Rainy Day Project: Lady Anne Rev 09

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larry cottrill
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Rainy Day Project: Lady Anne Rev 09

Post by larry cottrill » Tue Jul 06, 2010 6:00 pm

Here's one I've been wanting to try for quite a while, but just never found the time. Recently, though, I realized that one way to do this was by cannibalizing the main tube from my old, unsuccessful, Lady Anne Boleyn Rev 03 engine prototype (since I have been long convinced that it will NEVER run). So, yesterday being too rainy a day to get anything done outside, I decided to give her a go.

So what defines this as Revision 09 of the Lady Anne Boleyn series? Sorry, no drawing yet, but here's my thinking:
I wanted a Lady Anne main tube with a rear-loading, very "open" intake. Rear loading is a very old idea for me, as shown in my original Elektra II and Fo Mi Chin designs. Recognizing the value of larger intakes took a lot longer; I originally thought the intake "just had to be smaller" than the exhaust tube ID. But we've all seen several much more "open" designs over the last few years, most notably M's nice Thunderchine monster. I'm convinced, though, that even a small engine like the Lady Anne can benefit from this approach.

So, revision 09 is defined as a Lady Anne Boleyn engine with an intake area AT LEAST as large as the opening of the chamber into the middle cone AND the intake spouting location AT THE REAR EDGE of the chamber. That's it. I decided an easy way to do this was to use some of my favorite tailpipe material - 1.25 inch OD steel antenna mast tubing - for the intake tube. For the prototype, I also decided to split the bottom edge of this tube and weld it directly onto the middle cone (something like I did on my early Smooth Lady and Fo Mi Chin II prototype engines). The ID is about 30mm. UFLOW1D analysis showed that a length of only 60mm would be needed to achieve resonance, and this showed excellent "running out" for the overall design.

In the case of the prototype, I found that the very large area removed from the top of the chamber cone would allow me to extend the top of the intake tube forward clear to the front of the chamber, creating a large "transition" that is really just a chamber enlargement providing extremely smooth flow between chamber and intake. How I did this is more easily seen in the photos below than from any description I could give. Carving out that big Rev 03 intake shell and the chamber top took the most time, a good two hours, and the result was pretty rough. Making the intake as shown took less than an hour, with the Dremel grinder. The bottom of the intake itself has a 1/2-inch width removed to set it down over the middle cone; I widened this gap to about 5/8 inch to enlarge the tubing ID slightly, to try to restore the full inside area (because the middle cone wall cuts up into its clear area a little).

Present status is that the unit is tack welded (as shown in the last photo) except for the top front edge, which is fully welded across the top edge of the front dome. All that's left is finish welding all around and making and mounting the starting air and fuel tubes.

L Cottrill
Attachments
Lady_Anne_Rev03_intake_left_rear_crop1_small.jpg
Original photo of the Lady Anne Boleyn Rev 03 design. This attempt at
"front loading" the chamber was unsuccessful.
Photo Copyright 2008 Larry Cottrill
-
Lady_Anne_Rev09_main_tube_crop1_small.jpg
The main tube after removing the long intake shell with the Dremel
grinder. As you can see, a LOT of the chamber has been
removed. This is a very rough cut, but approximately symmetrical
around the center plane.
Photo Copyright 2010 Larry Cottrill
-
Lady_Anne_Rev09_chamber_crop1_small.jpg
A closer look at how the chamber top is cut out. The only cut that
I tried to get really accurate is across the front edge of the
"middle cone", at what used to be the top rear edge of the chamber
cone. Photo Copyright 2010 Larry Cottrill
-
Lady_Anne_Rev09_intake_markup_crop1_small.jpg
Intake tube carefully marked up with fine point permanent marker.
The end has already been hammer flared (cold worked). I might
heat and enlarge the flare after everything's welded up tight.
Photo Copyright 2010 Larry Cottrill
-
Lady_Anne_Rev09_intake_cut_crop1_small.jpg
The excess metal has been cut away with the Dremel grinder -- took less
than an hour, since this tubing is only about 1mm wall thickness.
Photo Copyright 2010 Larry Cottrill
-
Lady_Anne_Rev09_intake_shaped_crop1_small.jpg
Final shaping of the duct -- the sides are flattened, and the front
edge is squeezed down to match the contour of the top edge of the
front dome.
Photo Copyright 2010 Larry Cottrill
-
Lady_Anne_Rev09_intake_fit_crop1_small.jpg
Fitting the intake tube to the chamber. Due to the rough cutout of the
top of the chamber, it is not very close, but is good enough for me.
A beginning welder would have a tough time with a gap like this.
Photo Copyright 2010 Larry Cottrill
-
Lady_Anne_Rev09_intake_tacked_crop1_small.jpg
The intake tube tacked in place. The front edge has been welded
in all the way across the top edge of the dome.
Photo Copyright 2010 Larry Cottrill
-

