> I've seen collectors turn a greenish blue and stammer out crazy offers on sight of my 0.1cc Nano, pictured here. But as the size goes down, construction difficulty and criticality of "fits" goes up exponentially.
1. Engineering drawings of small model engines used for model aircrafts. They are designed for manufacturing and working, not not like showcase item. We can actually build them.
Related? Blondihacks [1] has been working through machining a live-steam powered scale locomotive.
Has it been three years now? She easily has another year of work ahead of her before she has live, rolling stock. Wild dedication to a project that could perhaps consume half a decade of your life.
This is great. If you enjoyed it you should check https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IEGmD_aV3w . Next to that it’s child’s play. That’s a whole trasatlantic’s engine room from scratch.
As someone who always thought that it'd be cool to create my own parts and components by milling, but who never actually had access to a milling workshop, I find this video extremely satisfying to watch. Thank you!
Thank you for the Alex Slocum link. I was aware of a lot of those other machinist channels but the engineering course is new to me. This looks incredible. Alex is a fantastic teacher!
I skipped some bits of the video so probably missed this, but: in the beginning he mentioned no spark or glow plugs and said “similar to a diesel”, but in the end that didn’t work and he had to resort to a glow plug.
Did he mention what fuel he was using for the compression-only attempts? If not actual diesel, it seems like he would have had to use ether or something like that.
https://modelenginenews.org/techniques/minid.html Mentions that this engine needs a spring start and 50% ether and it runs up to 40k rpm(!) seems like it’s finicky, which makes sense given its size
I would think there would be some interaction between the carburetor air intake and the propeller right next to it. Intentional feedback, maybe, to change the mixture as the RPM goes up? If not intentional, then it sounds like a potential showstopper.
Last century I was gifted a gas powered model helicopter with one of these small gas engines. It had a propeller would fly up, run out of gas and fall back down (it had some larger blades to slow its decent).
You started by spinning the propeller and letting it spring back.
I would also like to try that some day, but theres little information on efficiency.
I'd also like to see one running on laughing gas (N2O), as the autodecomposition reaction is nitrogen and oxygen gas, in similar proportions to atmosphere. But the reaction efficiency would have to be high enough or I'd feel bad about the GWP.
Brings back memories from childhood. I used to build and fly model airplanes (by wire not rc). Starting those engines was also a challenge. I still have a scar on one finger from an engine kicking back when trying to flip the propeller.
The second I heard that engine fire it was 1986 in my brain again. I could smell the fuel and feel the finger damage from repeatedly trying to get the darned thing to start. Followed by damage on the other side of the finger when it actually did. Ouch.
> I've seen collectors turn a greenish blue and stammer out crazy offers on sight of my 0.1cc Nano, pictured here. But as the size goes down, construction difficulty and criticality of "fits" goes up exponentially.
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