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| Building a Fire Piston - by Craynerd |
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| Divided he ad:
I was only looking at these the other week and decided I'd have a go. (then got hooked on glow in the dark stuff!) Did you know that it is thought that the demonstration of a fire piston was what inspired Rudolf Diesel to create the prototypes of the diesel engine? The things you hear on QI! Still... I'm certainly going to make one. Any info on dimensions to save all the testing would be nice Daz :poke: :thumbup: Ralph. |
| Brass_Machine:
Yup. I forgot about this one. I am up for giving it a go! Eric |
| daz:
--- Quote from: craynerd on January 13, 2012, 06:48:40 PM ---Nice going Daz!! Glad it worked for you. Just curious, how did you go about cutting a straight bore for the cylinder. It is so long and narrow...! --- End quote --- I have some extra long drill bits but no reamer and found that if I started off 0.5mm undersize then followed very slowly with the correct size it have a decent finish on the bore, but I still had to drill from both ends. After a while though I eventually cheated! I found some cut offs of aluminium tubing we use on our compressed air system in the factory, it just so happens that it has the correct ID. It is covered in a blue plasticky coating which takes a while to sand off but it has a very smooth bore and is perfect for the job. Will post up dimensions shortly daz |
| NeoTech:
Fire pistons is wicked cool - the thing is, it isnt really that new even though it have got plenty of attention the last few years. =) In my younger years one of the adults in my scout group used a brass fire piston he kept as a necklace for all firestarting. It looked old and worn, so i guess he must had for quite a while. He usually just took old wood or dried leaf, slammed them once to get the material charred, and than did it twice to really get a spark out of it and just popped the content in some old tree mushroom bark. (dont know what its called in english).. But anyway, this would been around -88-90 when i was in the scouts. =) |
| raynerd:
--- Quote from: NeoTech on January 15, 2012, 01:08:04 PM ---Fire pistons is wicked cool - the thing is, it isnt really that new even though it have got plenty of attention the last few years. =) In my younger years one of the adults in my scout group used a brass fire piston he kept as a necklace for all firestarting. It looked old and worn, so i guess he must had for quite a while. He usually just took old wood or dried leaf, slammed them once to get the material charred, and than did it twice to really get a spark out of it and just popped the content in some old tree mushroom bark. (dont know what its called in english).. But anyway, this would been around -88-90 when i was in the scouts. =) --- End quote --- Neo, I certainly never thought it was a new concept, these apparently were made many many (add plenty of 0`s) years ago out of bamboo, two pieces would be found that coincidently fit perfectly together to give the required seal!! wiki considers them "of ancient origin" . I think perhaps what supprised me the most, is that it took me 28 years for me to ever come across one!!! My dad is 54 and grandad 86, neither of them has come across one either!! Amazing things... Chris |
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