My Pet Project

[Bob]

I came home with a nice piece of 1.5"x1.5"x48" 1/8" thick aluminum angle the other day and I quickly set out to make the engine mounts with it... got that done and the engine hanging on there "for show mostly!" and then made the rotor head pivot piece and got it bolted to the mast with 2 long bolts that I will replace with 4 case hardened bolts later.... looks like I have the side to side movement of the rotor head just about right, though I haven't measured it yet. front to back goes way too far and needs some stops of some sort installed.
...
I messed with the tail rotor allot and have got it to work fairly well, but I have yet to replace the large bolt with a good axle yet...and I suspect that will cure allot of my problems with its action working correctly...
 what I have is wide arms that push up on the rotor blade attachment points on the trailing edge of each blade... this arrangement is not the best in the world because the sliding action can cock side ways and jam... so if I make the arms shorter and then go up to the rotor blade arms it should cure the problem... I noticed that most of the helicopters in production have very close attachment points
to the rotor blade pitch arms.... Mine aren't and I am sure that's 90% of my problem...
so I will probably change that in the near future.
...
I picked up 4 heavy lawn mower blades for my lawn mower and obviously they don't fit... so I spent yesterday making them fit ! ... now that they are on there it should be better at cutting grass than it has ever been.... with no trails between the blades as it has been doing !....
fire danger is way to high to test it right now but I am sure its better than it was!
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I even went riding the other day on the 250 trials bike... I must have played hard because I slept like a rock when I finally went to bed LOL ! man am I rusty... couldn't even go over a small log without having problems....gott'a get more riding in I guess! HAHAHAHAHAH!
...

Bob....

[Bob]

I figured out my tail rotor problem.
now the pitch change is as smooth as glass from flat to about 45Degrees.
it seams I FORGOT to add a pivot in the bearing that attaches the pitch plate to the pitch arms !
without that pivot so the bearing can follow the Arc that the pitch arms scribe when changing pitch the pitch plate has to "Corkscrew" to make up the difference...
 so I added a short piece of square steel tubing(blue) on each arm of the pitch plate(yellow) and drilled a hole so the bearings(red) will pivot in and out... this solved all the problems.
...Live and learn .... I should have noticed that when I made it... but I didn't hehehehehe

[Manta]

So what's left to do before the big day ?

Dave
(Manta)

[Bob]

well... Most of it at this point... I really haven't got that far...
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need the drive line and v-belt pulleys, slip joint and then chain and sprocket at the rotor head need installed...... Clutch for the engine made up (engine tilt is all), drive for the tail rotor from the main drive shaft. and its bearings and pulleys/belts.
Rotor blades mounted and balanced....still haven't done that.
....
none of the drive train is in yet.... its all still in me head! LOL
mostly bearings and pillow blocks and v-belt pulleys are the hold up now.
...
I've spent a great deal of time on the tail rotor getting it to work properly...that's what I've been doing lately mostly...and I'm still not done...it has to be mounted and good bearings put on it...right now it has wheel barrow bearings on it ! LOL so that will never do !
...
Bob......

[Bob]

Here's a pic of the re-vamped tail rotor that I made about 5 years ago...
I had to change the bearing eyes to pivot at the bottom so they could follow the arc of the pitch horns off the blades...
the tail rotor is just clamped on at the moment , till I get some good bearings to mount it into the tail tube.
 I did spin it up to about 500RPM this afternoon and the thrust it puts out is amazing!
the pitch change seamed to work ok with finger pressure, but it did have a tenancy to gravitate to zero pitch. after taking it apart a few times and re assembling it it now goes from about -15deg pitch (reverse thrust) to approx. 40degrees. Obviously the blades need re worked.
and it shakes allot  so I'm not quite done with it yet. but Very close!
...
Bob.....

[Lee Hazleton]

Bob,
   Looks like you're getting real close to flying it. Good luck. I still think you're nuckin' futs!!

[Bob]

HAAHAHHA Howdy Lee ! long time no see...
 I think your not the only one that thinks I'm Nukin Futs! but I guess we'll see later when I try to fly the contraption!.... long Long way to go yet... it won't fly this year I'm sure...maybe next summer !
....