metiz
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Re: Rainy Day Project: Lady Anne Rev 09

Post by metiz » Tue Jul 06, 2010 8:49 pm

That's some good work, Larry!

How big is the intake hole and where is it positioned on the cone?
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larry cottrill
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Re: Rainy Day Project: Lady Anne Rev 09

Post by larry cottrill » Wed Jul 07, 2010 3:24 am

metiz wrote:That's some good work, Larry!
Thank you, sir! Now if I can only finish on thing I've started ;-)
How big is the intake hole and where is it positioned on the cone?
The smart alec answer is "What you see is what you get -- the hole is clearly shown in the third photo." That's absurd, of course. Here's the real answer:

The "intake hole" is the front (interior) end of the 600mm length of straight pipe. It spouts into the chamber EXACTLY as the exhaust port does. The big "transition" is (as I said earlier) just a new top surface of an enlarged chamber "cone". The blast mass will be divided almost exactly in two between the intake and the mid cone section of the tailpipe. The "intake hole" looks like a circle slightly "eclipsed" by the front end of the middle cone. Its area should be just a bit larger than the exhaust port.

The important feature to be proven by this design is that the intake port and exhaust port LIE IN THE SAME PLANE. They both receive the blast wave and mass at exactly the same instant and the flow is presented to both ports in exactly the same way.

L Cottrill

larry cottrill
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Re: Rainy Day Project: Lady Anne Rev 09

Post by larry cottrill » Wed Jul 07, 2010 5:52 pm

Got the main shell fully welded up a few minutes ago. Now all that's left is making the starting air and fuel pipes.

L Cottrill
Attachments
Lady_Anne_Rev09_intake_welded_crop1_small.jpg
Lady Anne Boleyn Rev 09 - intake shell fully welded in.
Photo Copyright 2010 Larry Cottrill

larry cottrill
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Mounted Up Ready To Go

Post by larry cottrill » Sat Jul 17, 2010 7:22 pm

Well, I've really been dawdling on this, due to "other commitments". Ha. Anyway, I finally decided that I'd try it with a Grim style "trilobite" injector, which I fabricated easily by modifying the business end of an existing fuel pipe. My idea is that MAYBE this will start without auxiliary air. We'll see.

Made the injector end with a small 3-jaw chuck, but had to finish up with Vise Grips (TM). The three pinches are pretty tight, probably 0.5mm gap or less. This should give a pretty fast spouting flow at, say, 20 PSIG.

Last night. I decided that the most important thing about the injector is that the spouting point would be near the center of the intake throat, even if perfect alignment of the injector body is sacrificed. I found that I could temporarily mount the modified fuel tube to satisfy this requirement just by locating it carefully and strapping it on with a hose clamp. That's what you see here. Crude but effective, I always say. Again, we'll see. Once that was in place, I mounted the engine on my original Lady Anne mounting plank, with aluminum shield.

Maybe tonight. Kind of depends on how some other things go this afternoon.

