Kittiwake Major - A Bit of a Mystery!

Hi Neil,

Well, I am not going to try to scan them all in one session. Actually so far the 2275 issue continues to elude me, it might be one of the ones that never made it out here. I have got at least some of the others, and I have scanned the first two pages of the oil pump one for you. As you will see this is a bound volume, however they open up enough to give a reasonable scan. I've done the scans to 1200 dpi to give you plenty of detail. I will scan some more, perhaps you would like to PM me with an email address so that I don't have to fill up the album space here.

Speaking of historical blueprints...I have one for a Jackson-Rigby uniflow engine, designed by Henry Greenly and dated 1923. I have the engine too, and apparently the castings for those were done in the workshop of the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch railway.

regards

John

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Jason,

I would be "pulling it apart" for proper consevation, anyway.

Yes, I know about fading ... that's why I carefully put 'exhibit' in quotes, rather than suggesting it would be on general display.

MichaelG.

I think the drawing is probably the original for Kittyhawk - I doubt if it was retraced.

The name change was probably to avoid confusion.

I think I can scan it two leaves at a time, it has only torn along the horizontal split.

Neil

Thanks John, it's an interesting one that suggests ETW expected it to be up to long-term duty.

I also note that the head has plenty of space for a full-size spark plug, my spare one for the Suffolk engine appears the right size and is a lot less tall than a typical car plug.

Is there anything available that sits between a small standard plug and a 1/4" miniature one, I wonder?

I popped the rocker box in evaporust for 40 minutes as an experiment, bearing in mind it isn't acid or alkaline (works by chelation) I fancied it might do something - in fact it worked very well, afterwards the crud rubbed off with a kitchen scratchy, i couldn't see any loss of metal.

I've cleaned and oiled the crankshaft. The paper and the ends are a bit pitted, but all the inside parts look like they have just been machined. A golden colour suggests that it was brazed, not silver soldered.

Neil

A lot of models use the CM-6 plug which has a M10x1 thread, should fit that size head well and is what I'm using on the lightweight, most of my Hit & miss engines also have this plug.

Rimfire also do a 5/16" plug

Edited By JasonB on 24/05/2016 12:52:24

Thanks, that's a lot smaller than a J17LM, which apparently is a 'special' made for lawnmowers. Only 1.33" long so should be excellent proportions to go with this engine.

neil

Neil has helped me post this link showing the records found in the ME Index, when searched for "Kittiwake". I have removed two that referred to a high wing monoplane.

Chris

**LINK**

Well, here's a coincidence - a kittiwake at Bempton Cliffs today:

I can't tell from this angle whether it's a Mk I or a Mk II. NRM tomorrow

Rod

Nice shot, Rod

I have lasting memories of Bempton

We stayed in a B&B there, and foolishly parked under some trees ...

Next morning the roof of the car was copiously splatted with 'guano' from the Rock Doves.

I took it straight to a car wash, but the damage was already done ... it had etched through the lacquer top-coat.

MichaelG

NGK spark plugs with numbers starting with 'C' have a 10mm x 1 thread, those beginning with 'D' are 12mm. Lots of heat and length ratings are available for the 10mm, as they are used in many Honda motorbikes from 50 cc up. The D sizes are not so common, but can be found. Halfords sell them in the Motorcycle parts section ( at least they used to when I lived in the UK)

Hi Neil,

If you go to my album you will find that I have scanned a bunch this morning, 2289 through to 2297 are in there. Now I will go back out to the collection and do a bit more sorting, who knows what might show up! Usually this sort of thing goes a bit slow because one gets distracted into reading other articles. I have a good fibre broadband connection so the upload time is quite small. Scanning is not as fast, but fast enough.

I think actually ETW was one of the finest contributors ME has ever had.

John

Thanks John,

I feeling less guilty about you doing all this if you are finding plenty of other things to enjoy reading as a result!

I 100% agree with you about ETW. People don't appreciate the range of his work because he used so many pen names: Kinemette, Artificer and Ned for a start.

For some reason 'worn out' evaporust is doing an excellent job on the castings, which now reveal themselves to be sand castings. The white deposits are coming off as a dusty cloud and the darker ones are then rubbing off with a scratchy or a nylon brush on the dremel for tight corners.

The steel parts have all come up usable, There is only one significant but small patch of pitting on the liner, and it's low down so I have ordered a hone to see what happens. It may not even be above the top piston ring so if that's the case and it doesn't cause wear it shouldn't cause problems. the upper 2/3 of the liner look grey but smooth now.

The brass ring on the entry to the venturi came up well too.

Neil

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That's a disappointment

I'm sure it will be an enjoyable build project for you; but it would have been a much more interesting story [historically & commercially] if they had really been the pressure die-castings that you first thought.

MichaelG.

Still, the old articles are full of good nuggets - not least an 'obvious' solution to the problem that has stalled my Suffolk engine.

Neil

Hi Neil, Well, you now have all the ones I have been able to find. 2275 is not in the bound volume, and that volume has come unbound at that end so I don't know if it was in there and has fallen out, or if it was never in there. As I mentioned, some of them never made it out here. Might have to see if I can get a replacement, but there area few more loose magazines to check through first. I want to go through the whole collection and sort things out, since I have duplicates of 1980 to 2000 or so, and some other dupes among the earlier stuff. Maybe I can do some trading and fill in the ones I am missing from before 1940. The club in Auckland has the whole set from 1898 to present day, but I am now two hours drive from there so don't have such easy access anymore.

Some of the even number issues have articles by ETW on ignition, so if you feel like winding yourself an authentic 4oz coil I could scan those too. I would probably cheat and use one of the modern cdi units. I have one on a converted Saito 4 stroke in a vintage model and it goes very well.

I've also scanned you a letter about the Adept.

John

Thanks John,

I have downloaded the lot, - I saw the lathe letter too!

Neil

Wow! The CM6 plug is tiny!

N.

I haven't forgotten these castings, although the JL project is taking precedence!

I'm hoping to have a 3D printer soon, its first big job will be printing 400 scale track links, if that's a success I may consider using the Kittiwake and clutches instead of electrickery to power the resulting tank! Now that would be a fine thing!

Alternatively, I quite fancy an 'old style' hydroplane.

Neil

I needed a small 10 mm spark plug, and asked for a CM 6, first place I went to offered me one at over $NZ30, or a CMR 6A at $NZ11, next place I went to I asked for a CMR 6A, and got it for $NZ6 . 30. The R stands for resistor, and this maybe helpful for those using electronic ignition.

Ian S C

Hi Neil, I've gone through the pdf and scanned a few more files for you, they are in my album here with the others. I didn't look for some of the ones that are just exhibition photos as they don't usually add much extra info. I suppose the ones that tell you how to order plans won't be much use either!

Anyway, the library here is now much more ordered than it was. I do need to do some trading to fill in the gaps. I guess first I will have to come up with a full inventory.

regards

John