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Hi Tug, I'm not currently but have always wanted to give it a go. I love the whole niche/vintage aspect to it too. Also, i get SOOOOO bored of me showing people engines only for them to look at me confused and say either "what are you going to power with it" or "couldn't you make an electric...

Hey David, hope you're keeping well. Yeah, 'great minds think alike' and all that, I've got one of these on order: https://brodak.com/control-line-kits/original-flite-streak-kit.html Patrick

Also, forgot to ask, any tips on balancing props? Drilling out the centre here to fit the Nalon prop nut to 7.5mm might have added 0.5mm runout! I was thinking of mounting in the lathe on some sort of arbor and taking light skims off the end of the blades at a high RPM and sharp tool. Thinking...

You are both right (of course) :oops: I thought the ‘sharp end’ would be better at cutting through the air so made that the leading edge... and of course the more rounded end better for not cutting my fingers on the ‘flick’ especially in the event of flooding the engine. every day is a learning...

hi mate, I’m pretty sure it was pulling rather than pushing. I’ll double-check next run. Don’t want anything overheating! I’m just about to switch over to some larger props and cooler runs from now on in. P

Hi, I haven't reported back as I've been having too much time playing with the engine :cool:. Here she is running an 8x4 prop after a few running in-runs. RPM there was about 11K but that wasn't fully 'leaned-out'. I will turn my attention to the other Viper and seeing if I can't improve on...

Thanks Tug. I’m dying to try one of these. Will report back. Also do a video of running engine once I’m through the excitement of playing with it. P

SUCCESS!! :cool::):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):)🤟🤟🤟 Thanks to all the great advice from you guys, my engine #1 runs. Lots of room for improvement (especially as this was the one made from all the blemished/less than perfect bits). Chuffed to bits! (but a bit lightheaded from...

Thanks for the advice Tug. That makes a lot of sense. I still have a bit of trouble getting my head around the cutter profiles. You don't happen to have any pics of making them do you? I don't recall seeing it on the Super Tigre thread.

Hi all, good progress on the lapping then a bit of a setback. I had the engine assembled and victory was firmly in sight. It was firing nicely on primer but would never catch and run. The mystery here was that, as opposed to the last engine, this one was really airtight. I put soapy water all...

Hi All, some good progress with the lapping on engine #1 today and the liner + piston are a great fit. I need to make the contra-piston now and I'm ready to move on to the FFFA phase (Final Fettling Filing and Assembly). I took care on all fits so this should not be too much of a job. Hopefully...

Hi Tim. Yeah that's what I figured in the end. I was a bit worried about the lapping with a chamfered bit on the top of the piston but it turned out to be exactly the same as for a flat piston.

Got a bit of time over the past couple of days to work on the viper. I managed to get the pistons lapped and tapered, made the pistons and wrist/gudgeon pins. I think from here on in I will shift to one engine at a time as my patience is like a kid before Christmas and i have an oily/smoky...

Looks and sounds absolutely great!

Hey Billit. Any tips on the gudgeon pin caps? Do the caps actually fit into a drilled gudgeon pin or are they just plugs at the end of the hole in the piston using a shorter pin? Patrick

Hi all. I took the plunge today and went for those cylinder liners. I was nervous about destroying the blanks, newly made cutter and the only 2.5mm 4-flute endmill I own so I took things really really slowly. I think the result is pretty decent and I'm sure the holes are accurate to within a...

Scary stuff with the Nylon props! I reckon I'll stay away. I like the look (and less sharpness) of wood props for bench running but the sizes are much more limited. The tether car stuff is cool also. Perhaps i could hone my TIG-welding skills to make a tuned pipe one day 🤣

OK, 4th and final attempt on the cutter today. I think the result is quite decent (by my dodgy surface finish standards anyway) and the cut seems much less violent on the part. I reckon tomorrow I will make some tight-fitting plugs as suggested by Tug, touch-up the cutter with a stone and go for...

Thanks on the advice RE props. Incidentally, i went down a Youtube 'rabbit-hole' the other day looking at control line speed flying championships. Fascinating stuff. Turns out that the fastest flyers only have one wing and one propeller blade and go 200+ MPH! I suspect a specially designed setup...

Hi my 8mm HSS round blank arrived yesterday, I will have a go at the approach you suggested too. I'm a bit rubbish at shaping HSS tools and don't even have a grinding rest yet so this might be a bit of fun :-) Thanks, P