Rina and T&K drawings

Jason,

After a lot of angst and swearing, I've got the sparks sorted out (again, only in hand hand, of course but reassuring). Whilst in town, I took my existing coil into the motorcycle shop and explained my tale of woe. He took one look at it, saw it was Chinese, and said to throw it in the bin. In his next breath, he sold me a Japanese one. Magic! Fat spark where I want it and a minimal one where I don't. I really should have known but I do expect new things to work. Naive or what?

Thanks for your thoughts and advice. At least I will now have a battery that's man enough.

Ian,

If you are using a piston with C.I. rings, I would have thought 5 seconds to lose compression is fairly normal. They are never going to give a perfect seal. Having said that, I haven't tried to run mine yet. I think think that the most hit-and-miss thing about the engine is likely to be the timing. Difficult ot be anything but approximate.

Good luck. Let us know how you get on.

Regards,

Norman.

To all who have helped and encouraged,

To my utter amazement, my Rina runs!!! Not only does it run, it runs in hit and miss mode - very slowly. Too slow, in fact for complete reliability but it has done up to about 5 minutes without stopping. I am in the process of tweeking the ignition timing, mixture and most importantly the governor springs. The only thing that stopped me sorting it out completely today, was that my starter (Black and Decker) ran flat.

Altogether it's a load off my mind. Two years in the build and NOT working would have been a real downer.

At the moment, it's on a jury-rigged base with coil, wires and pipes all over the place. But it WORKS!!!

Now Jim, how about finishing yours off?

Regards,

Norman.

Good to hear it runs, expect to see some video once you have it all tidied up.

J

Hi Norman

Glad it is running.

I am always pleased when someone builds something from a design in Model Engineer.

regards David

That's great news Norman and, like Jason, I am hanging out for the video. You don't need to wait until it is all tidied up and beautiful you know.

In fact, I would video it now if I were you. I have had the experience of something working in "lash up" form and then behaving badly when made to look good.

I am still fiddling around with the PutPutMan Tiny four strokes that I started early last year. It has been too cold in the workshop to do much until the last couple of days. And the cold weather is not finished yet.

Jim

Hi Norman,

Great to hear you have had success! As others have said, get video proof of the running as soon as possible, before any gremlins get back from holidays....

JD

Jim,

I have a rooted objection to showing work that's not finished properly. That said, I do agree that engines sometimes behave badly when tarted up. I had such a problem with my beam engine. Come to that, I have known women like that, too.

Be that as it may, the Rina is now being painted and mounted (no further references to women). Then I have to find someone with a video camera to do the honours, not to mention having to work out how to post a video on here. All in good time.

Now I have the considerable problem of finding another project worth doing!

Regards,

Norman

Hi Norman,

when you do get a video - no need for a camera now that most mobile phones are very capable of good video - the best way to post it here is to upload it to YouTube and then get the embed code from Youtube and use the icon above the message compose box to embed the video here. If you're not sure how to do this just ask. Here's an example

Terry,

NICE!

Thanks for the advice. However, my phone is barely capable of making a call. No street cred whatsoever. Not sure that even my wife's phone records sound, though. I'm fairly computer savvy, but modern phones are a complete mystery!

Ah. well. Back to the painting.

Regards,

Norman.

Hi everyone

I know that this is re-opening a fairly old thread, but mine is finally running really well, on carburettor version 3!

I found that the engine ran fairly well on the gas carb (with a low pressure butane regulator), but 'ran out of steam' after a few minutes as (I think) the cylinder heated up. I think that the fundamental problem was that the air had to be sucked through two spring loaded valves.

Carb version 2 was Jan Ridders vapour carb. This also worked well for a few minutes, until the most volatile components had evaporated from the fuel. The mixture had to be richened after this, and I think that the pressure drop in the relatively long air hose I had limited the power available.

Carb version 3 is based on the 2 cylinder 4 stroke engine currently being serialised in the mag. It's much simplified (since no throttle is required) and has a 3mm orifice. Fuel is supplied via a needle valve, which controls the mixture well. With this carb, the engine will run until the fuel tank is dry.

The only other modification I've made is with the ignition. I'm using a modified mini contact breaker mounted below the crankshaft, and triggered by a 'cam' that's between the frame and the back flywheel. This means that you get a spark at every top dead centre, but it works really well. Power from a spare rechargeable drill battery (9.6V, but the 12V coil seems to work fine with it).

All I need now is something for it to drive! Any suggestions?

Ian

With the current price of Leccie I would suggest a 230Volt generator !

Clive

Ian,

You seem to have got to where I am, though I planned on petrol from the start. I pinched the carb from David Kerzel' site. That is extremely simple and works flawlessly. I also have a set of points from Joseph Lucas, Prince of Darkness. Great minds...

Battery and coil are hidden in the base.

It's all polished and painted now. All I need to do is to get to grips with the new video camera.

I'm very tempted to couple mine to the rotary bean slicer. Might be fun. I grow an aweful lot of them for the freezer.

Regards,

Norman.

Here it is. The media event the world has been waiting for - "Rina: The Movie"

Norman,

Great engine and great video. I'm very impressed.

Cheers,

Rod

Fantastic engine Norman, well done! Glad you beat the ignition troubles. Finish is beautiful. JD

Gorgeous, well done Norman!

Neil

That was worth waiting for Norman, it looks great and sounds good as well. I do like the placement of the fuel tank and the neatly formed fuel line to the carby.

Congratulations. It has given we lesser mortals something to aim for.

Jim

Well, thanks chaps. As a "lesser mortal" myself, kind comments are always welcome.

Problem now is: what's to be the next project? I keep looking a Find Hansen's web site - in awe! Looking at the web, several other people have seem to have had a go and given up, apparently leaving Hansen as the only modeller in the world making hot bulb engines. Let me know if I'm wrong. They are simply astonishing.

I did write to the esteemed Editor some months ago, asking if he could get a feature on or by him. Unfortunately the Ed. didn't reply. It would be a great shame for all that knowledge to disappear in the fullness of time.

Anyone else had thoughts on these engines? Probably needs a new thread.

Regards,

Norman.