Breaking the Law - Completely Illegal Steam Engine from EngineDIY Shop!

Hello everyone,
In today's video Lawrie got sent a Steam Engine from his friends over at @enginediyshop6269 @enginediyshop6269 built by Enjomor, but this little engine has Lawrie gravely concerned...

and if you do want to purchase something (just not the engine in this video) use the promo code below!

Lawrie101

A video featuring, shot, and edited by Lawrie

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[SamSkjord]

They've now included this video on the product page, not the direction I'd go to make my product look good but it's a strong move

[blakebrooks]

I feel like someone made a semi-decent compressed air engine and they said, "Lets make it steam powered instead". And now we have this ... thing

[johnladuke]

I don't know why YT suggested this video for me, and I wouldn't have bought a steam engine model if it _did_ work. However this is by far one of the best reviews I've ever seen for any product. It's got everything - broken laws, engineering that is simultaneously brilliant and awful, legitimate danger for the operator, misunderstanding of physics. Even instructions on how to use a simple wrench!

[dannythorpe]

crazy! my grandad built model steam engines in his garage using copper and brass. this looked way more technical than what he did but he seemed to have ticked much more boxes than this company. what's crazy is he passed not too long ago and this gets recommended to me! oh ill also add the copper and brass was often donated to him from pubs that were refurbished, they would donate the metals from pumps or plates that wrapped around the bar. true genius was my grandad, rip, miss n love you loads.

[haroldpeperkamp]

Those “guards” are designed to produce a nice grid pattern as you leave your skin on them😂

[Shipwright]

All the more reason I try to steer beginners towards makes like Mamod, Wilesco, and Jensen. They're safety-tested, fitted with proper safety valves and other "don't melt your face off and/or blow yourself up" features, and they're made with materials that you don't have to worry about letting go all of a sudden.

[shroomzzz]

Tested on your desktop, no hood, no safety goggles, reaching over the bomb. Good lad! Safety squint!

[DespaceMan]

I remember building a watts dual piston steam engine from scrap, no kit all I had was 2 pages of design drawings. Took me nearly a year to finish, spent just about every night in my old mans machine workshop. Won first place when I entered it into the end of the year science project, not bad for a 12y old even the teachers were amazed. Great skills to learn as a kid, machining & metal fabrication became handy for me later in life.😁😁

[AlexanderBurgers]

China is pretty prolific with what could arguably be called 'cargo cult product development'. They see something, they think "hey, I could make and sell that", and that's all the thought process that goes into it. As long as it looks like the original idea, someone will buy it, because they have never experienced the original, only seen it. And so the cycle continues.

Safety, material science, efficiency, and sometimes functionality outright, are lost along the wayside.

[rubenskiii]

I love how Lawrie has full knowledge of the fact that so many corners where cut it would be a circle.
Yet he puts it indoors, in his house, next to him and at least 2 computers... XD

[emgee]

I’m amazed you ran this indoors, on a desk practically in your face! But props for the yellow car transporter on your desk, haven’t seen one of those in years. 👍

[ghimmy]

Any reasonably thinking (read non-twit) would view this engine as something to engineer. I and my friends have had this trait since about the age of six. We would cap the wick openings and go to one TRIMMED wick. We'd never light a dry wick. We'd try different fuels. We'd mount that stack deeper or change it. We'd design a safety valve. We'd improve the throttle. We'd feed the excess water to a feed tank with a valve. The UK has nanny stated the people so much they have lost the ability to dream, dare and innovate.

[MarkSterrett]

As a little suggestion, the next time you are going to tap threads try holding the piece upside down so you don't get filings into the vessel.

[azyfloof]

I love how the sales page has this very video embedded on it, so you go to the page to buy the engine, and there's a YouTube video with the thumbnail reading "Dangerous and Illegal!" emblazoned across it 🤣

[ronpayne]

Aluminum is perfectly fine for a tiny boiler of that size! I’m guessing, it could operate at 400 to 600 psi with no issues at all. (Depending on the thickness of the aluminum and the type of aluminum used.) The safety valve sure, the boiler strength not a problem

[briannemec]

Since you added the much needed safety valve, you could bypass their safety system. If you would plug the the hole to atmosphere on the control valve block you would use less steam and have possibly have better speed control. This will use less water and help insure you do not run out of water before fuel.
Make a project: put the lower device on wood or longer screws so the steam line is level. Make the steam line shorter and solder in a tee. with the one tee leg aimed down solder on a drain valve.
A good review and the possibility of saving an injury.
I was a senior engineer at a stream plant, people do no realize the danger in a pressurized vessel.

[SeanPat]

My grandfather built the house for his family. In the basement he had a boiler and the house had steam heat. I learned a lot about boilers from my grandfather and one of the things was the importance of a slight glass so you would know the level of the water in the boiler.

[hastyone]

When I first started collecting (and restoring) vintage steam engines I found this out the hard way. The vintage Bing plant I purchased did indeed have a pressure release valve but it was corroded to the point of being locked up, fortunately I ran it on air pressure first but did not monitor the pressure on my compressor and blew the boiler cap off the top of the boiler,
It would have been bad if I had been steaming it at the same PSI.

Now, even if the pressure release is working, I hydro test the boilers first. Thanks for posting.

[Wilted_Brainz]

Get some egg shells and soak them in strong vinegar. When the shells disintegrate, strain the liquid through a cloth. Add denatured alcohol to the liquid and scoop out the gel that it makes. You now have dry alcohol fuel that stores forever in a sealed jar. It can be regulated on flame/temp a lot better.

[PunakiviAddikti]

This thing is simultaneously over-engineered and under-engineered.