building a new flame sucker

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cidrontmg:
Lo Jack, I don´t think there´s any problem in making quite a big port for a flame sucker - as long as you also have a flame to "cover" most or all of the port. So that the engine won´t suck in any cool air. There´s a German chap, H. Midderhoff, who sometimes writes in "Maschinen im Modellbau", who has the ports in his engines as big as the cylinder bore (the cylinder tops are open, with poppet valves, sort of). And they do run!
Here´s a picture (and a very lousy one at that... taken from a laptop monitor. MiM, 1/2007) of his V6 (inverted) flame sucker. Top right picture shows the 3 cylinders and valves (left is all open, middle closed, right halfway open), and the burners (each cylinder has 2 gas burners). The valves open really wide!
Mr. Midderhoff practically "blows" the flame into the cylinders, instead of relying on the suction only. His motors not only run, but actually develop some power. Lowest right picture is of the engine running.
The port certainly can be too small, so that there´s no time to fill the cylinder with hot gases.
BTW. Looking real good. What are the materials? Seem like cast iron + steel. 3rd last picture - is that hand grenade live?
:wave:

madjackghengis:
Hilo Olli, thanks for the information and the link, sort of. I suppose if I try and fail, I can always make the port smaller later. If you have an actual link to that engine, I would sure love to have it. So far, the cylinder is iron, the piston is steel, the "gudeon" in it for the rod is aluminum, as is the crank structure, and the head will be stainless, because it is not very heat conductive. I've got a bit more done, four inches of snow means a quiet shop with a nice hot fire in the stove.

turning off the sharp corners of the support, excess metal, and not in keeping with the shape I want.

centering the cylinder under the mill spindle, for head bolt holes, while I've got a square block bolted to the cylinder

drilling ten holes, to match the pattern on the other end, #4-40 is the size

The mill all this is being done on, an 84 Enco with a phase converter making it variable speed in sixteen different ranges

drilling two inch and a quarter by two plus spare, by quarter inch thick crank cheek blanks

reaming the crank pin hole, .250

reaming the main shaft holes, also .250

centering a stub arbor to mount the blanks on, to turn a radius on both ends of the blanks

attaching the blanks with a bolt through both into the stub arbor

starting the turning of the radius, the blanks will be two inches long when done

radius finished, right to size

laying out the crank lines

laying out the second side, both by eye, close enough

setting up the first side in the shaper to cut to finish profile

taking the first cut

still roughing it out

taking shape

getting down to the line

flipped the cutter over for the finish end for the final cuts

another view of the cutting edge

setting up the cross feed, .005 per stroke

last cuts

almost done

the finished side

another view of it (first side)

tool flipped back over, trued up with a stone, set up for the second side

first cuts, ya gotta love the smell of the sulfurated brown cutting oil :thumbup:

more cuts

having finished the second side, I had to go back to the first, to even it up with a roughing cut of about .030

the final cut on the first side, cheeks fully profiled to shape

deburring after the shaper, with a fine file

and the other side as well

finished up, ready to build up a crank shaft

most of the parts in a pile, yes, that was an enfield bayonet blade you saw, 1918 and still not worn out yet. That's as far as I got yesterday, we'll see what I can turn out today, still four inches of snow on the ground, and not melting yet, hmmm, even in North Carolina, a special treat that happens only once every few years, maybe ten or so.

cidrontmg:
Hi Jack, looking great. Shapers seem very handy, a pity I won´t ever have one (no room here to even think about getting one).
There´s very little in the Net about Mr. Heribert Midderhoff (of the weird flame suckers). No web site, and very few pictures of his work. But he´s a prolific builder, turns out engines like sausages. One picture from a M.E. show in Sinsheim (a big yearly German event):
http://www.modell-dampf-forum.info/Galerie/Sinsheim3/midderhoff2.html

Click on [Voriges Bild], to see the same engine standing still.
That´s a 4-cyl version of the same type of cylinder/valve. He´s also done a 12-cylinder (!) version of it. Some model builders just are not interested in the Net. Another similarly "challenged" is Mr. Lothar Matrian. If ever you come across that name, it´s worth following. Fantastic work, and no Web presence.

cidrontmg:
Just found a picture of Mr. Midderhoff´s 12 cyl. engine. Some guest in the Karlsruhe/Sinsheim 2010 show had it in his album. Air cooled, as you can see. I think it will make quite a racket, with all those 12 valves clicking all the time... :loco: But a nice looking and powerful (as flame suckers go) engine.
:wave:

madjackghengis:
Lo there Olli, too bad about not fitting a shaper in the shop, they are handy, and while "obsolete", for the home shop, they do all sorts of things that are still better done, one off, on a shaper, than setting up a mill, and the tooling is cheap. I really appreciate the picture of the 12 cylinder engine, I've got to take a closer look at it, and see what he's up to. As far as the web, I only learned about it less than a year ago, or I would have been posting for years. We can always hope Herr Midderhoff gets comfortable with it and starts posting. Have you been to bettigue.blogspot.com? That gentleman is a whiz with tiny flame suckers and Stirlings, and has quite a few on u-tube, real fine looking machines, and runners. My wife has gotten to hate the sound of a flame sucker, I've gone through many stages of pistons, cylinders and valves, trying to find something that will last a while in that little blazer engine, but it isn't a very enduring engine as I've built it so far. I just replaced the aluminum cylinder and graphite piston with a brass cylinder and bronze piston, because the graphite piston lost compression, I'm not sure if it was piston or cylinder, but it looks like the cylinder is not so round and straight as it seemed on first fire. Now the brass cylinder and piston are losing compression, I ordered a stick of cast iron last night, and will try a cast iron cylinder and piston, they work together very well, and a bronze valve won't score and wear on the valve face hopefully. I got a head made for this engine yesterday, and cleaned up the crank support, but won't be able to post till I get back from the doctor's, I've got an infusion, and I.V. for my M.S. in a couple hours, so I have to get ready to go out, and I'm looking at that engine first. Thanks for all the info and the conversation as it is, quite a thing this forum, isn't it. :thumbup: mad jack

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