Another FWE!

[El-Kablooey]

I built an advanced FWE today. A quick-n-dirty one from what I could find in the scrap bin. After a little fiddling with the injector she starts right up. Now I can start her from cold (45 degrees today) in just a few seconds. My little boy calls it Rudolph because of it's bright red nose. I made a vid, but it's a 7.5 meg mov, and I'm having pc hell. My pc keeps giving me the "blue screen of death" every time I try to convert/compress. I'll use a friends pc tomorrow and post the vid.


Thanks everyone!

[Jonny69]

Open up the computer case and check the processor fan is clear. That's the one on the main board in the back of the case, about 2.5" diameter. It gets clogged up with dust causing the processor to overheat. Suck it all out with the vacuum cleaner if you need to.

If it starts to bluescreen when it is using the processor heavily it is almost certainly overheating it. Might help.

You can email me off group if you want help, that's what I do for a living lol

Jon

[Carl Litzkow]

Hello El-K,

Kon-grads on your sucess with Rudolf ! I would be most interested in seeing a quick jpeg of the general shape or better yet some aprox. dimensions. The reason being I am building a "test bed " FWE ver V for Larry C. and am trying to incorporate various configs. I have made the intake removable to try different intake flares & length (posted on "New Friend - New Lady). Also the " head" is removable for experimention of shapes to reflect or enhance combustion. At present I have about a 35% hemisphere, but will try flat, various conical slopes, etc.
My unit will never be beautiful to look @ but is strickly to gather data. I suspect our shapes are simular so you could benefit directly from any improvements. Of course I will share all the data --god or bad -- here on the Forum.
Thanx and"'Keep Rudolf Flying".

[El-Kablooey]

here's a really crappy vid.

[larry cottrill]

El-K -

Congratulations! Nice work.

Kind of neat to have one that runs "right off the drawing board", isn't it? Is this a great starting engine, or what? Now you need to try it out in some inclement weather, as Eric did.

Well done.

L Cottrill

[Eric]

Inclement weather?! I think -3 F is a little worse than inclement! ;)

Oh yea just dont stand behind an engine in the very very cold, while you might think it would warm you up the air is still 99% cold and just adds a 200 mph wind chill to the equation.

I cant get the video to download, so I will have to wait :(

Eric

[larry cottrill]

Eric -

I was thinking more of the snow & sleet studies you did. I always thought that sounded like fun, to be able to see the flow patterns around the ports and so on.

I remember being seated in the rear seating row of a Boeing 737 flying through heavy cloud, and how amazing it was to be able to see the flow pattern of the air being drawn into the nacelle front end. Clearer than most any wind tunnel photo I've ever seen, since I could observe it "in 3D". Fascinating, for something so simple.

L Cottrill

[El-Kablooey]

Just wanted to say thanks again! I had no idea how much fun these little engines could be. The lockwood I built great fun, but sucked for demonstrating to people. It's just too hard to get started. I must have made some mistakes somewhere. This little FWE OTOH starts with the first blast of air, everytime! I love it when people look on obviously skeptical, then take about 3 big steps back and start yelling "OKAY OKAY I BELIEVE YOU, SHUT IT OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!" . I get cracked up every time.


I think this basic engine design has alot of potential. According to Eric, it has a great TSFC. It is also quite short. I'm thinking of building a bigger one with a megaphone tailipipe. Larry, Eric, anyone, ever tried this, or have any tips for me?




Oh, as for the inclement weather testing, maybe I'll wait for a nice summer thunderstorm. This eskimo crap just ain't for us southern boys.

[Eric]

Well I wouldnt say its has great TSFC. If you compare the fuel consumption at 1.25 lbs thrust like the original it is really good, the more thrust you push out of it the more it consumes per unit of thrust...

Overall its pretty good for a simple little engine, using fancy injection systems can boost the performance as with just about any engine.

It does start up real easy though, even with this damn eskimo weather :D

Eric

[larry cottrill]

Just wanted to say thanks again! I had no idea how much fun these little engines could be. The lockwood I built great fun, but sucked for demonstrating to people. It's just too hard to get started. I must have made some mistakes somewhere. This little FWE OTOH starts with the first blast of air, everytime! I love it when people look on obviously skeptical, then take about 3 big steps back and start yelling "OKAY OKAY I BELIEVE YOU, SHUT IT OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!" . I get cracked up every time.

El-K -

My philosophy about these things is: If you're going to go to the trouble to build your own jet engine, why not build one that you can start having fun with right away? Sounds like your FWE is just the thing to show other people why we like this stuff!

Again, congratulations! Eric is the one who's actually done a big blunderbuss FWE.

L Cottrill

[Eric]

If you make it like the advanced FWE you should have no problem. I really think the intake protrusion on my big one is what screwed it up, as its a total pain in the @$$ to start.

Eric

[Carl Litzkow]

I'm thinking of building a bigger one with a megaphone tailipipe. Larry, Eric, anyone, ever tried this, or have any tips for me?

Hello Again El K
I am building a version with a megaphone tail pipe under the direction of my mentor, Larry Cottrill. I started out with a motorcycle megaphone as a C C tapering from 3 1/2 " down to 1 3/4 " over a 31 " length and am usung a slightly smaller meg as the tailpipe. See " New Friend-New Lady" topic for Larry's final dimensions. I have a sheet metal roller, but I also have a small junk yard of motorcycle/ go kart/ street rod stuff, etc. so I took the easy way out and used what was available. Now that the holidays are over, I promise to post some jpegs soon.

[El-Kablooey]

Wow, talk about coincedence. Today I found an old 2 stroke tuned exhaust pipe. I cut off the longest cone section and got a cone 3 1/4" tapering down to 1 3/4" over a 10" length. That's reasonably close to what you'd get if you scaled it up 150%. I think I need some help with the tailpipe though. I'm guessing around 3' total length? Maybe a little longer with a megaphone tailpipe? how large a diameter should the tailpipe exit be? 3"? And I was thinking 1 1/4" ID for the intake??

[larry cottrill]

Wow, talk about coincedence. Today I found an old 2 stroke tuned exhaust pipe. I cut off the longest cone section and got a cone 3 1/4" tapering down to 1 3/4" over a 10" length. That's reasonably close to what you'd get if you scaled it up 150%. I think I need some help with the tailpipe though. I'm guessing around 3' total length? Maybe a little longer with a megaphone tailpipe? how large a diameter should the tailpipe exit be? 3"? And I was thinking 1 1/4" ID for the intake??

El-K -

Yes, that should be good for a scale-up, and an intake of 1.25" ID (or a bit smaller, or even larger) should be fine. The megaphone should let you go shorter, though, not force you to go longer. The difference is that the end correction (cutting the tail end short of the "acoustic point") will be larger. Ending up with 3" ID at the tail end should be workable. The acoustic point would be roughly 0.9 inch beyond the edge of the megaphone. The acoustic point for a 1.25 inch intake pipe would be about 0.4 inch beyond the edge of the flare. You might also want to put a SLIGHT flare on the rear edge of your megaphone tailpipe, but it will certainly run without it.

L Cottrill

[El-Kablooey]

Thanks, Larry! We'll see what happens!