Member postings for ken king, King Design

You know Ian, you've hit a nail on its head, and you've jarred my feeble brain into sluggish reaction as well. What you suggest is just what I would like to achieve, an integral uni-directional air/hydraulic damper. And you know what else ? I've been fiidling with these things for years, yet it has only just dawned on me thanks to your note. I refer to the damper in an S.U. carburettor as fitted to classic Jaguars and many other older cars. Honestly, my capacity for ignoring things which are, metaphorically speaking, jumping up and down and waving their arms, is staggering.

In the S.U. a thin, rigid rod projects down into a bore in the vertically sliding air piston assembly. The bore, about 8-10mm dia. is oil-filled and at the bottom of the rod is a piston incorporating a simple one-way valve. Almost free motion in one direction, oil-damped in the other. Tsimples ! Thanks Ian.

Back on the drawing board .........

Thanks for all suggestions to date. I hadn't realised the cars were so sophiticated (don't bristle, you car nuts), and I'll follow them up, Ken.

Here are some sprung oleo legs for a large scale R/C model aircraft which I made for a fellow modeller. Springs were carefully chosen to support the model realistically i.e. partly compressed when on the ground, and to adequately absorb impact loads when landing heavily. Of course, after impact comes the dreaded BOUNCE. Now if the legs could be damped on the extension stroke the bounce would be reduced or eliminated,resulting in a more realistic performance, not to say a safer arrival.

Nowadays we are surrounded by natty, tiny, and fiendishly clever motion dampers which are crying out to be used in models; I'm referring to soft drawer closers, and whatever the things are which lower our toilet seat and its lid oh so gently. I presume they employ some knd of funny viscous fluid or semisolid. They are fitted into tiny spaces (simply moulded into out toilet seat pivots, you wouldn't know they were there !) and appear to take many forms, linear, rotary etc.

Has anyone any experience of these things or knowledge of where they can be obtained? If so, please do tell.