valve making machine

[gettylee]

Hi,not sure if anyone has tryd this? I had this small drill press&attached a dremal tool to it,to make a mini radial arm saw.it really works slick! I just move the pegs around,for diff.size valves&set the stop for depth.

[Mark]

These were cut with a dremel and held on a spin index. The 18 petals 20 degrees apart.

[gettylee]

These were cut with a dremel and held on a spin index. The 18 petals 20 degrees apart.

Hi,I really like that 18 hole valve head! I'd like to see the whole engine,or better yet,is there a plan for it available?

[Mark]

It was just a primitive design which never started. I think I needed a better source of starting air. And after a few minutes of testing, I gave up. It backfired pretty loudly and I didn't want to upset the neighbors. There's really no place around here to run a pulsejet and I didn't feel like hunting down some remote area where I could test it.
You'd laugh, I made the combustion chamber out of 4 diameter plumbing pipe necking down to some 3 inch stuff. Kind of weird I know. I did however make a 3 inch diameter plumbing pipe pulsejet that ran. I don't weld and it was mostly just a way of experimenting. I didn't have any idea of what I was doing. Seems foolish to me now. My first pulsejet was a 2 inch diameter plumbing pipe that used a single circular coin-shaped reed placed over a large 2 inch washer. Another smaller bent washer acted as the reed stop to prevent over-flexing. Amazingly it ran for over a minute, the reed material aluminum flashing. When it stopped the reed had lost it's snap back springiness. If you want a good laugh, I used a lawn mower to start it. Yes, I had to pull the rope to create the spark. I primed the pulsejet and it either fired off a bang or it reved up leading me on until one day it ran.
So then I graduated to a piezo ignition and later more elegant ignition devices. Here's an example of that with my 3 inch diameter model, again it was just something I could screw together because I don't weld and didn't have much to work with. The petal valves were cut by hand, smoothed on a grinder and then sanded. Then each single petal was positioned and placed carefully over the ports and locked down with the retainer. That would be the center circular reed valve pictured. All in all, it's nothing you would want to copy. I did get a straight pipe to run for a short bit, that was kind of exciting, sort of like a Schmidt tube effect.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NU3cQ8_upWk

[gettylee]

Funny!oh so similar story, been there&still there! :/ but learning so much! Just all good,no matter what happens, I do like the reed cages you have there,I want to build a 60 & 100 lb der yet,its on my bucket list" been searching for plans! So I don't mess up big parts,.

[Mark]

Here's a sixty petal set that came off an outboard motor. I bought several kinds on ebay but never got around to using them. One day though. That's a nice collection of pulsejets there. Good work.
And some of my early days stuff dinking around, an odd assortment. ha

[gettylee]

I do like that last pic of valve head,nice looking pedal head!,What I've learned about reeds is,2 stroke valves look nice,but they won't reach the frequency that a PJ requires,pedals seem good up to 4or 5" diameter,so it all boils down to the argus set up,for more than 20lb,there is nice plans on eBay for a very good 7lb & 20lb pedal engines,I bought them,they are the real deal! & I heard there will be 60&100lb argus style,coming soon,I want to go argus,That is the best design! Can't wait to see the plans!

[Mark]

A hundred pound thrust pulsejet is going to be fun for a bit but then the noise it going to be a limiting factor. I haven't seen a large pulsejet run but I can imagine I wouldn't be satisfied with that for long. The newness would wear off quickly for me. The best part is thinking about inventing, the creativity. You've made some very good pulsejets. All of mine have been paperweights/plumbing pipes or metal objects repurposed as best I could.
One time I used one of those long rounded at the end outboard motor petals that came off a set of six and mounted it on a short piece of bevel cut 1/2 inch plumbing pipe nipple sanded smooth, the angle like the tip of a syringe needle. Then I used a half inch pipe tap and threaded a 1 to 1/2 inch bell all the way through on the 1/2 side. With the little nipple with reed and retainer screwed over it I used the threaded end to screw/start it on the bell from the inside. Then I just screwed the 1 inch bell onto the combustion chamber. It looked like a saxaphone reed in some way. I was able to get a 1 inch diameter plumbing pipe pulsejet to run that way, by adjusting the flex point of the reed. It was fussy but very loud. I eventually put a little CM-6 plug on it and I thought it looked cute. It had a lot of flaws with fueling, the nipple coming unlocked from the threading when running because I didn't have a way of holding it enough without damaging the reed and bevel if gripped at the edges with a wrench too tightly.
I found spark plugs interesting so I bought severa kinds for experimenting. Oddly my piglet snorkelers/hydraulic tanks I bought on eBay would accept three different sizes of plugs with all the various female threads on it. The CM-6 10mm fit the1/8 inch threads, the other plug threads were straight 1/2 and 1 inch threads . I spend a lot of time looking for sources for parts, I've been in every store I can think of searching for something that might be fun for some use. I love materials science. Most pulsating combustion enthusiasts start looking at ordinary metal objects in a different light.

