Number47 is no longer a virgin! Ugliest ramjet ever?

[Irvine.J]

Hi guys, as you know my uncle lent me a big 40-140amp stick welder recently, though the only metal i had lying around were aerosole cans and some solver paint tins (About .4 / .5 mm steel /possibly tin plated steel.) Anyway, the smallest sticks I could buy were 2mm at the 10 shops I went looking for them. So after burning lots of holes, and blowing the living crud out of my first couple of attempts to make my ramjet, I have finally managed to weld one without burning gaping holes in it. YES, I am aware my welder is retardedly Hard core, though I have just bought a Mig welder off ebay that arrives monday. That should be perfect for a later project of welding 2x20lb ramjets onto my fathers 'tinny'. Thats aussie slang for 14ft aluminium boat. He is going to be pissed!

I know this engine looks like SHITE and i'm about to finish the lateral weld at the front, and yes the end needs to be squeezed round again, but I cant wait to try it out tomorrow, and yes I have a blower.
-Quick query, should the gas be injected infront or behind the flame holder for easiest starting? There is one hole i have here slightly behind the flameholder for the gas line, is that bad, damnit i should have checked first! Oh, small Nozzles or just a big open gas hole?
Eric- our aircraft is coming along very nicely, wont be long now! We will be in touch soon. Practicing welding is just killing time whilst waiting for parts, I was going to poll this topic as "Quite possibly the uglyest ramjet ever" IT WAS MY FIRST DAY! Ahahah. CHEERS!

[Irvine.J]

MUA HAHAHAHAHHA IT WORKED!!!! YOU BLOODY RIPPER!!!! WOOHOO!!! HOT DAMN! YAAA HAHAHAHAHA Wow I feel stoked! I will wait till a bit later tonight when it gets dark so you can see the trails, it was amazing, its started very easily, and when it kicked in, the heat off the bloody thing was immense, THANKS SO MUCH GUYS FOR YOU INSPIRATION, THANK YOU Pulse-jets.com, I havent felt this excited in years, and I made it with some crappy old paint tins WOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOO!!! I'll post a video of it when its dark!!!

[Johansson]

Congraulations! Nothing can beat the thrill of getting your first jet engine to start...

What max flow/velocity is the leaf blower rated at?

//Anders

[Irvine.J]

Hi anders not sure, its a petrol leaf blower around 1 to 1.5hp i think (it doesn't say), at full throttle it really packs a punch. I had a little more trouble getting a rumbling on my second attempt, when starting the sucker, is it better to give it more air or less? Still stoked, will try n take a video now.

[Najm]

Congrats,now for information on the ramjet , what type of fuel were you using and is the ramjet just a straight pipe or is there anything else in it also, I know that it at least has a flame holder but what about the nozzle and diffuser?

[Irvine.J]

Hi Najm, its a straight pipe, nozzle was a number 70 drill bit, basically I was just trying to not let the thing blow itself out, when i played with the throttle on the blower, if i pushed more then a little it would just blow out, probably because of poor design... will upload a video shortly - Propane as fuel. Very hot and quite loud - having a blast. I could throttle it a little, but not much. It didn't have much margine for error, there was only a small margin for getting it running and flaming out, I'm not willing to let it heat up too much fearing blowing my hands off, as it is very small and probably poorly welded. You can hear it throttle just a little, then i squeeze the trigger on the blower to hard. :) When I drilled the nozzle, i drilled a number 70 through, then from the inside, i "tapped" the hole down to a cone, like as the gas goes through the nozzle its forced into a smaller and smaller point. (I hoped it would make it more of a spray, no way to tell if it works though i'm not taking a look in there! LOL)

[_Rahul_]

Nice work dude! Bravo! Though never made a ramjet myself but only seen a few, your ramjet seems to be pretty gud. I never loked ramjets much becoz they dont stabalize themselves until provided a big blast of continous air or till I travel at high speed .. but ur ramjet left me thinking over taking it as my next project after I succeed myself getting a proper ignition system! Though the welding was a bit not-so-beautiful but still it looks pretty gud! Nice work ..!
PS: Do u know how much thrust it produces? I think the "noise" is less than the PJ..right?

[Irvine.J]

Thankyou very much sir! Well the first PJ i bought didn't work properly, though the noise I would ASSUME is less, it still sounds great! Kinda like a "Blurughghghghghghghrhgghrhgrhghrg" ehhehehehe. As for thrust i'd be guessing prolly no more then 250grms/500 grms or something silly, it will be hard to test as i need a blower right infront for it to operate, maybe i can work something out tomorrow, currently 10:30pm here, and the neighbours wouldn't be happy!

[_Rahul_]

I heard the Blurughghghghghghghrhgghrhgrhghrg sound in the vdo clip .. its fantastic man .. with my woofers on .. it heard like a monster growling!
How big is it anyway? do u use gaseous fuel or liquid fuel? what do u use for a flame holder? Many quesions .. eh .. but I cant stop thinking to make a BIG one myself!

[Irvine.J]

I have a couple of photo's of the flameholder on the top there, (8 point asterix) Dont be fooled its not particularly good engine and you'd be better off asking the advice of steve or eric, and check out steves TLAR, its a real MONSTER! However the fuel was propane. I didn't get much of a chance to experiment today but will have more time tomorrow. The dimensions are as follows, and I left allowance to cut it down to a more physically accurate size.
Length -22.5cm
Diameter- 6.5cm
Flame holder distance- 8/9 cm

[Najm]

Um ....it may sound a bit stupid but which player supports mp4 format???

[Anders Troberg]

I play it in VLC and MediaPlayerClassic. Supposedly, it should also work in the Sony PSP (if you want to get your jet fix when you are travelling), but I've never managed to get that working.

[thecheat]

worked in quicktime for me!

Hey 47, just got to look at this thread...

That is the UGLIEST thing I have EVER seen! HA, but it works! And that's all that counts! Wow... But I understand, my attemps at welding weren't very pretty either... atleast I used a mig! (Oh, and I'm not much past the "first attempts" stage at welding anyways!) Seems the stick welder did a good job, maybe I'll go try my grampa's out sometime...

[Irvine.J]

Hahaha cheers mate! It was a small but humble first step! Here was my second attempt... enjoy... every day I'm learning a little bit more and something new. I've just finished reading the PDF's on ramjets and pulsejets by bruno and the government issued one for the 5th time. Eachtime, the physics becomes a little clearer, and it really does become enjoying to read and work out crazy equations on paper. Goodluck mate! There are some video links I also posted on page 2, and some photo's, enjoy.
http://www.pulse-jets.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=3288

This engine is no partially destroyed though, and had very wierd operating characteristics. I hope yours goes well :D
Also...I now have a MIG :P hahaha.