Another Atkinson Differential build

[propclock]

An aquarium air pump and one of those vaping devices comes to mind.
The vaping device has a potent battery and a heating element.
Don't know what they cost, perhaps they actually have a useful purpose. ?

 

[Steamchick]

Good idea! - but may cost more than a cigarette or jos-stick? - Burning vegetable matter with aromatic oils produces smoke particles of a range of sizes... I guess that a "vape" machine produces atomised droplets of oil? - or is it aerosol sized stuff? - No idea if it can detect leak holes.... But it may smell nice?
A candle with big wick - or oil lamp with the wick turned-up can make smoke - carbon particles. Just hard to collect the smoke and blow it into an engine?
K2

 

[Ken Brunskill]

Instead of heating a drop of oil, I would simply have a jos-stick in a tube - the air drawn-in past the burning jos-stick will keep it burning and create quite a lot of nice smelling smoke... - Or you could buy "smoke matches"- as used by gas engineers to check the draught into domestic flues at gas fire and boiler installations? - or the humble cigarette? - Or maybe they are too expensive now? Or a teaspoon of smouldering sawdust? - It shouldn't be too hard to make a simple "burner and intake for the air-pump" for the sawdust to sit in - ingited and then the air drawn into the pump... a bit of aluminium foils should be useful?
K2

Thanks Ken C,

Had never heard of smoke matches, will try to source them.

Ken B

 

[Ken Brunskill]

An aquarium air pump and one of those vaping devices comes to mind.
The vaping device has a potent battery and a heating element.
Don't know what they cost, perhaps they actually have a useful purpose. ?

I had the same thought, wonder if they need the humidity & temperature, as would be in a human?

 

[Ken Brunskill]

Well I have gotten sidetracked by designing and building a device for testing tensile strength of fly fishing leader material, will get back to work on this next week.

In the meantime I wish all a very Merry Christmas and best wishes for a healthier 2021, 2020 has been a bummer.

 

[jquevedo]

Let's blame the pandemic, I have been sidetracked by family matters taking care of elder mom and have not been able to get back home to tackle the To-Do list on my Mini Artkinson either.
I will most likely be able to return to it mid January and we hope to make the planned changes then.
Have a nice holiday season and think about those you love even if you can not be with them.

 

[Tim Wescott]

Yup. The best 2020 meme I've seen so far is the claim that "2020 hindsight" isn't actually folk wisdom, but a warning from the future that we were all just unable to interpret.

 

[Steamchick]

Sorry Tim, that went over my head. Easier to understand the Atkinson cycle for my brain! (Call me stupid - most people do!).
Ken & all, Good chatting with you in 2020 - I've actually had a good year - I have missed a lot of things with the Pandemic, but just the selfish "Modern Human things". No-one I know has died - though hospitalised - and (maybe the Seasonal feeling?) there is hope for 2021 being better!
Don't be glum - HAVE FUN! - However and whoever you can share it with.
As a child of the 1950s in the UK I have seen worse than 2020... - the family poverty etc. - but we didn't know we were poor (by today's standards) so if we could be so happy then, there is NOTHING stopping us being happy now. I know (now) that we were underfed as children, because that's all we could afford. We had hand-me-down clothes, (that was real re-cycling!) walked - as there was no cash for buses - dug veg from the garden, etc.
And there were talks of the A-Bomb, end-of-the world with the H-Bomb, Russians invading Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and shipping missiles to Cuba... Air-raid practices, bomb-sites from WW2 as a reminder of history, and the occasional car accident killed someone (so few cars!). A smallpox outbreak (1962 I think?) Polio scares, we had measles, mumps, chicken pox and all, Ice on windows in the morning and choked on the fumes from the paraffin heater - we couldn't afford coal - but an hour of paraffin warmed us before we went to bed. And we'd "never had it so good!".
So Covid pandemic is just another brief chapter of life. Write it in the History books and move on - to the next model!
HOPING YOU ALL STAY WELL AND HAVE A HAPPY CHRISTMAS, and may all your castings be free from blow-holes in 2021!
K2.

