Florida Flywheelers 2010 meet

[O.B.Jack]

Thanks James. Truly a large display of engines. A very fascinating time I would think.

Perpetual power, is that the same as wind, solar and wave generated power.
If it was a contained system ie: no flowing river,( or continual source of water) then the water would eventually evaporate huh?

Anyway thanks for braving the cold and posting the pics.   

 

[steammodeler]

Thanks for the replys!
The water wheel intrigued me, is this perpetual power. The wheel is powering the pump to provide the water to power the pump and the belt system. On the inside of the building another set of belts is powering a few smaller machines. With the right gearing I would think one could power a generator head and have free power.......just a spin of the wheel to get started?? Seems so simple! I took the pics for the framing more than anything else!

James

[GS4]

 

James, if you think that first engine is big, then you want to see the size of the main engine of a 250 000 ton super tanker. the engines produce upward of 20 000 hp. Sorry I have no photos to show. I used to do repair work on these giant ships. they drw about 60ft, with a further 40ft of freeboard

Cheers, Simon   

[spyder62]

Great photos Jim and thanks for post. Looks a lot like what we how out here Brooks Steam land museum.  Saw mill and all.
rich

[Will_Annand]

Some really great looking stuff there Steamie.

Is it true you use the Frankson to power your Dremel?

Thanks for sharing sir.

[ak-milw]

Thanks Steamy, great looking stuff!!

 

[R.C.Teed]

I thought I had already posted  a reply James but maybe I forgot to hit the post button...hmmm maybe I'm getting old or something.. Anyway,I wanted to say that I really like those old steam machines and the belt drive tools. I have seen similar stuff at county fairs. It looks like You had a great time despite the weather. I would like to go to a really big steam meet someday. Anyway, Thanks for posting the pictures!!

[steammodeler]

My text box jumps around too much when I have a long post, not sure why; so I'll continue with the pics! 

This is a guys all in one machine shop powered by a good sized gas flywheel engine....kinda like a huge hit & miss engine.
While a mess it shows this guys multitude of powered tools.




A portable steam engine, today we just use portable electric generators!


One of my favorites was this hay bailer.


Powered by an old oil pull tractor.

I took a lot of photos of this typical thresher, as it would be a good photo etching project in the future.





All sizes of engines.





A self contained water wheel. the wheel runs a pump that recirculates the water to the wheel.



All in all a good trip!

[steammodeler]

At the end of february I made my annual pilgrimage to Fort Mead, Florida to the Florida Flywheelers 2nd and last of the year convention. They have over 280 acres of land that includes private workshops, displays, old buildings, and just about every mechanical contrivance know to man. I call this trip a pilgrimage because I have only been there 1 time in 12 years that it hasn't been brutaly cold, and pouring rain; and this wasn't the lone year. It was truly nasty. For my friends that have not been here to the state, we do have cold weather, there is a lot of open land here, and our winter rains are just this side of sleet. Determined to get a few photos this year, many of the displayed artifacts were not viewable, including tractors of every make and model ever made just about. These guys take care of this stuff, in closed trailers, custom covers, the whole nine yards.
I walked the familiar areas, they do have hard dirt roads all over the place, not overly muddy but due to the traffic of golf carts, and vehicals of every form the roads had taked their toll.
Here are several pics; not even a minute sample of what is there over the weeklong event. A few are pieces that I have watched the restoration process thru the years, some pics I look for project ideas, a few distintive weathering samples, and some pretty cool machines and engines.
This is a boat engine that sat outside one of the private buildings for years, it used to be disassembled and looked more like a boat anchor than a boat engine; it's huge!


Here are a few smaller boat and tugboat engines, some are hooked up and operate, their are really interesting to see running on the super heavy duty display frames and foundations.


How about a loco engine.


Here's the largest engine in the park.
It's a Snow engine. This thing is fantastic to see run! I also watched this being restored and assembled here.





All this type of events have a working saw mill.





I'll continue in next post!