about what happened to them and why on top of loads of immediate pain as well.

As for school shootings they are not new. They happened 25+ years ago when I was in school and even way before then. For those of us raised around guns and hunting the whole acts just came off as stupid and sad. For the amount of ammunition used for the number of injuries and kills its always disappointing. Anyone who knew how to use a gun should have had a far higher kills to shots fired ratio than what happens.

Heck anyone who had hunters safety and any degree of game hunting knowledge would have known their best strategy would have been to set up outside the school in a camouflaged location and use basic sniper tactics to take their intended targets.

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Nah blood is messy, frothing at the mouth and convulsions, followed by spasms and eventual slow paralysis!!! This is the 21st century after all! Hmmm reading back it looks like I described marriage

The worst school disaster was in the early part of the 20th century ... Bath Michigan ... Where a school board member bombed the place. I knew one of the survivors.

Sick people do sick stuff, the problem is good people wont do what should be done to sick people, but I guess if they did then they wouldnt be good would they? Maybe it is because I am more aware now I am older, maybe it is because I have more access to content. But on the whole it looks like the world gets darker each day.