many beams steam model m88 by
microcosmic
you have the alcohol burner down here
this is the boiler it's a walking beam
steam drives the power piston upwards
then this sliding valve arrangement
comes to this position opens the vent
and momentum on the flywheel pushes the
piston back down this exhaust the valve
goes back to the closed position opens
steam up to the bottom of the piston and
it goes up again and on the other side
there's a safety valve and if that goes
off that sounds a little bit like a tea
kettle or a pressure cooker there's a
little silicone o-ring here that seals
when it's down and on the inside that
spring-loaded
pressure builds up lifts up on this
piston which is spring-loaded will
release any excess pressure then there's
an o-ring here that seals against the
boiler you just close it against that
o-ring then give it just a little more
that's good enough if you know this
boiler is empty and you can unscrew this
pressure relief valve and you can add 20
milliliters of water with a syringe or a
small funnel and put this back in when
you tighten this down that just needs to
be firm you don't have to tighten the
heck out of it and you should check to
make sure this is free to operate 20
milliliters of water will take you to
about here you do not want to fill this
any more than two-thirds full and if you
start boiling it too violently and the
water can slosh up and you'll get water
in here instead of steam and that may
stop the engine this one has three rods
that sit down in pockets and the alcohol
burner and they index into these holes
which is the lid of
boiler if you know the alcohol burner is
empty you can use a syringe put 12
milliliters of alcohol in through the
vent hole easiest way to tell if it's
empty is if the wick is dry if the wick
is wet then you want to be careful you
do not want to overfill this one thing
that happens with every one of these
burners the heat from the fire reflects
off of the boiler comes down and heats
this up and the hotter this gets the
bigger the fire gets so you do not want
to overfill this you only want to fill
this about two-thirds full max you want
to put oil on all of these pivot points
and I put a little bit on the power
piston and on the valve anything that
Wiggles or turns there's a stationary
pivot here and then on the axle for the
flywheel and the counterbalance I put a
little bit of oil here and here and turn
it and do that before every run oils
cheap the oil this before every run and
don't run this thing too fast this thing
will last you a long time this is a very
well made little model and when you
start this this runs counter clockwise
viewed from this side it's a very nice
little engine very delicate parts you
want to treat this gently this is really
not a kids play toy if you drop this on
a hard surface or on a concrete that'll
be the end of this you'll bend and break
this it won't run anymore but as
received this is very smooth and the
timing is exact but when this thing gets
up to speed it'll start throwing oil out
too so I have it on this piece of
cardboard let's start off with a
reasonable size fire if this gets too
hot I take something like this dental
tool and I push that wick back down a
little bit if it looks like it's getting
to be a bit weak
I'll reach in here with a pair of pliers
and just pull that up a little bit
that's a pretty large fire and it'll be
too big for the engine with it we'll
leave it like that until it builds up
pressure I check this with an infrared
thermometer just kind of get an idea how
fast that temperatures coming up as the
pressure builds up you may start to see
bubbles on the power piston or on the
sliding valve there we go and that fire
is too big so I'm going to reduce its
size a little bit
this is a good speed for this if this
starts screaming and the Popoff valve is
whistling your fire's too big you're
running it too fast slow it down this is
actually running a little bit faster
than what I would care for so I'll move
the fire down just a little bit
I reduced that fire so I haven't heard
that Popoff valve go off that's a good
thing operate this with a sensible speed
and it will last a long time
do not walk off and leave this
unattended or around children unattended
this gets extremely hot
this RAM for just over 20 minutes that's
a long run now this leave it alone let
it cool off naturally
you
