Hello,

I'm in need of a new steam box. Any ingenious ideas out there? I was
thinking of having two tanks. A small 1 gallon tank to make steam and a 5
gallon tank to feed it. Or how about coiled tubing for the steam part?
Mainly I want steam pretty quickly, a way to fill the water tank without
losing steam, and an easy way to tell if the water tank needs filling. I've
used one that had a clear hose to tell show what the water level was, but
the hose kept getting dirty.

Thanks in advance,

Eide

I believe Robert Morris's book for skin on frame boatbuilding has plans for
a steam box that would do what you are trying.

Brian

How about this idea for quick steam generation? Coil some copper tubing to fit
over a propane gas burner with 2 or 3 concentric flame rings - these can be
found in camping supply shops, are made in China, cheap but work well.
Feed one end from the mains water supply a a suitable low pressure and collect
the steam from the other end of the coil. No need to monitor water levels as
it continuously gets supplied. And if the water feed stops for some reason, no
big drama, just no steam generation.
You may have to experiment with the length of the copper tubing required.
Klaus

Eide wrote:

Hello,

I'm in need of a new steam box. Any ingenious ideas out there? I was
thinking of having two tanks. A small 1 gallon tank to make steam and a 5
gallon tank to feed it. Or how about coiled tubing for the steam part?
Mainly I want steam pretty quickly, a way to fill the water tank without
losing steam, and an easy way to tell if the water tank needs filling. I've
used one that had a clear hose to tell show what the water level was, but
the hose kept getting dirty.

Thanks in advance,

Eide

"Eide" wrote in message news:PtWsb.4557$MB4.4124@lakeread02...
Hello,

I'm in need of a new steam box. Any ingenious ideas out there? I was
thinking of having two tanks. A small 1 gallon tank to make steam and a 5
gallon tank to feed it. Or how about coiled tubing for the steam part?
Mainly I want steam pretty quickly, a way to fill the water tank without
losing steam, and an easy way to tell if the water tank needs filling.
I've
used one that had a clear hose to tell show what the water level was, but
the hose kept getting dirty.

Thanks in advance,

Eide


I have a 14ft by 2ft by 1ft wooden steambox.
Recently steaming almost 2in thick ,7in wide, planks using a cheap wallpaper
stripper!
Untill i saw it done i would noy have belived it would be capable of
sufficient steam.
Its brilliant!
My giant kettle (made from a 60L steel bottle) and my huge propane burner
are now redundant.

"Eide" wrote in message news:PtWsb.4557$MB4.4124@lakeread02...
Hello,

I'm in need of a new steam box. Any ingenious ideas out there? I was
thinking of having two tanks. A small 1 gallon tank to make steam and a 5
gallon tank to feed it. Or how about coiled tubing for the steam part?
Mainly I want steam pretty quickly, a way to fill the water tank without
losing steam, and an easy way to tell if the water tank needs filling. I've
used one that had a clear hose to tell show what the water level was, but
the hose kept getting dirty.

Thanks in advance,

Eide

I have a propane powered trukey frier. I made a wooden top for the pan
with a 2" radiator hose coming out of the top which goes to my box.
These things sell for about 40 bucks at most bigger stores.
Scotty from SmallBoats.com

James wrote:

I have a 14ft by 2ft by 1ft wooden steambox.
Recently steaming almost 2in thick ,7in wide, planks using a cheap wallpaper
stripper!
Untill i saw it done i would noy have belived it would be capable of
sufficient steam.
Its brilliant!
My giant kettle (made from a 60L steel bottle) and my huge propane burner
are now redundant.



I use Wagner's $50 wallpaper steamer with steam boxes up to 8' long.
It's compact, produces lots of steam and it's very safe (self contained,
thermostatic shut-off). The cord and steam hose are quite long, so you
can locate it well away from the box if you like. It runs for over an
hour on a single filling and I would think you could could connect a
larger feed tank if you need to.

--
Regards

Brian

Brian Nystrom wrote in message ...
James wrote:

I have a 14ft by 2ft by 1ft wooden steambox.
Recently steaming almost 2in thick ,7in wide, planks using a cheap wallpaper
stripper!
Untill i saw it done i would noy have belived it would be capable of
sufficient steam.
Its brilliant!
My giant kettle (made from a 60L steel bottle) and my huge propane burner
are now redundant.



I use Wagner's $50 wallpaper steamer with steam boxes up to 8' long.
It's compact, produces lots of steam and it's very safe (self contained,
thermostatic shut-off). The cord and steam hose are quite long, so you
can locate it well away from the box if you like. It runs for over an
hour on a single filling and I would think you could could connect a
larger feed tank if you need to.


Sounds nice. The last time I steamed I ran it out of water. I had to
decide weather to put out the flames as they crept so close to my
propane tank, or get my camera. I put out the fire, no pictures this
time guys. I guess there would be some problems if you ran out your
Wagner too.
Scotty

Backyard Renegade wrote:

Sounds nice. The last time I steamed I ran it out of water. I had to
decide weather to put out the flames as they crept so close to my
propane tank, or get my camera. I put out the fire, no pictures this
time guys. I guess there would be some problems if you ran out your
Wagner too.
Scotty


No, there wouldn't be. It has a thermostatic shut-off. If the water runs
out and the element gets too hot, it shuts itself off. It's about as
"idiot proof" as possible for something that produces steam.

--
Regards

Brian