Steam powered tonka truck

[scalebowler]

Made a fuel tank tonight out of some brass sheet and it is quite strong but I don't have any real sheet metal tools (only have some tin snips and a bench vise) so it kind of looks like junk so I am going to go another route and buy some brass strip that is the same height that my tank will be, bend it around a wooden form, solder it into a rectangular form and then solder a top and bottom onto it and just use the dremel to clean up the edges. I think that will make a much nicer looking fuel tank than the one I have now which does not look bad but I is just annoying the heck out of me that the darn thing is not square.

[scalebowler]

Made the fuel tank and burner tonight and it looks great and works pretty good too. I only was able to try it on rubbing alcohol though instead of denatured so I did not get a good test as the flame burned kind of sooty but I think some denatured alcohol should solve that problem. The only problem is the sides of the tank were kind of rough looking and there was a lot of excess solder that I could not sand off so I just painted the tank with some Hammertone paint to hide the imprefections and aside from a few edges that look a little wavy it looks quite good. Now just have to design a mounting bracket so I can attach the burner to the truck. I'm thinking some sort of "basket" to hold the fuel tank would work pretty good that way I can remove the fuel tank to refill and to replace the wick without having to take the entire truck appart. The paint is drying right now so I won't get pics till tomorrow but when it is dry I will post some pics to see what you guys think. I just hope that the fuel tank holds up since I did use some regular solder since I figured that if the tank got hot enough to melt the solder then the alcohol inside would catch on fire. Internet says that it melts at around 300 to 400 degrees farenheit and I would think by then the tank would be on fire or in bad shape. Hopefully I am right

[scalebowler]

Trimmed a little bit more of the frame down today and made room for front axle which is going to be angled and so far in the maximum position it should be running a 4 foot diameter circle and I can always adjust the angle to make it a larger circle or a straight line. (would be cool to be able to adjust it which I might have to do tomorrow when I am laying out the holes that I am going to drill for the engine mounting plate)

[scalebowler]

Well worked on the engine today. It looks nice but it does not run. There is a leak between the cylinder and the engine body but right now I really don't want to even look at the thing so I will figure it out in a few days or so. Either I need a new spring or the intake and exhaust holes don't line up or the engine parts are not flat or the post connecting the cylinder to the engine body is not straight.

[scalebowler]

Without even looking at it I am almost certain that it is a missaligned cylinder and engine body as the more I think about it I think that the holes in the cylinder are about .010" off or so. I need to take the inlet hose off and look through and see how the holes line up when the piston it at the bottom of the power stroke but if it is blocking the inlet before the piston is down I would think that would make it stop like it is. Dang even though I am mad at it I can't seem to stop trying to figure out what is wrong with it. 

[scalebowler]

SUCCESS!!!!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Diqg_MusGk&feature=youtu.be

I was playing around with it today and discovered that the crankshaft was a little bit rough so I took some sandpaper and put it down on the drill press table and chucked the crankshaft up in the drill press and then turned it on to full speed and lightly pressed the face of the crankshaft into the sand paper which gave me a nice smooth finish. I then cleaned all the steam oil off of all the parts and relubricated them with a thinner oil and the thing runs great! I still need to get a better spring for it but I have a running engine so I am pretty happy right now. Now I just have to test it on steam and see how well that does. I'm thinking it might be a little more powerful since I remember that little engine that I bought a year ago ran a 100 times better and had greater power on steam than it did on air.

[Creighton]

Congrates!!
Creighton

[scalebowler]

Congrates!!
Creighton

Thanks! I am very excited to see this thing running!

[Ken R]

Very cool!!!  Great job!!!

[scalebowler]

Very cool!!!  Great job!!!

Thank you!