L Cottrill
Attachments
Lady_Anne_Rev09_assembled_crop1_med.jpg
Lady Anne Boleyn Rev 09 with Grim style injector attached
to main tube. Photo Copyright 2010 Larry Cottrill
Lady_Anne_Rev09_hi_left_rear_crop1_med.jpg
Left rear view of injector attached to main tube. Photo Copyright 2010 Larry Cottrill
Lady_Anne_Rev09_low_left_rear_crop1_med.jpg
Closeup left rear view of injector attached to main tube. Photo Copyright 2010 Larry Cottrill

metiz
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Re: Rainy Day Project: Lady Anne Rev 09

Post by metiz » Sat Jul 17, 2010 9:19 pm

yesss do it tonight! we need some fresh pj vids :)

(off-topic: have you ever made a good video of the massive linear pj you made for that company?)
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Re: Rainy Day Project: Lady Anne Rev 09

Post by larry cottrill » Sat Jul 17, 2010 11:32 pm

I haven't been able to get video capture to work for a long time now. I could throw together some footage of the big heater running, but it wouldn't look like much -- just daylight stuff where you can't really see anything that impressive happening. If this little Lady Anne is a good runner, I'll get some video of her sometime. I just don't know how / when I'd get to show it here.

L Cottrill

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Re: Rainy Day Project: Lady Anne Rev 09

Post by Johansson » Sun Jul 18, 2010 6:49 pm

larry cottrill wrote:I haven't been able to get video capture to work for a long time now. I could throw together some footage of the big heater running, but it wouldn't look like much -- just daylight stuff where you can't really see anything that impressive happening. If this little Lady Anne is a good runner, I'll get some video of her sometime. I just don't know how / when I'd get to show it here.

L Cottrill
So my old camrecorder has given up? Bugger.

Looking really good your work, keep it up!

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Re: Rainy Day Project: Lady Anne Rev 09

Post by larry cottrill » Mon Jul 19, 2010 11:10 pm

Johanssen -

No, that's not the problem. I never tried to use the little camera you kindly provided for video, only still shots. This is because we already had a non-digital Sony camcorder that I was used to using. My problem always was not having a way on my own to run off the tape onto a digital file. A few times I got a friend at work to capture the video for me. This was OK, but of course I had no editing control other than just trying to tell him what I wanted.

So about a year or so ago I bought a nice editing package called Pinnacle Studio, including a video capture card and analog cable. This can do everything I need, but after several hours of working with it, it stopped capturing properly. It is doing a lot of frame dropping, which renders the digital file virtually useless. I assume it's the card that has gone bad, though I guess it could be the cable. I don't think it's the software, as I have had no other serious problems in running it (editing and so on).

I got a good couple of years use out of the neat little camera you sent, but last year our younger son Jonathan gave us a new one, a Canon Elf, and that's what I grab for most everything now. I still use my old Mamiya RB-67 for serious work (like real looking shots of red hot metal ;-), but then you have to wait for the end of a roll of film and pay for processing.

L Cottrill

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Re: Rainy Day Project: Lady Anne Rev 09

Post by Bruce Simpson » Tue Jul 20, 2010 12:26 am

Larry, get one of the little keychain fob video cameras from ebay -- they're about $15 and take some *amazingly* good video and stills.

You then download them directly onto your computer by simply plugging them in a USB port and copying the relevant video files onto your hard drive. Then you can upload those files directly to YouTube if you want or run them through your favourite editing software.

Do a YouTube search for "keychain video" to see some examples.

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Re: Rainy Day Project: Lady Anne Rev 09

Post by tufty » Tue Jul 20, 2010 6:32 pm

larry cottrill wrote:it stopped capturing properly. It is doing a lot of frame dropping, which renders the digital file virtually useless. I assume it's the card that has gone bad, though I guess it could be the cable. I don't think it's the software, as I have had no other serious problems in running it (editing and so on).
It's unlikely to be either the card or the cable. I'd strongly suspect "windows shit", otherwise known as "my machine started going funny so I had to reinstall everything from scratch".

larry cottrill
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Prototype Drawing

Post by larry cottrill » Wed Jul 28, 2010 6:32 pm

Still haven't set aside an evening for a test run, but over the last few days I've thrown together a small-scale dimension drawing and a full-scale section right at the inside end of the intake tube. I have tried to clearly show how the sides of the intake shell forward of the intake are hammered in to blend the flow into the intake and middle cone.

L Cottrill
Attachments
Lady_Anne_Rev09_Prototype.png
Lady Anne Boleyn Rev 09 prototype dimensions.
Drawing Copyright 2010 Larry Cottrill

PyroJoe
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Re: Rainy Day Project: Lady Anne Rev 09

Post by PyroJoe » Tue Sep 21, 2010 1:24 pm

Any luck with this one Larry?

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