Alternative to glow fuel

Thinking about it, there are quite a few LPG vehicles around right now, in GB:

sure would be a lot easier to get hold of for modellers, though one downside (and upside: no clunk) is a pressurised tank and potential leaks. I can imagine quite a few mishaps with stored models leaking gas.

On Thu, 26 Oct 2006 22:15:19 -0500, I said, "Pick a card, any card" and Robbie and Laura Reynolds instead replied:

Leave the tricks to me, mate.

's my day job.

-- Ray

One minor problem with oildrums, I would have to use non-corroding containers asap because steel rusts like hell there. I'd sure love to have a drum of fuel. I hope to be starting the first model flying club in the Azores as soon as the house is finished, people don't have much to do there in their spare time and the kids don't get turned into TV zombies at an early age, consequently they are quite creative and bright. The adults are virtually all good at woodwork etc, they had to survive in the middle of the atlantic on their own through earthquakes, hurricanes and volcanic eruptions. I imagine many would be really keen.

Something else I want to try for a laugh: trolling for barracuda with a purpose built rc sailing boat (obviously it would be towing a

*releasable* line, attached to a fishing rod!).

Balsawood is not available there either, but their main building wood is cryptomeria japonica (japanese cedar) light grades of which are similar to a medium or hard balsa and quite suitable.

Now if you came up with a trick that turns a heap of balsa back into a model, then you'd be really cool ;-)

On 27 Oct 2006 01:38:15 -0700, I said, "Pick a card, any card" and snipped-for-privacy@digiverse.net instead replied:

It's always a LOT heavier when I do that.

-- Ray

Couldn't you use a soda bottle? They hold lots of pressure. If you could come up with a decent regulator in a small size, you'd have your problem half solved.

On Fri, 27 Oct 2006 08:47:54 -0500, Robbie and Laura Reynolds wrote in :

Folks have used soda bottles as reservoirs for retracts.

I've seen pix of planes torn apart when the bottles failed.

If someone goes down that road, they sould probably reinforce the bottle with a layer or two of fiberglass, depending on the nature of their design and their target pressures.

Overfilling happens. People should anticipate human mstikaes and (within the limits set by aerodynamics) built for some worst-case scenarios.

Marty

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for details.

Still abit complicated though, I would have to add oil somehow.

You'd have to add oil, and you would have to come up with a way to vary the amount of gas for throttling as well as attach it to the engine intake. Seems like you could use a needle valve to get the oil right into the intake stream easily enough.

This project is starting to sound like something that would require about a year of experimenting in a well-appointed shop. If I wasn't trying to start an amplifier company I might do it myself.

I think it would be simpler to just get a spark conversion kit for glow engines, like these:

Actually, since I do have a machine shop and a bit of electronics savvy, I could just make a batch of them for all the glows I want to use.

It would be easier if someone happens to already know of a DIY circuit diagram for an ignition circuit. I could program PIC processors etc but why re-invent the wheel.

Or I could just vandalise the latest cheap Ryobi PLT - 2543Y 25cc strimmer: "Powerful, 25cc 2-stroke Line Trimmer with diaphragm carburettor for effective working at any angle. Maintenance-free electronic ignition."

If you get enough people interested you may have a large enough group to make ordering things economical before too long. Then you could have balsa, superglue, fuel, radios, etc without paying an arm and a leg.

That's the plan, eventually. I quite like the idea of improvising though, islanders are very good at it. I have gone for a brand new 28cc strimmer engine from ebay, dead cheap =A338 ($ 68) including post! Hope the carb and ignition are suitable...

PS. Re the engine I just bought... Strikes me that one could do away with about a quarter of the material from the fins by cutting perpendicular slots the same width as the thickness of the fin blade. That way one would still retain the same surface area for cooling but with less material. Coarse sandblasting the whole engine would help with cooling a little too

It sounds like you have a plan!

Ed Cregger

In a time when you can buy just about anything you want, it is hard to imagine a place with no methanol. But I'm sure there are places where some things are just unavailable. I don't know much about the Azores, but I don't think they have a lot of industry there, do they?

It's an Island with 15000 inhabitants. There's no such thing as a "laboratory", there are pharmacies though. I don't know if they do pure methanol. I don't actually want the nitro.

Not manufacturing type industry. They do make alot of wine though. I suppose I could distill alcohol, if it's the same as methanol...? Anyway, I got the 28cc strimmer petrol engine coming now, so I'll play with that.

The type of alcohol in wine and liquor is ethanol. Most methanol is made from natural gas (methane).