121–130 of 190 posts
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Or a missing finger. Those things are pretty nasty to get going without a starter motor. Some of them come with a spring loaded starter, those are a little bit safe, but the ones that you start manually are really nasty. edit: Hah, that's actually mentioned in the article.
it won't cut off your finger, but it will hurt!
Wikipedia's description matches my memory that "the ignition is accomplished by a combination of heating from compression, heating from a glow plug and the catalytic effect of the platinum within the glow plug on the methanol within the fuel."
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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.
Hydrochloric acid: My hardware store sells 30% HCl as Spirits Of Salts, for removing limescale from toilet bowls. It's effective, unlike toilet bleach. It's nasty stuff, and if your seat-hinges are metallic, you risk corrosion. And remember to flush before you crap. Sulphuric acid: No, hardware stores don't sell that here. You can get it from car batteries, and builders use the strong stuff for clearing drains. I hav…
And Duda Diesel sells a liter of 67.2% nitric acid for $60.43, or $101.69 for 2.5 (plus shipping ofc).
https://www.fai.org/page/f2-control-line
I was the president of the Northwest Fireballs for awhile.
http://flyinglines.org/Fireballs.html
If you are in the Portland/Vancouver area visit Delta park on most weekends and there will most likely be a group flying. If you have the chance to catch a competition at Delta park you will most likely see any number of former world champions.
We removed the engine from my control line model and made a much more dangerous device! We mounted three wheels on the edge of a Frisbee and mounted the engine vertically in the cut out center. Then we started it and let it uncontrollably bounce, fly, and spin around the driveway, scattering gravel, until it ran out of gas or quit running from sheer abuse.
Wasn’t there a flying toy where an engine was mounted between two counter-rotating disks? (80s or before, possibly)
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My dad made something like that, except not with a Frisbee. It had two helicopter blades, and a dowel sticking out opposite the engine for balance. It had a little ring at the center of it holding the other parts together. He'd launch it from a screwdriver through the ring. And once he did, it was pretty random where it went. Once it just went horizontally at about ten-year-old-me's head height. I ducked under it and…
I'm not sure that device qualifies, but I've often told my wife that I hate the farewell phrase, "Stay safe!" that's become so common lately. Sometimes you have to balance whether something is enough fun to justify the risk of death.
The fun thing to do with the engines was to start them standalone, point them straight up and let go. They'd go shooting up into the sky until torque reaction made them spin fast enough to stop fuel getting to the engine - at which point they'd pop and misfire, and tumble back to earth (sometimes restarting on the way back down. To this day I have scarred fingers from playing with these model engines.
I remember we first started it, we had no idea what to expect. (the pre youtube days)
Its a wonder kids who grew up with these things have any fingers..
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I have a bone to pick with LEGO. LEGO destroyed Erector sets. Erector sets were great because they were metal parts that you screwed together, and the machines you built look like machines. (My mom was reluctant to get me an Erector set, assuming I could not handle the tiny nuts and bolts. But I had no difficulty with them.) https://www.ebay.com/itm/133855778156 Lego machines look like cheap plastic crap with all tho…
In Uruguay and other spanish-speaking countries those were called "mecanos" (which, judging by other local customs such as calling sneakers "championes" and bubblegum "chicles" was probably a trade name) and they were great. I'm from 1978 and got to play with some sets from my dad (who's from '49). Besides being entertaining, they were a great way to develop mechanical affinity (if that's the right expression in Engl…
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…
I also recall a cousin had one of these Cox planes and almost gave me a haircut with it one day.
Let's talk about Estes model rocket D-size engine bazookas. Because that's where the 70's really shined.