V-4 Flame Licker, Vacuum engine, Avaleur de Flame

[MarioM]

Mr Font had built many versions of his engine.....in one, two and four cylinders.....as can be seen in his youtube page. He does not seem interested in sharing his plans.

I built one of Duclos,
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iMXJ24BXL4[/ame]

Actually his engines are similar to Duclos but I think are his own design. It should be nice to be able to get those plans.

I can build from a plan but design one guess will be very hard. I like his engines.

 

[Omnimill]

That's a shame. It may be though that he does not have nice CAD drawings like Jan Ridders shares with others. Could be he works with paper and pencil.

 

[BronxFigs]

Thanks for all the added information. Since I first asked the forum members about the drawings for his "Flame-Licker" V-4 engine, I found additional videos of some other engines that this man built...i.e, the 4 Stroke, V2 Glow Motor... and his 4 Stroke, Inline Twin, Glow.

Wonderful engines, beautiful examples of machining, and, built from bar-stock....but, NO DRAWINGS!!!

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There are far too many dead-ends in the search for drawings in the model-engine world. This practice of the builders/designers not sharing/selling drawings is a good way to kill a hobby. It discourages rather than encourages. It's beyond annoying!

I stopped going to shows like "Cabin Fever Expo" for this very reason. You walk around, you see a beautifully machined, sometimes a "unique", model-engine, and ask if the drawings can be purchased, and the maker standing behind the table says..."Sorry, no drawings".... So the secrets of the engine die along with the builder. Great strategy? Just saying.


Frank

 

[Omnimill]

It is very frustrating Frank but what can you do? I have to admit though that some folks have asked me for drawings for a few bits of tooling I've made but I often only work from rough sketches which get binned after use so I don't have anything to pass on.

I may attempt a Vee Twin if I can get my head around the construction...

 

[GKNIPP]

Frank, I agree with you 100%. It annoys me too from the standpoint that not sharing drawings or information seems like such negative attitude. Now please understand that when I say sharing the drawings I don't expect them for free as I am willing to Pay their worth. If they are free I believe it is a generous and great bonus. It is like some of these builders want to keep their engine this big deep secret and an act of Congress won't make them budge. I don't fully get it, but....... Thank you so so much to those who have shared their works on this forum as well as to those who have made their hard work and efforts for salem

 

[MarioM]

It is very frustrating Frank but what can you do? I have to admit though that some folks have asked me for drawings for a few bits of tooling I've made but I often only work from rough sketches which get binned after use so I don't have anything to pass on.

I may attempt a Vee Twin if I can get my head around the construction...

I have been thinking about a Vee Twin too. Guess the difficult part will be the timing between the two....guess you need some theoretic principles to go with. The engine I built from Phil Duclos is not horizontal.....and runs beautiful, the valve system is very simple and has got a fixed timing, butI do not think it is just a matter of building two and trying to join them......do you understand what I mean.....sorry for my poor English.

 

[Omnimill]

Your English is fine Mario. I agree, just linking two together without knowing what to do about the timing is beyond me. I can build from plans but designing engines is another matter!

 

[Cogsy]

You walk around, you see a beautifully machined, sometimes a "unique", model-engine, and ask if the drawings can be purchase, and the maker standing behind the table says..."Sorry, no drawings".... So the secrets of the engine dies along with the builder. Great strategy? Just saying.

I doubt I'll ever have the skills required to design an engine (at least not anything worth copying) but I do know that of the various things I have designed and constructed over the years, I completely lack the ability to produce useful plans for any of it.

Even starting with a finished product, it must be an immense task to measure and record every pertinent dimension/radius/clearance etc so it can be reproduced by others. This is evident by the occaisional missing dimensions and inaccuracies/mistakes in published plan sets. I suspect many of the builders of these 'unique' engines don't have the skills to produce accurate, useable plans.

Still others may want to devote the time to creating more engines rather than plan sets - may sound a bit selfish but I know I value all the shop time I can get.

 

[MarioM]

I guess you should have a very special perception and ability to built an engine out of your mind with simple sketches....to many measurements to put together at the end......or might be wrong.....do not know..

 

[Cogsy]

Again I don't know, I've never done it, but I assume you sketch the major bits and then trial and error determines things like radius's and clearances. I'd also think there'd be a reasonable amount of remaking parts that don't work for whatever reason as well. All I was saying is that just because you can build an engine doesn't necessarily mean you can draw proper plans for it.

 

[MarioM]

Yes......you are right...I was just thinking about.