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Awesome History: How Piston Ship Engines Were Built in the 1950s

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  • Awesome History: How Piston Ship Engines Were Built in the 1950s


  • #2
    Re: Awesome History: How Piston Ship Engines Were Built in the 1950s

    That truely is mind blowing, and I work around "big" equipment :o

    No safety glasses, no gloves and NO COMPUTERS!! :o
    Escaped on a technicality.

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    • #3
      Re: Awesome History: How Piston Ship Engines Were Built in the 1950s

      Boy oh boy, they are some big machines! Bet it was interesting just getting them cranks into the 4jaw chuck and centre it!
      No safety specs, just a flat cap! I remember my granddad (ex toolmaker) telling me they used to wear shirt and ties all the time, today its no hanging clothing and tiebacks.They were proper engineers, long before CNC all done by hand.
      Good job finding these pictures! ;D

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      • #4
        Re: Awesome History: How Piston Ship Engines Were Built in the 1950s

        Originally posted by TheSilverBuick
        That truly is mind blowing, and I work around "big" equipment :o

        No safety glasses, no gloves and NO COMPUTERS!! :o
        Psst.... Slide Rules... They had slide rules... and books of logarithmic tables. :D

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        • #5
          Re: Awesome History: How Piston Ship Engines Were Built in the 1950s

          Well I did a little poking around. These engines make about 8000 hp at 115 to 120 rpm.

          These are two stroke opposing piston engines. The same family as the Sulzer and B&W engines, but different than the Junkers and Naiper Deltic.

          Here's a video of one in a cruise hip, this is the top of the engine, the hoses are oil lines. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMb5GLMdFNY

          Here's another, this one on a Canadian Great Lakes ship: http://www.youtube.com/user/gauravde.../5/1_cnRWoQrbc

          And the ship steaming along: http://www.youtube.com/user/gauravdevgan#p/a/u/6/YX4tEb1xJPM

          Finally, here's a set of drawings for those who don't quite see how an opposing piston single crank engine works. http://www.oldengine.org/members/die...ne/doxford.htm

          and a simpler version: http://www.oldengine.org/members/die...ine/Doxlay.htm

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          • #6
            Re: Awesome History: How Piston Ship Engines Were Built in the 1950s

            Truly impressive feat of engineering and machine building!

            That's when Heavy metal really meant 'heavy metal'

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            • #7
              Re: Awesome History: How Piston Ship Engines Were Built in the 1950s

              Multi-pieced together crank. How'd ya like to be the guy that phased all them throws.
              Shelter animals make great pets

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              • #8
                Re: Awesome History: How Piston Ship Engines Were Built in the 1950s

                That assembled engine doesn't look like it's inside a boat hull yet... is that... an ENGINE DYNO?????

                dude how would you like to be the guy that works the throttle on THAT!!!!

                www.realtuners.com - catch the RealTuners Radio Podcast on Youtube, Facebook, iTunes, and anywhere else podcasts are distributed!

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                • #9
                  Re: Awesome History: How Piston Ship Engines Were Built in the 1950s

                  I think that thing is just to spin the engine over to check stuff with. I think they rate the HP on engines like these like they do top fuel engines, back calculated from performance.

                  Escaped on a technicality.

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                  • #10
                    Re: Awesome History: How Piston Ship Engines Were Built in the 1950s

                    The green round housing is, I believe a water brake, (note the water feed pipes) used as a resistance for engine testing, while the orange wheel closer to the engine is the indexing wheel, electrically driven by a worm gear, used to put the engine in the correct position for starting. They were air started of course, by releasing compressed air directly into the cylinder.

                    Finally, I had to ad this link. You see, 8000hp these days is peanuts. Here's a modern Sulzer, the same basic layout as the old Dox, but of 95,000hp. This is how goods from China make it to North America.

                    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXHvY-zY9hA

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                    • #11
                      Re: Awesome History: How Piston Ship Engines Were Built in the 1950s

                      Awesome pics. They still do stuff on this scale. I work in the shipbuilding industry and got to visit a Korean engine manufacturer last year making the big MAN and Wartsila low speed diesels under license. Just like the one in the video above. They make about 100,000 Hp (80kw) at about 120 rpm. And weigh around 2400 tons! When I was there they had the engines near completion running in inside a (very large) building hooked up to a water brake. Very similar to the old picture above.

                      It was cool walking around among giant connecting rods laying on the floor. I wish I had pictures, but for the most part you can't take pictures in a modern shipyard or heavy manufacturer these days.

                      I've seen some heavy duty machining in the shipyard building submarines and aircraft carriers too. A submarine torpedo tube is an incredible work of machined art. Again, no pictures.
                      1967 Chevelle 300 2 Door Post. No factory options. 250 ci inline six with lump-ported head, big valves, Offy intake and 500cfm Edelbrock carb.

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                      • #12
                        Re: Awesome History: How Piston Ship Engines Were Built in the 1950s

                        I figured folks here would like that. The torch eating through that thick steel and just the dang SIZE of everything. Guys riding on lathe carriages. Nuts. And still it's all precision machining. Those massive crank pieces have to be pressed together just so. I'd like to hang out in there for about a week. I never get tired of looking at stuff like this. Then go out and look at my little 9x20 lathe. :D Having spent some years in mechanical inspection, I can identify with the guys checking the giant hole spacing in the casting. And I wonder if I can get one of those giant micrometers from Enco.

                        Here's a nice size crank lathe, not your regular shop size 14x40...
                        http://www.facebook.com/?sk=lf#!/pages/Cooke-BROS-Engineering-LTD/158410127502852

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