Help Powering Up William Powell Steam Whistle

Machine Shop
#1

Howdy!

Needing some direction…I have an 4”, 11lb William Powell steam whistle from the early 1900’s that I’ve cleaned up. Everything in me wants to hook this up to air or steam and hear it blow, likely for the first time in over 50 years.

However… it needs probably 120-150 psi and no smaller than a 1” output from an air compressor to produce an adequate sound. On top of that, I’m trying to film a short video of it blowing (preferably over the weekend) and am on a bit of a tight schedule for various reasons.

If any of you in the DFW area have an air compressor with those specs, I would greatly appreciate it if I could drop by either Friday evening, anytime Saturday, or Sunday afternoon too hook it up and hear it roar. Any help or advice would be much appreciated.

PS: I’m new here and am not seeing a place to attach pictures of the whistle. That said, I’ve attached my a link to my Instagram account where I just recently posted pictures of the whistle as well as a detailed history.

Thanks!

3 Likes
#2

When you compose your message, this is how you attach an image. As a new user you can probably only attach one image. The more other posts you read the more your trust level increases so you can post more than one image.

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image734×64 2.64 KB

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#3

Bet that would shake teeth loose!

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#4

I would try it on an airline first with a hose, I think there are some drops in the machine shop with shutoff valves so you could temporarily hard pipe it, i don’t remember what size pipe we used. Look behind the cold saws on the wall.

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#5

Ah, I appreciate it. I don’t know if that button is supposed to appear for comments as well, but for some reason I’m still not seeing it

#6

Thanks! Only thing is, I’m not yet a member and wasn’t sure if that would matter…any chance I could drop by this weekend and likely find some guys there who would be able to direct me to it?

#7

Its probably a three step process

  1. come in and look at air hoses and pipe sizes, go buy the parts you need
  2. second trip in to hook it up and try it.
  3. you will definitely want to join once you see all we have to offer and hear about our new blacksmithing room

I’ll be there Saturday after lunch but don’t have a set timeframe yet. I’ll figure that out around noon

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#8

One small edit to what is said above. As a guest, your welcome to come by, but you need a member to hook up to the equipment, including air lines. Guests can only use tools during scheduled classes for said tools. One of the perks of membership! But I am confident several members would LOVE to hear it whistle. I assume it looks something like this?

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#9

Pic of the actual item from the Instagram link posted in original post:

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#10

I’ll help him hook it up and will bring earplugs

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#11

Thanks a lot! I’ll definitely plan on coming by on Saturday then and bringing the whistle. I’ve heard a lot about the Makerspace from a former member, and as someone who’s wanting to learn machining and leatherworking it sure sounded like a sweet deal.

#12

Yessir, looks a lot like that one. What size is it?

#13

We(Makerspace) do not have any 1” air hose. Its going to be extremely loud more than likely should be done outside unless you can con those indoors to leave the area or wear hearing protection. You will probably need a place to attach it, 125 psi of air from a 1” line is a lot of energy. Also should probably warn others that are using pneumatic devices as the line pressure will probably drop significantly. Specifically if the Felder, CNC plasma, lasers or Haas are running.

Also do you have the fittings to tie the airline in? IE bushings or reducers if needed.

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#14

Also we are down a compressor currently I think?

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#15

The first thing the lasers do is step the pressure down to ~15psi, so I imagine they won’t have much issue with a drop in the system pressure. The air assist should be effective even if they do see a drop on the regulated side.

#16

Im assuming we are going to blow the bigass whistle for a few seconds max. Using an airline first. We can run it outdoors as a first test. If we end up hard piping it we’ll give people a heads up that they don’t need to run for their lives if they hear a train approaching the wall between machine shop and woodworking.

3 Likes
#17

I believe machine shop has a portable compressor from powder coating, you can take outside, but I’m not sure if it’s got the pressure you will need

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#18

Metal shop …

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#19

I’ll definitely be bringing air protection and should have extras. I’m only wanting to toot it a few times, knowing it guzzles air. Not knowing what setup the Makerspace has, I don’t know what fittings I’ll need, but I’ll be able to grab them from Lowe’s in a jiffy if I need to

#20

Howdy sir, just checking in to see if you knew what time you’d be around tomorrow