[Bob]

I've been delayed a bit on working on the Helo... the Car was dropping a cylinder quite often and only getting worse about it... so I did a compression check and found no 3 and no 4 cylinders way below normal 60 and 85 or so... so I parked it and tore into it, sense the wife is home recovering from surgery (hysterectomy) and won't need the car for a while I figured I'd better jump on it while the getting was good! <grin>
... I got the head off a bit ago and I was relieved to find no damage at all... looks like I stopped running it in time ! WHEW!
you can see where the head gasket was leaking between No3 and No4 cylinders... but no damage to the head or block that I can see at all... which is a relief!
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looks like all I need to put it back together is 3 gaskets intake manifold, exhaust manifold, and head gasket..... the place where the thermostat attaches to uses a bead of RTV silicone on it....
so gaskets and another gallon of antifreeze and it should be good to go !
....
hehehe
I'm getting SLOW in my old age...it took me 2 days to get the head off.... I used to be able to do that in a few hours ! HAHAHAHAHHA!
.... oh well.... I am in no big hurry...so I'm taking my time!
...
Bob......

[Manta]

...I'm getting SLOW in my old age..

I know the feeling.  What gets me these days is the weight of the Diesel heads. Leaning over the engine compartment and lifting the head seems an awful lot harder than it was even twenty years ago.

Dave
(Manta)

[Bob]

LOL tell me about it !  but you have to remember 75 to 100 lbs at arms length IS HEAVY !  HAHAHAHA
...
I ras real happy to discover there was no damage to the head... I thought for sure there'ed be a burn
cut in the head where the leak was....
 I think I'll go out there before it gets too hot and see if I can determan if the head is warped or not...
 wish me luck !
...
Bob.....

[Manta]

.. wish me luck !...

You got it.

Dave
(Manta)

[Bob]

well its not very far off.... I used a large flat file and scruffed it up a bit... to find the low spots
it is a bit low where it was leaking... so I planed it down by hand with the file the best I could making sure to keep it all uniform... its slow work but I almost got it there now.
... one of those jobs that your Not supposed to be able to do ! LOL but having done it a few times before I know what to look for.... I just wish I had some machinist dye... i could really use some
anyone know of a close facsimile to machinist dye ?.... got no felt-tip pens handy.... used those before for that.... and it works ok
...
Bob....

[Bob]

well, I got the engine almost all back together now....
I still need to put the battery back in and then start it and time the ignition.... as well as put antifreeze in it... (first I add water to check for leaks)
... I plan to run it a while then re-torque the head... I figure it can't hurt !
so I am leaving off the timing belt covers for now.
man those intake bolts are a Royal Pain in the ASS ! ya can't get your hand to them and a socket and universal joint keeps slipping off and an end wrench won't turn...no room...
with all the hoses and garbage under the manifold its almost impossible even to see where they are!
but clean living and perseverance prevailed ! I finally got the last bolt on there.... the rest was easy... comparatively speaking LOL
...
Bob.....

[Manta]

Bod,

Here's a bit of an update on the gasifier scene.

http://gekgasifier.pbworks.com/w/page/Spark-conversion-for-Lister-slow-speed-diesel-engines


Dave
(Manta)

[Bob]

HAHA !
thanks Manta its good to see them pressing on to get that old lister running on wood gas!
I still havn't ran my truck on woodgas yet... when I discovered how much wood it was going to take to make that thing run it really dampened my enthusium for the project ! I would need to carry at the least 3- 55galon drums of ready to burn fuel for one trip to town.... One filling to get into town and run around a bit, one to get home and one for reserve just incase I needed more fuel.
...
that doesn't sound all that bad till you realise each barrel has to be filled with wood that is no bigger than 2"x2".... that means a huge amount of RE CUTTING, chopping, chunking or busting of already dry Hard oak.
...
... I could spend all day and get only one 55 gal drum full... and well it just doesn't sound like a good alternative when I gott'a put that much work into it... a bicycle is easier !
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if Gasoline goes up to $20.00 a gallon then yah I'll do it... but I'll do it for my SMALL PICKUP and not the super thirsty Dodge with the 318 V8 in it.
....
perhaps bags of wood pellets might be the way to go but they are almost $6.00 a bag now ...and i fear if gasoline goes up so will they...
  I just don't have a source for wood chips like the other guys do, so its not really practical for me to use Wood gas..... at the Moment.... it may be in the future, who knows... but I am not looking forward to all the blisters from the ax handle !
...
Bob.....