Designing a boat at age 12

[confused]

yup. I'm still here! Alive 'n kickin'! Hey apex, guess how much those people want for their merryweather coal fired boiler? 1500 pounds sterling!!!!! (talk about overpriced!!) I think I'll stick with the homemade one! (oh yeah, I didn't want to build those boats that I showed you I've seen them before, I was just thinkin' about them for some reason)... Nice coal-bomb!! (kinda scary though if you own a steamboat and you have a neighbor that hates you)... 1 British pound = 1.4629 U.S. dollars. I designed the world's smallest "houseboat" yesterday. I could build it for 50 dollars! (maybe less), it is 5ft long, 2.5ft wide, and the 'house' part of it is 4ft long, 2.5ft wide, and 2.5 ft tall! you could hual it on a trailer (I designed the trailer to) that is 6 ft long, and you could pull it with your bike, or YOU could pull it! AND, you could take the hull of and just put your little house ashore and live there for a while... I'll bet it would make anyone claustrophobic! (I just designed it, I ain't going to build it) Then, if you don't like the boat idea, you could turn it into a mobile home that you can pull with your bike!! I gotta do some online schoolwork, so I'll be online.

Originally Posted by confused

yup. I'm still here! Alive 'n kickin'! Hey apex, guess how much those people want for their merryweather coal fired boiler? 1500 pounds sterling!!!!! (talk about overpriced!!) I think I'll stick with the homemade one! (oh yeah, I didn't want to build those boats that I showed you I've seen them before, I was just thinkin' about them for some reason)... Nice coal-bomb!! (kinda scary though if you own a steamboat and you have a neighbor that hates you)... 1 British pound = 1.4629 U.S. dollars. I designed the world's smallest "houseboat" yesterday. I could build it for 50 dollars! (maybe less), it is 5ft long, 2.5ft wide, and the 'house' part of it is 4ft long, 2.5ft wide, and 2.5 ft tall! you could hual it on a trailer (I designed the trailer to) that is 6 ft long, and you could pull it with your bike, or YOU could pull it! AND, you could take the hull of and just put your little house ashore and live there for a while... I'll bet it would make anyone claustrophobic! (I just designed it, I ain't going to build it)

Nice idea with the houseboat. I can imagine that could be some sort of adventure trolling a lake or river for some day AND nights. Bit Huck Finn like ähh?
The Boiler is average to low priced! Collectors items, you know?
Would like if you go with the Minn Kota and a proven and not overcomplicated design for your first undertaking. Keep me updated.
Regards
Richard

[confused]

ha! huck finn like! if you happen to encounter a dam in that little boat, then just land it, pull it around the dam and keep going! (I have to wait until I move to texas to build that boat) I'll just wait. good idea that motor for 120$ that you told me about. But I'll still buy the steam engine, and still send you some photos of that. Actually I'll post them on the forum. I'll take some of the engine running also. We might move to boulder city, it's in nevada, but it's close to lake mead, so I might be able to build that boat if we move there. A homeless person could build that mobile home or houseboat out of scrapwood for NO money at all I just relized! And I guess you're right about that boiler... It looked pretty old to me. What does this mean?! Slutt for Cray (slutt? slut in norwegian...?) slutt for cray....... (a slut for a crayfish?!)

[confused]

Это я думаю, норвежский...

Originally Posted by Knut Sand

.....................

You did that on purpose.... NEVER

Btw;
1 litre of water, heated to 180 deg C, will cause a pressure of approx 12 bar. If released quickly, it'll expand to somthing in the area 180-200 litres atmospheric pressure.
.

Some basic (out of recollection) footnotes:
Water (no matter how much) heated to 140°C gives a pressure of about 12,5 bar. 180° is not achievable in a classic "Scotch" boiler. Nor is a pressure above 15bar.
1 Liter expands to onethousandsixhundred Liters of steam!
edit: sorry viking you were right with the temperature I was some 40°C below the right numbers!
here it is in deep:
temp °C 189,8
pressure kpa 1250
enthalpy kj/kg 1400,3
entropy kj/kg/°C 3,5
quality 0,3
density kg/m³ 20,8
internal energy kj/kg 1340,4
spec. volume m³/kg 0,0479
Helmholz free energy kj/kg -287,41
isobaric heat capacity kj/kg/°C 3,96
isochoric " " " 2,94
edit end


Naturally if that will be released by failure you have no chance to run. But just raising your butt may not help either, if the gas tank under your seat starts to blow up.
One and a half centuries and a gazillion of miles of steam driven passenger transport by railway systems and ships have proven that it is possible to handle the stuff safe!

