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Stilldrillin:
Yay! :D :ddb: :ddb:

That's a great result Nick! :clap: :clap:

A bit more fiddlin an twiddlin, and it will be a happy, reliable engine. :thumbup:

Thank you, for letting us share your "moments"........

David D

NickG:
Thanks John,

I did have the big grin, it was a bit of a rush this morning though, didn't get to bed until 2am because I was waiting for the video to upload to utube - the last one took about 40 mins. So didn't get much sleep, I reckon about 2-3 hours. Thought i'd be in big trouble as my son woke up as I went upstairs but I got away with it for some reason!

Yep, I need to try to make a good job on the burner and base now rather than rushing it. I need to sort the valve out and the arm. Might put a dab of loctite on the valve rod (it should never need to come out) and a spring washer to stop the valve nut from vibrating, or it might work just nipped up a bit more.

Thanks Jim, it was yours on here that originally inspired me and thanks for the bearings. Thanks to Ade for the graphite too - seems to have worked a treat (so far!).

Thanks Stew and David. I'm amazed how insensitive it is to flame size, position, valve timing and overlap & spring tension. The author mentions it in his build instructions that at some timing settings it will run in either direction! I don't think my cam turned out right and that was the first position I put the cam in and it ran straight away. It's possible that changing the above things will give it better running characteristics though so may have to change something but am loathed to yet until I have a proper burner. I don't want it running away at full speed though so I think to get it running slowly the valve should shut later, lighter spring tension and least overlap. The other strange thing is that it runs straight from cold!

Thanks again for the support and advice along the way chaps. This one is supposed to be for my dad's birthday but I definitely want to get the other one done for my collection. I think I'm going to finish this one over the weekend, then have a short break from the workshop (except for making a gear linkage thing for a friend's Lotus Elise Honda conversion), then finish the other poppin.

Nick

arnoldb:
Well done Nick! :clap: :clap: - Congratulations :beer: :beer:

:scratch: What's next - the other Poppin ? :lol:

:beer:, Arnold

AdeV:
Cracking build, Nick - and a runner! Woo!

:nrocks:

madjackghengis:
Nick, that engine is really going together well, despite having to cut down all the stock to proper size, I thought I'd post in the middle and answer a question or two, with regard to the bushings, if it's a machine reamer, look at the angle on the leading edge where the cut is, go about half way up the angle, between the bottom of the relief and the o.d., and that's the minimum size hole to use, but you are better off with about half that. Bronze and cast iron allow the most reaming with the least wear, stainless needs the least cutting, so the largest hole that will give a full cut. If the bushes are made a press fit, ream them again in place, and they will fit perfectly. As to threaded holes, a sixty percent thread cut with a tap will equal the strength of a grade five screw at 1 and a half diameters thickness, so with a tap hole giving sixty percent thread in an .125 rod for a .062 thread will give thread strength about one and a third the tensile strength of the sixteen in rod. A 75% thread gives better than 90% strength of a 100% thread, and is about as much thread as you ever need unless working on rockets or something like that. Stainless steel is the worst metal to work because it is amorphous, meaning the different metals in the alloy don't stay mixed well and evenly, but congregate with themselves, and come no where near the even hardness of a low alloy steel. It is horrible for flywheels because it always is out of balance, and it never likes to be cut off, although it is very quiet when you give it a good whack with a hatchet, unawares.
All that said, your progress is amazing, given the obstacles which pop up, and the rules which seem to be imposed, but it almost looks as if you could have built a "poppin" twice scale, and not had to cut all the raw stock in half before making the parts :lol: all in all, you've done a very nice job getting things on spec, and with nice pictures showing all, I'm enjoying watching this and seeing it come out so well. I cheated yesterday and looked ahead a bit, saw the poppin run a few strokes and then had to get out to work, so now I have to catch up on the log. :headbang: mad jack

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