Large Scale Central

Live steam Rotary Plow

Modeling
#21

Randy Lehrian Jr. said:

SWEET! Shawn I love this plan. I’d really like to do a Steam rotary some day. My only caution is that the engine you have may not be strong enough. From my observation the impeller needs to spin as fast as possible to fling the snow. This means that you probably want to gear up from the engine Making more work for the engine than just straight coupling the impeller to it.

OOP’s just scrolled up and saw Eric’s response. That’s what you get for reading earlier in the day and posting later. Any way, I agree with Eric and those Graham’s would probably be perfect for the job, They even make some nice inline 3 engines like that.

I get your reasoning for moving forward with what you have, and can’t blame you one bit. So now let me say this is cool, I can’t wait to see what you build, and… Party on Garth!

Thanks Randy. Ya the motor is just trial and error for now. Be nice to just get something to spin using live steam, even if it can do an inch of powder ill be happy for now. That’s why Ill have it interchangeable with an electric motor for now. Once Im satisfied with the design and operation ill invest in a better steam motor and boiler. I have to make sure this will not be one big failure lol… Another reason why Im doing the electric motor with the steam.

#22

Sounds like a plan to me Shawn ! I’ll take a look on Monday.

#23

Rotary snowplow

#24

Michael Glavin said:

Michael Glavin said:

David Maynard said:

Interesting. But, just to be correct, that isn’t a fan, its an impeller.

Techinically its known as Fan Impeller. An ‘impeller’ moves liquid.

Neat project… The real deal turns slowly, you’ll have to spin the fan impeller up pretty good, to get it to work!

Michael

And to correct the terminology, it is a FAN WHEEL, as designated by ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers). I spent about 15 years in air handling of one type or another. I was going to leave the terminology alone until others chimed in with inaccurate answers. An impeller is part of a liquid pump, and a true impeller will not flow air very well. Just as a fan wheel will not flow water very well.

To obtain the same tip speed as the prototype with a 6" diameter wheel, the rpm would need to be in the 20,000 range. That would be quite a feat with a small steam engine like that. Cool project, and even if it does not really work as a snow rotary, it would be cool to see it to completion.

This is a Fan Wheel. The image is pilfered from Lowe’s web site, and is a great example of the type of fan wheel that would make a good rotary wheel. The blades are true radial and for will be self clearing and tend to not pack the snow as it moves forward. The only addition I would make to this wheel is to add small butting edges on the leading edge of the wheel to aid in ‘gathering’ the snow into the wheel.

This is a Pump Impeller. Notice the construction is not suited to a rotary application.

Bob C.

#25

Bob “IA3R#7” Cope said:

Michael Glavin said:

Michael Glavin said:

David Maynard said:

Interesting. But, just to be correct, that isn’t a fan, its an impeller.

Techinically its known as Fan Impeller. An ‘impeller’ moves liquid.

Neat project… The real deal turns slowly, you’ll have to spin the fan impeller up pretty good, to get it to work!

Michael

And to correct the terminology, it is a FAN WHEEL, as designated by ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers). I spent about 15 years in air handling of one type or another. I was going to leave the terminology alone until others chimed in with inaccurate answers. An impeller is part of a liquid pump, and a true impeller will not flow air very well. Just as a fan wheel will not flow water very well.

To obtain the same tip speed as the prototype with a 6" diameter wheel, the rpm would need to be in the 20,000 range. That would be quite a feat with a small steam engine like that. Cool project, and even if it does not really work as a snow rotary, it would be cool to see it to completion.

This is a Fan Wheel. The image is pilfered from Lowe’s web site, and is a great example of the type of fan wheel that would make a good rotary wheel. The blades are true radial and for will be self clearing and tend to not pack the snow as it moves forward. The only addition I would make to this wheel is to add small butting edges on the leading edge of the wheel to aid in ‘gathering’ the snow into the wheel.

This is a Pump Impeller. Notice the construction is not suited to a rotary application.

Bob C.

Hmmmm that’s another option. I can get them off Amazon with a motor.

#26

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Bob’s right …the pictured impeller does pack the snow , just use it on non sticky snow!

I used the same for my build. As Tim Allen says more power , will over come it’s short falls.

I did add something to try to cut up the snow. In the end I just made it like a funnel to push into the impeller

Here we see it @ work.

Good luck … I will be watching with interest!

#27

Thanks Sean. I new I saw the same fan being used. My plan is to use it on the fluffy snow. Wet packed snow I would rather use my trusty shovel. Eventually I might try making one from the one video I posted. Looks like it will work better and look closer to the real thing. I have some messing around to do yet.

#28

I built a rotary using a cordless drill motor, chuck and a 18 volt battery. I wanted a big blade on the front so went with a 5" metal one similar to the one you have in your first photo Shawn. I had a 12 volt battery first which spun the blades fast enough but didn’t last too long. The 18volts spins it a bit faster and lasts longer. I think you will want to have more speed over torque.

The trouble I had was I wanted to have a chute that I could flip to the left or right but the fan blades are only so deep so that would mean the blade assembly had to sit too far back in the housing and wouldn’t be able to bite into the snow. The answer was a compromise of pushing the fan blade back far enough that snow actually goes through the chute and placing a pre cutter in front of the blade like Sean has. The precutter still does most of the work but in the first part of this video you can see a bit of snow coming out the chute.

It doesn’t look “real” but it works with the right kind of snow.

Your plan to build a steam powered rotary is exciting but I think you have a lot of experimenting ahead of you. I’m sure you will come up with something really cool.