Survival Steam Engine <G> Question

zeromedic wrote: > On Mon, 14 Jul 2003 08:18:37 GMT, snipped-for-privacy@asdfasdfsdffff.com (John Flanagan) > wrote: >

Sure, but that's a pretty small hole. Inject through the intake valve, exhaust through the exhaust, collect and recirculate the exhaust. You still have to mess with the valving, but you get a lot more power for the same steam pressure.

David Hughes

Reply to
David Hughes
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@ 6.5 lbs of Glucose from any source will ferment to produce @ 1 gallon of 180 proof ethanol. A minimum of 10,000 B.T.U. will be needed for the distillation process, unless you can come up with really efficient strain of yeast. (Better than 12 to 15 % alcohol before the yeast dies from its own waste products.) More likely you get only 4 to 6 % alcohol before distillation, so you'll need 20 to 60 K BTU per gallon of fuel grade alcohol.

Amounts of trash per gallon?

100 lbs. crushed sugar cane 40 to 60 lbs. potato peels treated with diluted sulfuric acid (to convert the starches to useable sugars by hydrolysis) 10 to 30 pounds spoiled fruit

Take any of these, or a mixture, stir into @ 100 gallons of water warmed to 75 to 85 F, and add yeast. Ferment, stirring every 3 hours, for 5 days. Strain out the big chunks, and distill.

All figures are rough, of course, there are many variables involved.

David Hughes

Reply to
David J. Hughes

The Sept.-Oct. 1978 issue of Popular Machining ran an article about converting a 2-cylinder York automotive AC compressor to a steam engine that would deliver 1/2 hp at 1000 rpm on 50 psi steam, they said this would power a 12V alternator at 30A output. The original compressor block, crankshaft & pistons were used, with a specially machined head and a spool valve actuated by an external rod and eccentric, operated by an extension on the crank. There are no drawings, apparently they were available separately for $5.00 from the publisher. Mike.

Reply to
MikeM

Better to learn to reload, or how to load and use a muzzleloader. Making your own BP isn't that difficult, for that matter, nitrating cotton isn't that hard. Mercuric chloride has a shelf life of centuries, so stockpiling sufficient priming compound isn't beyond the realm of possibility, but you could fall back on the flintlock if necessary.

Conserving powder and shot when possible is a good idea, though. I'd suggest you make a crossbow (should be lots of car springs around after TEOTWAWKI). More accurate, more powerful, and easier for someone familiar with firearms to operate. 10 inch carriage bolts make wonderful quarrels. I made one from Old Chevy Spring, that would shoot through a concrete block wall with plenty of energy remaining to do damage on the other side. (don't ask)

Gary

Reply to
Gary Coffman

Jon sez:

"I have been thinking about making a solar-powered Stirling engine, in the several Hp class."

Sorry Jon, but one of our RCM guys has already designed a V-8 steam engine for a pickup truck - steam generator in the bed, don't you know. He sez it will make loads of HP so it would put your little Stirlingaling in the shade. I'm surprised he hasn't weighed in lately.

Bob Swinney

Reply to
Bob Swinney

Compared to your suggested steam engine with the auto alternator/generator this is an amazing statement. First of all, both of those setups would need an inverter if you want AC and a battery if you want to store energy.

Depending on your shopping skills and your scrounging/building skills (which are typically considerable on this group) you can have a solar setup for $3.00 to $5.00 per watt. That means for (say) $1,500 you could have about 400 watts which is about 30 amps at 12 volts. The assumed life of a solar cell is about 50 years and you don't need any flash boiler, you don't need to cut any wood, and you don't need any stinking fire. If you are a survivalist, it also means that you can keep a much lower profile because there is no noise and no smoke. All that time you would otherwise be using to scrounge fuel and tend hot, cranky machinery, you could much better use killing (or planting) food.

I have a dead-simple 100 watt system that runs my yard lights and keeps by generator battery charged, I typically look at it about once every three months. Like the Energizer Bunny it just keeps going and going...

Vaughn

Reply to
Vaughn

A GM altenator with built-in regulator would be simple to wire up. You'd only need to run 2 wires from it, and hook one from the plug on the altenator to the BATT terminal on the back. Just need to check & see which terminal in the plug would need to hook to the BATT terminal. If you need this info, let me know. I've got one wired up like this & it puts out

14.5VDC at an idle...

Les

Reply to
oktr6r

(Snip)

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Reply to
Len Turnbow

There's a new yeast on the market now that claims you can get 18% to

20% mash strengths, Turbo yeast it's called. And, the wild thing is that it's supposed to complete fermentation in 2 days! Imagine that, 18 pounds of sugar in 5 gallons water fermenting completely in 2 days to give you 18% mash. I bet the carboy must dance on the floor it's so fast.

John

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Reply to
John Flanagan

How did you crack the corn? I thought the term was to mash it?

A lot more convienient too. Fire up the engine, toast your bread, switch engine off. Imagine that if you had to fire a boiler up first.

I'm not sure but couldn't you also have a economy of scale with a smaller more effcient engine for small things like lighting at night and a larger engine for when you need real power to do something.

John

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John Flanagan

Sounds like a good point. Do you have any links to any home brew wood alcohol sites?

John

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Reply to
John Flanagan

Is that how those things work! I've always wondered. So that steel rod you see goes all the way down to the bottom. I assume there's a limit as to how far down a system like that would work. I guess the rod at the top is thicker than the rod at the bottom otherwise eventually the rod would pull apart wouldn't it?

John

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Reply to
John Flanagan

Mercuric chloride can be used as a primary?

John

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Reply to
John Flanagan

Perhaps not the same VW engine setup mentioned above, but this fellow seems to have done an engine conversion.

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The problem is his method would seem to involve a bit more precision machining than might be easily possible, at least at first, after some major TEOTWAWKI event. By an average person.

I found the reading of this site interesting. It would seem that in some places, for various reasons, they've converted diesel locomotive engines to run on steam power.

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Bob

Reply to
Bob G

I don't know about the first, 30 bricks of .22s would allow you one shell a day for more than 40 years. Centerfire shells would be a little bit tougher & much more expensive, but you'd be firing a lot less of them.

Nothing wrong with learning to shoot a bow (and learning how to make bows/arrows - in my case, lots of arrows ).

R, Tom Q..

Reply to
Tom Quackenbush

I've got an old Popular Mechanics DIY encyclopedia with plans for both wood & steel crossbows. If recall correctly, the leaf spring model was 300 lb pull!

Did you need some sort of mechanical advantage (lever, windlass, ?) to draw yours?

R, Tom Q.

Reply to
Tom Quackenbush

A good compromise might be to choose calibers particularly suited to black powder loads and stock plenty of primers. Primers are cheap and don't require much space to store. Also, I'd much rather try to make my own blackpowder or guncotton than primers. .45/70 comes to mind, but there are plenty to choose from.

R, Tom Q.

Reply to
Tom Quackenbush

I'm wondering how many Federal and local law hoops you would have to jump through to legally distill your own alcohol for fuel. It is against Federal law now to make your own without being licensed by BATF. I'm sure there are many who will not let that stop them from doing it but some would want to be in compliance with the law.

Reply to
Jack Erbes

Well now we all know that can't be. The poster said that any kind of pump that gunner made would not work. And that he was an habitual liar. So it has to be so, eh?

Jim

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Reply to
jim rozen

I think the rule is, once you go hungry for a few days you tend to be a lot more accurate with that *one* shell you get to fire, per day!

Jim

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Reply to
jim rozen

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