Recommend me a first engine

All the bearings are available from ARC **LINK**

The front bearing needs to be shielded, ZZ in ARC terminology. They are pretty cheap, not worth looking for S/H IMHO

Rotation is anti-clockwise looking at the engine through the prop. Fuel will be a pre-mixed Methanol/ 10% Castor oil. Malcolm Stride's" Miniature Internal Combustion Engines" will tell you all you need to know.

Have fun

Rod

Yes, the Model Aero Engine Encyclopedia by Ron Moulton. Out of print but available secondhand (at a price). There is much information on construction on the late Ron Chernich's web site:

http://modelenginenews.org/index.html

.

Does it HAVE to be an aero engine.?

As there are loads of really good 'bar stock' designs for engines that are not.

I personally find that building slightly larger is considerably easier. Parts are able to be held easier as they are larger and the margin for any errors is also increased. Simpler to get running and IMHO larger looks better on display.

But you may have a very valid reason to want to build an aero engine though.

Nick

Just fancy doing something completely different, have decided on 6060 matador and sitting in the lounge researching bits. Always worked in aerospace so that could be why. I would love to have the Bently but too hard and too long a project for me

Bearings and gears have arrived - how can you make and sell (at a profit) a ball race for £1 - and some bar stock ordered with bits needed for 'Locomotion'. The book is on its way so in a couple of days I will be an expert ! I won't be starting right now but I like to make sure I have hard to source bits in my hand before spending time. One question; the drawing says the connecting rod is made from 'dural' which is presumably an aluminium alloy - where do I get this from and exactly what is it ?

Phil

For the con rods my choice of Aluminum would be from 2014, 7075 or 6061 in that order, others may have more info on suppliers and/or grade.

Emgee

Look for H15 from the model engineering suppliers (sometimes called HE15)

Rod

Dural is the name of an early and very successful Aluminium alloy. It contained Copper and is somewhat stronger than mild-steel. Being light and strong it was much used in aircraft. Having been supplanted by improved alloys it's possible that no-one makes it these days. The name became a generic term for 'aluminium alloy' much like Hoover means 'Vacuum Cleaner'.

Other contributors have already identified suitable alternatives and possible sources. The alloys are a little hard to find for sale but aluminium tread-plate is fairly common. Tread-plate has a good specification because people rely on it in high places. My local metal emporia usually has off-cuts. Might do if it's thick enough to make your con-rod.

Dave

Quite a good source of light alloy suitable for a con rod is an alloy bike peddle, preferably a straight one, some are made with a curve. You might win a used one at a bike shop.

Ian S C

M-Machine have a few small square and rectangular sections listed in HE15 (2014) which are handy sizes for conrods that I have used in the past though sometimes it is a bit cheaper to buy round section and cut from that.

I think a friend may have bike cranks, I only need a bit for the con rods so can hack it out of a crank but if this fails then thanks for spec

.

Good one.

I had never thought of that for a probably free source of such.

Nick

Got some alloy cranks from a bikey friend (allegedly quite serious money when new but one is slightly bent), cut down and machined (nice stuff to machine) into con rod blanks. Good to go ! Any other bits I need to worry about ? Phil