Painless Stainless (won't sustain)

[Heliarc]

So, I figured a cheap source of stainless would be the many stainless kitchen sinks laying in scrapyards. I found one and sure enough I cut out enough flat pieces to construct an entire engine. I couldn't do the intake or exhaust tubes in stainless though due to my lack of a pinch roller and that they're so small. This engine is the type that has just one intake tube coming into the side of the chamber and the intake tube has an angle in it. My intake and exhaust are the same I.D.. I just took my dual roscojector setup and stuffed both pipes into the one intake. It starts fairly readily but will not sustain without air. The CC is 2.5" I.D. by 5" long. The exhaust tube is about 24" long and the intake is two sections welded together both 3" long with about a 30 degree angle in the middle. It is not flared. The main point of this post though is the cheap availability of stainless if there doesn't happen to be readily cut sheet at your scrapyard. With the fuel fully open and full air it makes one hell of an ear splitting racket.Also it seems to be putting out a viable amount of thrust, in that it might actually propel something but there's a lot of cold air blowing right out the intake. I've tried varying fuel/air ratios as with my other engines but this one doesn't want to run on it's own. My next build I'll be searching for some ready made tubing and I'll be sticking to the dual intakes since I seem to have good luck with them. I can form the chamber by hand with some difficulty but the tubes are pretty much impossible for me. Also, I think I may invest in a scratch start tig box for my stickwelder. I managed it with stainless wire on the MIG but it's ugly as hell.

If anyone is interested I can of course post a picture.

[RC Man]

Guesse Ill just chase ya around in here, lol
Yep, thin SS from a sink, is a pain to weld with a mig welder, tig is better, but clean the SS really good, dont use brake cleaner either with the argon gas, IT WILL KILL YOU.
This mixture of heated argon, and the chems in brake cleaner is deadly, so just dont try it.

A word of warning from me
Try to flare all intakes on these motors, they like it and it will start better.
So you have 2 motors now, you lucky fool you, I dont even have 1 yet. but workin on it.

Keep up the work, and keep us informed, or me and metiz, as I think we are the only ones left in here.

[tufty]

No, there's a good number of old time lurkers about as well.

Flaring the intake would be a good bet.

Also, yes to pictures.

[metiz]

IT WILL KILL YOU.
This mixture of heated argon, and the chems in brake cleaner is deadly, so just dont try it.

A word of warning from me

I've already died several times and it's a real pain in the ass!

I agree with Tufty though, flare the intake, It makes a world of difference. Does your scrapyard not have a dedicated stainless steel pile? There's pure gold in there (figuratively unfortunately:P) mostly industrial waste, so tubes, pipes and loads of sheet steel (with laser film!) And all for scrap price

[Heliarc]

For welding SS I'm pretty sure acetone can be used but I was just using a wire wheel on the engine lathe at high speed right on the path where I was welding. I'm sure this didn't help much but it's better than nothing and resulted in serviceable, just pug f-in ugly welds. I'm glad you mentioned not to use brake cleaner because this would have been one of my plans. I'd rather not be found on the floor with all my wire coiled up around me. I doubt the EMT's or coroner would bother to coil it back up and that would be a waste.

Actually I have three engines. I made one before the engine featured in the video. Again with a propane can combustion chamber but a 1" exhaust pipe and it would barely run even with varying air/fuel. I forced a larger piece of pipe over the end to extend the exhaust after my success doing so with the second engine and the first one turned out to be a nice engine that five out of ten times will self start. A slight puff of air for just a second is all it takes to get it going if it won't fire up on it's own. The intakes aren't even flared on the first but they are on the second one so I don't know what I did. The second one will start and sustain but it's very stubborn. If they made propane can's out of stainless I'd be set.

Once in awhile the scrap yard will have SS sheeting and tubing, I just happened to get there on a day when the pickings were slim. Then I spotted that sink and gave them a few bucks for it. There's a bigger scrapyard a ways from here but I didn't want to make a special trip just to get materials. The "painless" in the title refers to financially painless.

I'm going to try and flare that intake on it today and play with the fuel/air some in order to get it to sustain. I'll get a few pictures of both the engine and fueling setup.

[Heliarc]

I figure if a picture is worth a thousand words, a video ought to be pretty good as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBfswt9h ... e=youtu.be

[Heliarc]

Alright, I'm not sure exactly why, but I slipped an extension pipe over the exhaust tube of my stainless engine and it took off really nicely and self sustains now. I don't think it's the extra length since this tube was considerably longer than my first engine. I'm starting to think it has more to do with the increase in diameter. This is probably grade school stuff to you guys. So here's yet another video. First trying to start it with no extension, and later on after the neighbors really hate me I put the extension on it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIQocujc ... e=youtu.be

[RC Man]

Hey Heli,
Acetone is ok for cleaning, Thinner also is ok too, but brakecleaner is a no go!!!!

I lost 2 workers using brakecleaner, so I am not talking any shit, look up phosgene gas and it aint a funny way to die.

http://www.brewracingframes.com/id75.htm

Heres a bit about it from a known person, Not fatal, but almost.

Dont play with your lives, It aint worth it,
Burying friends aint fun...

HOPE MY MOTOR STARTS also MAN.....

Next week will be the time.

[Heliarc]

It creates phosgene? Man I'm not scientific but I know that stuff is not to be messed with. Thank you SO much for the warning. You seriously saved my life.

[RC Man]

Your Welcome Heli,
Now, go and build your motor !!!