When I worked on the first version of this project during my Christmas holiday 2020, it was also my first CAD project ever. This meant that I did not use many of the possibilities that a CAD tool offers and also for the sake of simplicity, I designed more of a Titanic inspired triple expansion engine than a historically accurate copy. So when I got back to Berlin, I spent more time researching the Titanic’s engines and I realized all the potential that this project still had.
In a first attempt to change everything to a more realistic model, I tried to refactor the old model but quickly realized that I needed to start from the beginning. This was also a great point for a new approach. To get as close to the original as possible, I bought myself books such as “Ocean Liners of the Past: “Olympic” and “Titanic”” and “Titanic the Ship Magnificent”. Both contain high quality plans of the engine rooms as well as the steam engines that propelled the Titanic. I imported those and other resources I found online in my CAD program, aligned everything and started modeling. After approximately 100 hours of design work, I was happy with the new engine and started printing.
The inside measures, tolerances and clearances of the engine were close to the prototype ones, but I was unable to get the completed engine to run. After lots and lots of trial and error, I figured that some PLA has better gliding characteristics than others. This was the reason I then started to reprint almost all of the moving pieces in a different brand PLA. Unfortunately, the main body and the base were still providing too much friction such that I was never able to get this engine running on more than two cylinders from compressed air.
But nonetheless, she is a beauty to look at and I am sure that I will revisit this project once again sometime in the future.
If you have a gadget project that requires specialized expertise and a high level of attention to detail, I would be excited to work with you on the 3D printing process. Please feel free to contact me.
