Well I finally got up enough nerve to try out my beer keg jam jar prototype. With 50 feet of wire and a small ignition device, I stood in my garage and looked out the window at the keg behind a tree. It was an impressive enough hiss when it fired. I just put some twin wires down the hole and the hot gases ejected the wire when I sparked it, but the keg didn't run.
I did this again after spraying the keg with the hose to cool it down and then air compressored in some more fresh air for another go. It faintly pulsed for several seconds after the initail hiss and then quietly died.
So then I took a short tri clover fitting and clamped it onto/above the keg neck. The fitting is a ~2 inch bell necking to ~1.5 or something close to that. The flange on the large side makes that end about 2.5 inches wide. Since the ked has a similar sized flange on the neck, I was able to use this quirky make-shift setup. So when I went to remotely spark it from the safety of my garage it caught and I went over to it and picked it up by the handles (while it was running!) and carried it to a clearing and it ran for about a minute more. It wasn't a speedy resonance, but a lazy pop pop pop with occasional loud intermittant crackled pops. It is unstable, I think in part because of the little rim down in the bottom neck where the beer dispenser part sits/lodges to keep from falling into the tank.
I will either have to grind the rim out of there or make an internal sleeve so that air can flow in and out over a sleek surface. The keg was a clean silver color but now it has a slight bronze color from the heating of the minute or so run. I poured a little less than a gallon of methanol into the keg, I guess I was being overly optimistic.
I think with a smoothened internal neck and longer snorkel segment, I will have a good shot at something that chuffs heartily. I'm not getting enough compression to exhale/inhale fast enough for what I think it could do. My smaller 2.5 gallon tank really goes to town with its snorkel.
Here's the identical tank and size I was toying with today.
http://store.yahoo.com/sabco/slim14.html
I felt it was kind of risky doing this stuff today, there are still unknowns, so don't any of you try this at home without lots of safety precautions. I never did try igniting it from the bottom of the tank, I wonder if that would create more hiss or not? I could have pushed the ignition wire down inside much further.
Mark
7.75 gallon/29.3369 liter jam jar
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What kind of frequency does it run at? I'm hoping it is low and bassy! Look forward to seeing such a thing at any meet, ofcourse we'd have to drink the beer first.
If anybody is worried about detonating their giant grenade I would reccomend burying it right up to the opening. I have clay soil which could smother a nuclear blast.
Mike.
If anybody is worried about detonating their giant grenade I would reccomend burying it right up to the opening. I have clay soil which could smother a nuclear blast.
Mike.
Well if it ever did explode, I could start out by saying "Four torr and seven minutes ago, ......."
The keg has engraved or stamped on the top part some design information and the remark that the tank will rupture if it goes over 60 psi, or as I figure, the force of ~5,700 pounds on the bottom or top of the tank when "thar she blows!
Summer really sucks for jam jarring in Florida. The humidy is so high, the methanol burns sluggishly. I have to wonder if the guys, (bone heads) who sold me the methanol are keeping it dry too. Everytime they dispense some out of a 55 gallon plastic barrel they take the cap off and humidity gets in when they insert the pumping device. A previous place kept a sealed pumping device in all the time so no moisture could get in.
I've got to get a snorkel to get good exhausting and aspiration and do something about that internal flange in the neck of the keg that is bugging me, making the in/out flow draggy. And it has rained off and on for the last week, my backyard is mosquitoville because I have so many bushes they can hide in. Maybe I can make a pulsejet that runs on citronella, instead of using meager tiki torches with the scented oil.
The keg runs but at a lackluster amplitude and occasion intermittant crackle almost bang-pop but never realizes what I think it could do if "perfected".
Mark
The keg has engraved or stamped on the top part some design information and the remark that the tank will rupture if it goes over 60 psi, or as I figure, the force of ~5,700 pounds on the bottom or top of the tank when "thar she blows!
Summer really sucks for jam jarring in Florida. The humidy is so high, the methanol burns sluggishly. I have to wonder if the guys, (bone heads) who sold me the methanol are keeping it dry too. Everytime they dispense some out of a 55 gallon plastic barrel they take the cap off and humidity gets in when they insert the pumping device. A previous place kept a sealed pumping device in all the time so no moisture could get in.
I've got to get a snorkel to get good exhausting and aspiration and do something about that internal flange in the neck of the keg that is bugging me, making the in/out flow draggy. And it has rained off and on for the last week, my backyard is mosquitoville because I have so many bushes they can hide in. Maybe I can make a pulsejet that runs on citronella, instead of using meager tiki torches with the scented oil.
The keg runs but at a lackluster amplitude and occasion intermittant crackle almost bang-pop but never realizes what I think it could do if "perfected".
Mark