 

[Dave Perreault]

I was getting worried that you folks had some health issues going on! So glad to hear everyone is doing well!
Have a great Christmas and New Year
Dave Perreault and family

 

[Ken Brunskill]

Getting back to the shop today ,can't blame the hiatus on Covid, as a fly fisherman I got interested in doing some tests on knot strength, I spent my time on building a test fixture - there learning that 'O' Rings do not work smoothly when used as hydraulic seal in a HDPE cylinder. Could be that the HDPE cylinder bore did not have the finish that a metal material would have produced.
Interesting to observe that even a totally different & non engine avocation, bring up common issues.

Best to all for a healthy 2021.
Ken B

 

[Richard Hed]

Getting back to the shop today ,can't blame the hiatus on Covid, as a fly fisherman I got interested in doing some tests on knot strength, I spent my time on building a test fixture - there learning that 'O' Rings do not work smoothly when used as hydraulic seal in a HDPE cylinder. Could be that the HDPE cylinder bore did not have the finish that a metal material would have produced.
Interesting to observe that even a totally different & non engine avocation, bring up common issues.

Best to all for a healthy 2021.
Ken B

so much to do, so little time

 

[Ken Brunskill]

Good idea! - but may cost more than a cigarette or jos-stick? - Burning vegetable matter with aromatic oils produces smoke particles of a range of sizes... I guess that a "vape" machine produces atomised droplets of oil? - or is it aerosol sized stuff? - No idea if it can detect leak holes.... But it may smell nice?
A candle with big wick - or oil lamp with the wick turned-up can make smoke - carbon particles. Just hard to collect the smoke and blow it into an engine?
K2

Well the ole noodle kept mulling this over, when I finally realized (remembered) that I have several old CPAP machines that have a chamber that heats water to make a vapor. So after a trip to a local store the sells sundry items, I bought some incense sticks, presume they are called jos-stick's in the UK, anyway after a few hrs of machining and a trip to the hardware I had the necessary hardware to connect the CPAP machine to my 1/4-32 Spark Plug thread. An initial trial indicates that this will produce sufficient smoke , there is a small needle valve so the unit can be adjusted to barley push the smoke or increase to push more air than the (4) incense sticks produce, of course one could add more incense sticks. Now to make new rings for the PUMP piston and give this smoke tester a real test. Being early evening here in Calif. it was too late for a photo will do if anyone is interested. Oh, by the way I'd bought the CPAP machine from a garage sale for $35, when on a fishing trip - long story .

 

[Ken Brunskill]

Well the ole noodle kept mulling this over, when I finally realized (remembered) that I have several old CPAP machines that have a chamber that heats water to make a vapor. So after a trip to a local store the sells sundry items, I bought some incense sticks, presume they are called jos-stick's in the UK, anyway after a few hrs of machining and a trip to the hardware I had the necessary hardware to connect the CPAP machine to my 1/4-32 Spark Plug thread. An initial trial indicates that this will produce sufficient smoke , there is a small needle valve so the unit can be adjusted to barley push the smoke or increase to push more air than the (4) incense sticks produce, of course one could add more incense sticks. Now to make new rings for the PUMP piston and give this smoke tester a real test. Being early evening here in Calif. it was too late for a photo will do if anyone is interested. Oh, by the way I'd bought the CPAP machine from a garage sale for $35, when on a fishing trip - long story .

Finally, I the weather was perfect to get a photo of the CPAP Conversion to a Smoke Tester:
Simply used some modeling clay and as shown (4) Pieces of Incense Sticks, size to fit in the liquid container of the CPAP unit.
Adapted the 'Mask' End to a small commercially available Needle Valve, some 3/16" tubing and a quick disconnect to the spark plug thread fitting.
Cheers,
Ken B