I've been wanting to build a propane or oil fired steam cleaner for about 3 years. A quick look around the web only shows home and commercial steam cleaners for rugs. What I want is something like I used to use when I was 16 and riding motorcycles in the woods and mud. We'd come in and stop off at one of the guys dad's machine shop. He would fire up this boiler on steel wheels. About 15-20 minutes later we'd be steaming our bikes clean.
I assume the boiler had a pressure relief valve set to vent steam at a certain pressure. And the tank was probably 150-200 gallon with a passage in the bottom where the oil fire burner went. Looked like it dated from the 40's sor 50's. I want to build something like that, maybe not that large, say 50 gallons. It has to be big enough that you wouldn't lose control of the steam. And of course you would need a relief valve for safety.
Now the question is anybody here have one or have built one? What pressure do they run at? I don't remember a pressure gauge on the tank, but this was about 45 years ago so I maybe am misremembering. I wonder if you could use a retired propane tank? Say 50-100 gallon, weld in a burner pipe. Steam is absolutely fantastic way to clean old iron.
Thinking on it I would assume the pressures aren't all that high, I just don't know in what range.
Anybody have any ideas?
TIA Wade in NW Florida