Proper and careful handled, steam is not more dangerous than any other public propulsion. I do it since 40 years (with care and some knowledge). The risk to become transformed into biodegradable matter in one second, is much higher sitting besides a propane stove in a RV, or enjoying a ride (the final one?) by starting the engine in a gasoline driven sportboat.

Regards
Richard

Originally Posted by marshmat

Hi again 'confused'

Running a steam-powered generator to keep a couple of batteries charged up, and having the main drive as electric, could be made to work. You could think of it as a very small, fossil-fuel-powered version of the massive, nuclear-fuelled steam turbines that drive the generators of big Navy ships!

I had a look at the motor you posted earlier from HarborFreight. It is a single-phase induction motor with capacitive start. Unfortunately, this type of motor cannot easily be converted to a generator without a lot of heavy, expensive control circuitry (ie, a regenerative VFD, which would cost a few thousand bucks).

The MinnKota equivalent of that trolling motor you found would probably be a good match for a boat like this. These things are 12 or 24 volt, which is fairly easy to work with. Why not do the generation at this voltage, too?

I'd suggest giving your local auto wrecker a call to see if you can track down a used truck alternator with the same voltage as your chosen motor. Then run it with a belt drive from the steam engine. This would be fairly cheap and compact, and by playing with pulley sizes you can get both the steam engine and the alternator running at appropriate speeds. A 40 to 60 A, 12 V alternator would be comfortably driven by a 1 hp steam engine.

Please do keep us posted on how your project is coming. No doubt you'll have plenty more questions come up during the design and build process, we're here to help

Thank you Matt for your valuable input.
The steam engine we are talking about, will be able to deliver something like 200 or 300 Watt (I hope). Something like a motorbike alternator will be more suitable I think. Anyway if the steam engine is´nt able to propel the boat, our arrangement will be quite less. But having a akku between, charged by the steam engine, we could win (I hope). At least while holding the hook into the water, or having a picnic at the banks, the battery can recover.
Naturally we should´nt think or talk about efficiency, producing steam for charging batteries then electricity for propulsion.
But it is a demanding, and alternative project, so I like the challenge.
Regards
Richard

Originally Posted by confused

slutt for cray.......

You have a link?
R.
R.

[confused]

yah...http://www.universitetsavisa.no/ua_l...c9420.67787431. I figured it out though. !Slutt-шлюха! means the end in norwegian. дерьмо!! the link expired! Well, Knut Sand has it. yes! I can get away with cussing if it's in another language!

[masalai]

confused , Your efforts at learning and understanding boats and boating are to be commended and admired. - - - Your age is a concern, and, as a parent would appreciate your involvement is restricted to threads related to technical information necessary to your boating activities as a 12 year old.... and stick to English, as playing with babel fish is just an irritant and detracts from the value of this site for your benefit....

[confused]

how do I start my own thread? (malasai)

[masalai]

confused, go here http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/ then sort out which forum and then sub-forum (if exist) best suits your topic content.... When you have clicked to that forum/sub-forum you will see just above the list of threads in a button over the bar (new Thread) - click on that and you will be able to name the thread (keep this fairly brief but descriptive of content), and then put your first post defining what you seek and some helpful information on the details of the topic for discussion etc.... and I stand corrected, your gender is male and your age is 13 - OK

[confused]

My new thread is called designing houseboats. It is under boat designs.

[confused]

I don't want to ruin starling's thread anymore, so I created my own for us to discuss my project on. Anybody is welcome on there, but please do not ruin my thread!

[PAR]

If you're still into steam, you should strongly consider this engine, which can be built cheaply, at home and runs on relatively low pressure.



The problem with steam is the weight of fuel, which is substantial, not to mention the interior volume it eats up. Conventional steam engines aren't light weight either.

http://www.greensteamengine.com/licenses.htm

Originally Posted by PAR

If you're still into steam, you should strongly consider this engine, which can be built cheaply, at home and runs on relatively low pressure.



The problem with steam is the weight of fuel, which is substantial, not to mention the interior volume it eats up. Conventional steam engines aren't light weight either.

http://www.greensteamengine.com/licenses.htm

sometimes you´re brilliant PAR................

[confused]

hEY APEX, GO TO MY THREAD. It's nice. wierd engine! i'VE seen 'em before.