[gettylee]

Its been a adventure for me! & it all started with the little fwe valveless,i picked up a cheap fluxcore .030 welder,& hammerd out the fwe in two hrs&had it started that nite.then wanted to fun liquid fuels in the fwe style PJs & tryd so many ways! But no success,so I went valved,& yes my engines look so nice! But there not right yet,I keep saying,how can it look so right! Yet, be so wrong! Well I've almost filled a tablet with all sorts of equations!!! & I'm hooked!!! Trying to get these PJs right! What a adventure! & Im learning so much!

[Mark]

I find there's so much to know that it's easy to forget some of the things you came across in the past, especially all the information in the books and articles read. My little Logan valveless pulsejet is my favorite pulsejet, it was so simple to make - just some 3/4 inch nipple for the combustion chamber and 1/4 inch for the exhaust tube. I ran it on MAPP gas, acetylene, and methanol. It was also my funniest pulsejet when using a fatter diameter fuel line 1/4 id diameter that created a hammer fuel feed causing it to cycle up and down furiously, choking and reving suddenly in some crazed and loud manner. I used the combustion chamber pressure to drive fuel into the side port when using methanol. It only ran for 15 seconds or so, as that is as much fuel I could store in a piece of typical silicone tubing. Longer lengths ended up getting bubbles or not working for some reason.
Another time I used a tiny duckbill valve in the fuel line to store air pressure from the combustion chamber over to a fuel tank. That didn't work because finally the pressure eventually got too high and the engine stopped/flooded but the fuel still kept spraying until the pressure subsided in the gas tank. When running MAPP and acetylene I screwed a CM-6 plug on top of the combustion chamber not needing pressure to drive the methanol in the side port. In that one/two picture set below it's running on methanol, it was very loud but you can't see the blue alcohol flame except inside the engine if you look into the side port.

[Mark]

I happened upon an odd creation of mixing the valveless with a valved one day. I had made a reed valve plate out of a tiny 3/4 inch washer and put some .003ths blue tempered spring steel over it like a little single petal valve. The washer was sanded to an almost mirror shine. The reed would only last a very short bit but it would rev up instantly if you lit the tail having primed it first, an instant on effect as if it had always been running and you walking in on it. It's amazing how loud something so small can be. So then I used the same reed head on my little Logan. And that ran too although I guess it wasn't that surprising.
I can't remember if it was Grim or Viv made a valveless design that sucked fuel from a bottle without the need of vapor pressure, somewhere in the engine or side port is a negative pressure region. It would be nice to know.

[gettylee]

Hi,Nice musings! I may have to try some of those little pjs, thx that bigger pedal valve plate in previous pics.sure looks like a winner! what is from? Did you make it? Its nice!

[Mark]

That large 9 petal with gasket was something I found on eBay. It doesn't have much of a reed stop/retainer in the back so i would imagine for a pulsejet application you'd have to limit the arm flex. There was another weird valve I bought that was brass or bronze.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mercury-Kiekhae ... df&vxp=mtr
Here's those that you were interested in. The one picture shows the obverse side with meager reed stop not extending out from the center much.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mercury-75-90HP ... 71&vxp=mtr
I bought some of these too to dink around with. There're so many curious designs.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1973-1988-85hp- ... b5&vxp=mtr

Here's a reed made by a former forum member Al Belli.

[gettylee]

Very interesting,still like the looks of the three merc valve plates,Mabey with some mods.(retainer& .010 pedals)it may work for 15/20lb thrust?,boat engines are made of very good alloys also, the pyramid valves are neet! I believe some Russian designs are similar? I've seen some cool Russian blueprints on here.pulse jets should have a disclaimer, (Caution,can be addictive!!!) Lol