AFCF1 - a little French flame licker

[Ian S C]

Marble, or slate floor tiles would look good, my motor bases in general are made from scrap steel, on average about 1/2" thick, I hollow them out underneath, so that the top is about 3/32" to 1/8" thick.
A bit of plate glass might just do it.  You need 2 holes, make sure there is plenty of clearance, and perhaps with a little wooden plinth under it, that would give room for the screw heads, or some other form of feet under it, if it goes well, it might just move around a bit.
You can buy drills for glass, they are a form of spade drill, with a very acute point.   
If you go for the plastic, an insulating sleeve over the bolts that secure the motor to the base, and insulating washers under the heads.  just make the crankshaft pillars higher by the thickness of the insulation under the cylinder support.     Ian S C

[jwcnc1911]

I finally got around to boring and reaming the cylinder.  I cant say enough about spending the money for quality tools.  Every time I've gone cheap I've been let down - every time I've spent the money for good tooling it has been rewarding.

I couldn't get a really good picture but here is the finished cylinder:

[Don1966]

Looks good to me Jeremy, nice work.

Don

[jwcnc1911]

Thanks Don!

All that's left to machine is the piston.  I'm really hoping to get it done today.  I also have to make a burner of some kind.

I'd prefer to make one over buy any way.

JW

[BronxFigs]

Hello Jeremy:

Just recently checked-out your build.  Nice looking Flamer!  Thanks for sharing, and letting us look over your shoulder.


Frank

[NickG]

Nice work JW. I say this on every flame licker build i see because it worked so well - I went for graphite on both of my poppin engines and both ran first time. Its better because it's lighter, self lubricating and easy to obtain a good fit with. If it's a little tight it soon loosens off and sort of finds its own best fit. My other flame licker,  which was a different design so can't compare like for like, was a monumental PITA to get to work. Cyl and piston were cast iron, i ended up having to ream the bore with an adjustable reamer and on my 3rd set of pistons it worked! Virtually No amount of leakage or friction
Is tolerable. Because of that, if you aren't going graphite it may be best to keep brass with brass. I tried an aluminium piston for lightness but it locked up solid after a few minutes of trying to flick it over due to the differing rates
Of expansion - obviously the friction drastically  increasing in that short space of time. it was never going to work when i thought about it unless an appropriate clearance at ambient was calculated! Keep up the good work.

[b.lindsey]

You're getting close now JW...Hope you have a successful first run!!

Bill

[jwcnc1911]

Hi all, thanks for the compliments!

Another little update.  A few pictures.  In an absent minded moment I managed to break off the small nub cooling fin.  I don't know how many times I've chucked this cylinder up or torqued it in a vice.  This time I let the leather slide down and it broke the smallest cooling fin.  I've already filed and cleaned it up.  You wouldn't know if you hadn't seen it... but I know.  That drives me nuts.


I do enjoy playing with a good fitting piston/cylinder.  I guess I'm weird but here are a couple YouTube videos of it:

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v63y9ua-3us" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v63y9ua-3us</a>

Man I'm getting close and for some reason I can't manage to get in the shop long enough to do anything.  I have to make the funky spring, piston rod pin and crank rod pin.

[NickG]

Great fit on the piston 

[jwcnc1911]

Hello all!

I am excited!  I have completed AFCF1!

As mentioned by some kind friends on MEM here the Lexan base was a weak point.  I finished the engine on Wednesday.

I did some playing.  In the end I made a new aluminum base.  I achieved a sustained run of about 2 minutes today.

From here on, I'll consider all work on this engine tweaking.

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxPx3aMgB6c" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxPx3aMgB6c</a>

[jwcnc1911]

Great fit on the piston 

Thank you Nick!  My apologies, I don't know how I missed a good compliment.  My poor manners, Alabama would be ashamed.

[Jo]

  I haven't made one of these yet, your model is inspiring me to make one JW.


More to go on my build list.

Jo

[Don1966]

Nice runner Jeremy. 


Don

[NickG]

Well done, that is a great achievement i think as i know these can be tricky to get to run. The trick is getting a fit on the piston like that and reducing friction to as low as possible in the rest of the system, of course a good seal on the valve and it should be away! You should do Jo as a small diversion at some point, they are mesmerising to watch.

[fcheslop]

Congratulations on a good runner. Be careful one burn and you are hooked forever .I just cannot stop building them.
For a very fast runner try a Little Blazer
cheers