41–50 of 190 posts
I have seen one of those engines powering a drill bit: Someone needed a hole drilled into concrete under water; and building a single use tool was their solution. Worked pretty well, too.
I.e., was there just a tiny bit of water, so they needed to avoid electric drills?
Or if the water was deeper, how did they supply air to the engine?
The 70s really were another country - see also: chemistry sets. These are pale and anodyne things now with a mere handful of bland household-level chemicals - assuming you can even find one in a toy shop at all. But as a lad these were both readily available and full of dozens of intriguing substances that would send a modern health and safety wonk into apoplexy. Who among us did not incinerate all of the supplied ma…
Tinkering with chemistry also motivated me to look for sources of hydrochloric and sulphuric acids, but in New York state the guy at the pharmacy said I needed parental permission. Wasn't gonna happen.
I have seen one of those engines powering a drill bit: Someone needed a hole drilled into concrete under water; and building a single use tool was their solution. Worked pretty well, too.
Sounds interesting, can you elaborate? I.e., was there just a tiny bit of water, so they needed to avoid electric drills? Or if the water was deeper, how did they supply air to the engine?
Big concrete block, in a waist deep puddle. This block is the base of the drain pipe for a pond; the drain is opened all the way so there's a lot of water flow happening in the area, too. They're drilling an anchor hole and had a long enough drill bit to keep the engine out of the water. We had a rope on them to pull them out in case they slipped somehow, too. Probably wasn't a situation where we should've had a human.
Hey, I still have my Cox 049 engine somewhere. The airplane is gone, smashed up of course. I suppose it was dangerous by modern standards, but not at the time. About the worst it would do would cut your finger if it backfired when starting. Or you could use a cheater stick, or even an electric motor to start it. I once made a car for it out of piano wire. It would take off at high speed down the road, but because I n…
> but because I never could get the wheels aligned perfectly straight it would inevitably try to turn Hm. I don't think "wheels aligned perfectly straight" is the actual solution. I wonder if there's some simple mechanism by which it could be made directionally stable, in the sense of continuously adjusting itself to go forward instead of turn.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
castor wheels like on a bicycle/motorcycle?
That is clever! Does it work when the vehicle is four-wheeled and does not lean? My experience with prams with castor wheels says no.
Something not mentioned is that these things were pretty messy. At least mine was. It burned a mixture of oil and gasoline, and the plane got coated with a film of oil. I only used mine a few times. I found it rather tedious just spinning around in place. Much more exiting were the model rockets that used solid fuel engines.
Hey, I still have my Cox 049 engine somewhere. The airplane is gone, smashed up of course. I suppose it was dangerous by modern standards, but not at the time. About the worst it would do would cut your finger if it backfired when starting. Or you could use a cheater stick, or even an electric motor to start it. I once made a car for it out of piano wire. It would take off at high speed down the road, but because I n…
Back in the day, when I was playing with LEGO Mindstorms, I thought the fact that you compile binaries and flash them with a USB cable was a feature, because it gave you full control. There was even alternative OS choices like [1]. I'm not sure I would have learnt the same amount with the modern version, which is centered around an iPad app with video tutorials.
Similarly, chemistry experimentation kits were amazing - until they started making them idiot-proof and removing anything that could be dangerous if you eat it. Nowadays, as an adult, I need a special permit just to refill the chemicals that I experimented with as a 10 year old ^_^
The 70s really were another country - see also: chemistry sets. These are pale and anodyne things now with a mere handful of bland household-level chemicals - assuming you can even find one in a toy shop at all. But as a lad these were both readily available and full of dozens of intriguing substances that would send a modern health and safety wonk into apoplexy. Who among us did not incinerate all of the supplied ma…
The 70s really were another country - see also: chemistry sets. These are pale and anodyne things now with a mere handful of bland household-level chemicals - assuming you can even find one in a toy shop at all. But as a lad these were both readily available and full of dozens of intriguing substances that would send a modern health and safety wonk into apoplexy. Who among us did not incinerate all of the supplied ma…
Who among us lit up the chunk of sulphur and (out of innocent curiosity) took a good snork off it, realizing too late that it was a stupid thing to do ? I sure did. Tinkering with chemistry also motivated me to look for sources of hydrochloric and sulphuric acids, but in New York state the guy at the pharmacy said I needed parental permission. Wasn't gonna happen.