'Poppin' Flame Licker

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NickG:
Got done what I planned tonight. Made the flywheel bosses, nuts and washer. Started off really slowly, didn't have material to hand, had to find right sized drills, swapping tools around etc! I did start taking pics of machining operations but then realised they were all straight forward, nothing people haven't seen 1 million times before so stopped to get on with it.

Here are the finished components:

and assembled onto the engine:

The crank is very free running, those two flywheels combined are actually quite heavy. 1 of the flywheels is spot on but the other has a very slight wobble for some reason! :doh: Nothing too bad though.

Still lots of parts to make yet, wish I'd never started making two of them! I think I've said before I won't make 2 of anything again!

Nick

madjackghengis:
Hi Nick, you look like you're moving right along, and the work looks good. The picture of those two flywheels on the shaft for a five eighths in bore is what inspired my own flywheel of rather large proportions, but having seen several "poppin's" which ran very well as such, I have confidence in them and my own. While you lament having started two, I'm lamenting not having started five or six Duclos flame suckers, after seeing Arnold's success with a cast iron cylinder, and having them as presents. It may be a bit of a pain now, but finishing two at a time will be welcomed at the end, particularly if you're like me and have to make two of most parts anyway, just to get one "just right". You get those pistons right for those cylinders, and good vacuum on them, and you will be glad to have two good runners at the same time. I have to turn around and start my little Duclos all the time to re-motivate me, when the one I'm working on isn't cooperating very much. You're right close to getting things running, and when they do, you will be happy you perservered. You're making me wish I'd jumped to the "poppin" rather than starting off with a random idea as I'm ready to run, but not, and now having to troubleshoot. You'll be done before you know it :poke: mad jack

NickG:
Jack, you're right, I think with a relatively short and small power stroke they need a decent flywheel. I think it's quite important to have the weight in the right place too as we have done, i.e. decent moment of inertia but keeping the mass down. My Jan Ridders flame licker has quite a large flywheel - an old casting I had lying around, and although it's a much less compact engine, the cylinder isn't that much bigger than poppin - only 19mm bore (think it's supposed to be 18 but I overshot) and remember a lot of the length in that cylinder is taken up by the internal valve.

With regards to doing the two at a time I thought it was going pretty well and it wasn't too tedious but when I've picked it back up, I can't think of anything worse than repeating things for some reason, even when it's fresh in my mind and the set up / material is there. It would make sense but I was not enjoying it!

I was pulling my hair out with the Jan Ridders version trouble shooting and it was only through people's help and advice on these forums that I got there in the end. I knew people had trouble with the internal valve design and was so intrigued by poppin seeing so many sucessful versions of that, it was then that I had to try it to see what the difference was. There are quite few parts to poppin, probably the most complex thing I've made so far.

Keep plugging logically away and am confident you'll get there with yours but I know what you mean, it is a frustrating time. Poppin will also be about the only thing I've followed somebody elses design entirely on (well almost entirely!) so I wanted to see if I was capable of doing that!

Nick

arnoldb:
:thumbup: Looking more and more like an engine Nick - keep at it!

Regards, Arnold

sbwhart:
As Arnold said Nick looking like a real engine :headbang: thats what so nice about flame lickers they do look the part.

Stew

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