Hi Ray,  Lovely plant, not sure what the boiler is and I can’t see the engine but the burner looks very much like a Saito burner so I suspect the entire plant might be Saito.  As I did a couple of articles only recently in “Boiler Room” on Saito burners I have sent them to you attached to an e-mail.

The bottom line is basically they are similar to the old paraffin plumber’s torches that everyone used to have in the 50s and 60s, and beyond in some cases.  With your burner you first warm the burner with some meths in a little dish or a small hand held torch etc until the heat transfers to the tank and starts to warm the tank and pressurise it.  This starts to force liquid through the needle valve and orifice to the burner.  You slowly open the needle valve and ignite the vapour that is coming through.  As the tank warms up the pressure increases and the needle valve is slowly opened to give you the flame you want.  Simple, easy, good heat, cheap meths as fuel and no problems with the gas cooling effect.  The only downside is handling liquid fuel but common sense and basic safety precautions should minimise risks.

The articles should make it all clearer.  If you need a set of my boiler instructions scanning, which include burner operation, let me know.

You can see how it works with the diagram taken from the instructions.  The thing on top is a removeable safety valve, which is there to prevent the fuel tank from over pressurising. It is removeable to allow filling of the tank, best done with a plastic pipette or a syringe.  Note the metal bottle cap for filling with meths to be lit to warm up the burner and start the process. If you put enough in the lid the tank should be warm enough before the meths has all gone so all you need to do is just crack open the metering valve and the meths from the tank should ignite with the flame in the cap.

I really would suggest an open hull Ray, lots of advantages, especially if dealing with liquid fuel and the need to get a pressurised liquid burner going.

Interesting dilemma – what takes priority, choice of engine or the boat or is it 50/50?

For me choice of boat is the overriding factor, I’m not into steam so it’s just choosing the motors to make it go and then the choice simply involves brushed or brushless and NiMH or LiPo. (the sort of boats I build don’t need ballasting with a Gel Cell.)

The other big factor is scale of course as it determines degree of detail and, to some extent the extent to which you can build to it as I am discovering with my Miltiades liner. My Greek fishing boat was a doddle by comparison.

Colin

As for my Dad, when I was in my early 20s, long before I could afford to play around with RC and steam plant, my Dad once came home with a steam powered model boat.  He was into buying stuff up at boot sales and selling them on for a profit at the time.  Looking back I suspect it was a Basset Lowke or maybe even an early Stuart Turner.  Looking a little tired but it captured my interest.

I of course asked him if I could have it, to which he replied that it should be worth around £20.00 so I could have it for that.  There was no way I had £20.00 to spare in those days so it remained out of my reach.  My annoyance only increased when I asked him what he paid for it and he told me 50p!  He was a Yorkshireman after all.

Incensed, when I went back to my next ship I did some sketches on bits of scrap paper and came up with a design for an engine that used bits and pieces of junk brass from the workshop scrap bin.  The cylinder was a broken sounding ‘bob’ from a tank sounding tape and the main body was a couple of brass compression fittings.  The spring came from a scrapped pneumatic shuttle valve and the remaining bits I made in the lathe.  I put it together and next time home took it to show him.  It gave me such a huge amount of satisfaction to be able to show him that I could make my own engine and he could shove his £20.00 boat!  The engine has never seen steam and it has never seen a model boat but I still occasionally run it on compressed air just to give me a smile.

Yes, I’m in the same mould to some extent. Whilst I take advice onboard, once I’ve made up my mind to do something a certain way then that’s it. If it goes wrong (but not in an unsafe way!) then so be it. It’s all part of the fun and satisfaction for me and is one of the reasons I’d rather scratch build.

Chris