Old Homemade Steam Engine And Antique Robert Fulton Engine Running Together

Duration: 16:56 918 transcript words EN summary

Video summary

The video documents the successful startup and operation of an old homemade steam engine, which had previously failed to run due to a poor seal caused by an uneven surface on its components. The creator explains that while someone else began the project, they were unable to get it working because of this gap, so he filed the part down to make it flat and achieved a proper seal. Before lighting the gas burner positioned high above the boiler to ensure the water boils quickly, he adds steam oil and a small amount of 90-weight gear lube to lubricate the moving parts. Despite the initial hesitation about overfilling the sight glass with boiling water, the engine fires up smoothly once heated, demonstrating that it runs reliably every time it reaches the necessary temperature. Once the homemade engine is running, the creator prepares a second antique Robert Fulton engine to join it, creating a scene where two historical machines operate simultaneously. He applies oil to the second engine and waits for it to warm up before firing both units together. The startup process for the antique engine is slightly more vigorous than the homemade one, but once both are running, they turn in nice synchronization. The creator notes that he has to periodically tighten a brass nut on the homemade engine because the spring holding it cannot keep it tight against the loosening pressure, which would otherwise allow steam to escape and reduce efficiency. Throughout the demonstration, the narrator shares his appreciation for these projects not because he built them from scratch, but because he was able to complete the work that others started but could not finish. He expresses satisfaction in seeing the homemade engine run consistently after fixing the sealing issue and successfully integrating it with the antique Robert Fulton model. The video concludes with both engines running side by side, showcasing the beauty of steam power and the satisfaction of restoring these mechanical wonders to working condition before signing off for the weekend.

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[music] Okay, guys. So, let's go ahead and get some water in this thing. and I need a light or I can't [clears throat] see how much water is in that sight glass. Okay, let me get a light so I don't overfill this. Okay, I think I may have put too much water in, but we'll we'll see here. And put our cap on. And uh shoot. We're going to light our burner up here. I got it hooked up to the gas burner. It's up kind of high, but I think I'll need it high to uh to get that water to boil. So, Then we'll put some that's steam oil. Now I'm going to just put some 90 weight gear lube on this here. A little bit there. Yeah. And then uh Yeah. That's a lot of soot. I still haven't cleaned this yet or anything like that. Turn that down a little bit. Yeah, you wouldn't you wouldn't think that butine fuel would burn that black, but it does. >> So, yeah, it's a All right, let's let that get heated up. I did have boiling water I put in at first. So, yeah, that feels pretty smooth. And thing is that spring will not keep that nut tight. I mean, I can see it loosening up there. But what I what I usually do on something like that is I'll bang the threads up a little bit on it and that'll make it tighter. [clears throat] Okay. So, let's um Yeah, it's starting to get warm now. So, let's get [snorts] little spider here. Okay, let's let's uh let that get warm. Okay, guys. You can see we got a little bit of water coming out here, a little bit of steam, and it fired right up. Now, this thing was not running when I got it. Someone made that, but they they just weren't quite there. Turn that fire down. I don't know why it's doing that, but they weren't quite there. Never got it to run. Let me turn this off. It'll take it a minute. They just weren't able to get it to run. Well, we got it running. There was just too much of a gap there. And I I filed it down right there. I filed it down and made it flat. It was kind of It wasn't It wasn't flat, so it wasn't making a good seal. Yeah, I do like this thing a lot. Not because I build it, because I didn't. I like it because, you know, uh that someone started it and uh I kind of finished it. They couldn't get it going, but we did. So, yeah, that's pretty cool. And once you get it hot enough, it'll fire up every time. Very cool. I got to tighten that nut every so often or it'll get loose. You can pretty much see it loosening up. Maybe not. But anyway, there you go. The homemade steam engine. No, I can't. You guys see that? That nut. I can maybe zoom in the little brass nut there. So, just it loosens up and it lets too much it loosens this and lets too much pressure out of that. See that line? If you watch it, that line will eventually start going around and I keep tightening. See, it doesn't want to tighten. All right, guys. I'll be back with you in just a second. Very cool. Okay, guys. Let's fire it up again. There it goes. Now, what we're going to do next is We're going to start this one up. All right. Put a little bit of oil on this one. Okay. Then we'll have both these oldtimes running here. There we go. Now, let's let that get heated up. Then we'll fire them both up. I don't know if you guys want to see the flywheel or the motor, the engine working. That one's going. This one will take a minute. So, let's uh shut the fire off for a minute. And then when this one gets gets ready, we'll start them both up and let them both run. Okay, guys. This one's ready. See the water coming out little bit up here. And I heard this. Okay, so that's ready. Now, let's start. Start this one up again. Let that get warm. Now, let's go ahead and fire this one up. Whoa. Think I put too much oil in that one. Hang on. Whoa. Yeah, this one always starts pretty easy. Of course, I could have put a little bit too much water in it, too. But that's that's oil. That chocolate milk color you're seeing there. What a mess. Did I get any on you? Hope not. Let's start this one. Oh, it's almost ready. Yeah, you don't want that to happen either. All right. Well, let me go throw this over in the sink. Okay, let's start this one. There it goes. There we go. That's better. All right. There we go. Nice turn. All right, guys. Shay Bear the missing man legend gone for now. Just the 30 30 Thursday night steam up and uh I'll let you guys watch him for a minute and uh weekend's almost here. One more day. So, all right. I'll see you guys soon. Bye-bye everyone and take care. Enjoy the steam engine. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. I can just let that one burn out. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. >> [music] [music]