The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Tool Chest Steam Cleaner construction

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

In the past ( no longer used because of California regulations ) my company has used diesel fuel heated pressure washers. Basically, a flame is run through a coil. No boiling or steam. It does get the water extremely hot, though. The pressure is created by a pump. Our current pressure washers use electric heaters to cook that water. We used to have a few, industrial http://www.karcher-usa.com models. But I'm not sure what the current manufacturer is. Our machines are about pressure with heated soapy water. Not like the olden days where it was actually a steam cleaner.

Wade,

My dad had an old steam cleaner to wash his fuel trucks. It has been eons ago, but these are the things I remember....I think!

It was a propane (Flamo) fired boiler and I think the brand was Malsbury. A garden hose was attached to it and turned on. Water passed directly through the circular run of heating
coils and out the nozzle...just like a hose.

The gas was turned on and lit, the blower was started and the coils began to heat. As the water temp increased and turned to steam, the discharge from the gun likewise heated up, and began to blow steam...THATS IT!

There was no pressure chamber, or pressure valve. There might have been a globe valve on the handle to throttle the flow of water, which held it in the coils longer and produced more steam.

I think there was a small mixing tank with a little float in it. This was provided to add steam cleaning soap into the system. I think we used a caustic in powder form.

The old beast would take the worst grease and grime off of anything. It was on a steel frame with cast iron wheels.

It has been a long time ago, so I might have the facts and reality bass/ackwards!

Stuart

That sounds simple enough. The thing I remember looked like a big tank on iron wheels. Probably 6' high and maybe 8' long. It had a tow bar so it could move to a remote job site. I don't remember a water hose. I bet, now that I think again, that the tank may have just been a water reservoir and the water dropped into the heating coils you describe from gravity. Seems like you would need a check valve so the steam doesn't get pushed back into the tank. Or maybe thats your safety valve. If you don't use the steam immediately it pushes back in the tank so the coils don't spring a steam leak.

I also remember about a 15-20 foot hose attached to a handle (essentailly a wire coil standoff handle) with a 2 foot copper wand with 45 degree bend at the end where the steam comes out.

I just may give this a shot. I sure have enough need to strip grease off vehicles before I work on them. I'm thinking immediately of my '93 S-10 with 300,000 miles. Then I would like to keep my '92 'vette engine a little cleaner. Can't use a high pressure hose on it as water accumulates in the cylinder Vee and kills the starter. At least thats what the Corvette news group warned about.

And of course my future 'bolt I'm looking for will need cleaning to work on.

I wonder if you could use copper for the coils? Hmmmm...

Thanks Wade

The one I built many years ago I used the burner off a Oil Furnace, had a coil rolled at the local fab shop from triple wall gas pipe 1" and mounted the burner to blow through the center of the coil. Not a steam cleaner but it heated the water to about 220 at 4.5 gal per min (almost steam), used a 4,000psi Cat Pressure Washer Pump to push the water thru the coil. Had a friend who worked on washers and he provided all the safety switches, these are a must because you can easily blow a unit up and someone could get burnt bad(Scalded). Never really liked steam to clean with, damages gaskets and painted surfaces, whereas hot soapy water cleans without as much damage.

Spareparts has a good point. Maybe it might be wiser to just buy one. Rather than take someones word that something will work. I am sure that there is a lot of engineering involved in designing a safe to use steam cleaner. The last thing that anybody would want, would be to see some innocent bystander get hurt.

Just my opinion.

John

Found an old muffler shop in a bad part of downtown Long Beach that still had an old fashion steam cleaner just like the old days. He steamed me for $100. The old ones used kerosine and electicity and produced steam good and plenty. I'd rather find one for sale than try to build one...might be a wee bit dangerous.

Yeah its a pity the old steam jennys are hard or impossible to find. They did a fantastic job.

and they be expensive!!!

http://cgi.ebay.com/LIKE-NEW-OIL-FI...536QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

maybe craig's list eh?

Pressure pump, to coil of copper pipe,inside a open top drum to contain the heat, oil or gas burner to heat the water in the copper coil, MOST SURE a pressure relief to avoid shapnel, a handle with a nossel to direct the steam, if using a valve it must also cut the heat and by pass the pressure pump when closed so the whole thing doesn't go ballistic.
If you ever see a old "Steam Jenny" (brand) you will think it is easy to build your own if you dont use a valve.