CHUKY - The Little Licker

[Jasonb]

Inspired by Andy's thread about building the Alyn Foundry "CHUK" flame licker engine I thought it would be nice to have one of my own. As castings are not available I cut it from solid and also did it at about 2/3rds the size.

More details along with drawings will appear in a build thread on you favorite forum soon














After a few flicks to get him warmed up he is happy to perform for the camera

[youtube1]https://youtu.be/YFk4ZhEA4kE[/youtube1]

J

[Gas_mantle]

Looks great Jason, I'd be interested to read a bit more about it :-)

[b.lindsey]

A nice looking and running engine Jason. Have you had any issues with the cam linkage though being located right there above the flame. Any lubrication in the way of oil would surely get cooked I would think? 

Bill

[crueby]

Thats wonderful! Looks great, runs great too.   

Basic question, since I know nothing of how flame lickers work - I figure that it takes in the hot gasses on the intake stroke, port closes at the end of the stroke, then the piston is pulled down as the gasses cool? Am I in the ballpark on that one?

Thanks!
Chris

[Jasonb]

Thank's for the comment

All details will be in the Build thread

Bill, I have not noticed any problems so far, it does indeed get quite hot to the touch after running but have not seen signs of anything sticking. The bracket is brass and the rod steel, a brass roller follows the cam though I think it would work with a solid follower. Cast Iron Piston runs dry in teh matching Cast Iron cylinder, lapped fit.

Chris, thats basically it. At about BDC the shutter opens and draws in the warm gasses, the piston being driven by the momentum in the flywheel. At about TDC the shutter closes and the cooling gasses draw the piston down, this is the power stroke. Anything remaining in the cylinder as it approaches the end of the stroke that will not condense further is pushed out of a diaphram valve on the bottom of the cylinder, this is the flatulence you can hear.

J

[crueby]

...
Anything remaining in the cylinder as it approaches the end of the stroke that will not condense further is pushed out of a diaphram valve on the bottom of the cylinder, this is the flatulence you can hear.

Thanks!

The diaphram valve is a clever addition, makes perfect sense. Though your description brings whole new meaning to lighting a fart...!   

[Chipmaster]

Hi Jason, you have done really well with your Chuky, the exhaust note is perfect.
What material did you use for the diaphragm? 
I have run my Chuk for many hours and it kept running very well despite the soot building up in and around the shutter. Recently I took it apart to clean it out. it was pretty messy perhaps because I have lubricated the piston with WD40 but it only took half an hour to sort out and it still runs well.

Andy

[Jasonb]

Thanks Andy, yes it does get a bit sooty, one of the reasons I decided to leave teh cylinder bare iron.

Diaphragm was a 0.5mm slice parted off a cast iron bar, the parting put a very slight dish into it which made for easier lapping of the mating edge.

[Dave Otto]

Looks and runs great!
Nice work Jason, thanks for sharing.


Dave

[Walsheng]

Looks and runs great.  Are you running it on propane gas?

John

[Jasonb]

Thank's Dave & John

I'm using a camping stove type canister which is a butane/propane mix as I wanted something portable that I could run at a show if needed.

https://www.kampa.co.uk/gas-accessories/230g-butanepropane-gas-cartridge

I did the first test runs with a lash up on my regular Propane bottle that I use for soldering and can't see any difference in performance.

[youtube1]https://youtu.be/Fv7xys8xpzs[/youtube1]

[Alyn Foundry]

Hi Jason.

There's an old saying.....

" Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery "

You get a big thumbs up from the designer of CHUK 2 ..... Very well done.

On a later version I got rid of the shutter return spring by placing the cam roller above the cam with a forked rod that passed either side of the crankshaft. This improved the running efficiency by a fraction of a Gnat!!   

Kind regards, Graham.

[Jasonb]

Thanks Graham, if you have any more photos of the No1 and No3 engines I might flatter you some more by having a go at them as well, I know Andy would like to do them too. Anything that shows the bed of the horizontal and the A frame of the other would be good.

J

[Jasonb]

The build of this engine can now be found in the following thread along with links to the drawings.

http://www.modelenginemaker.com/index.php/topic,7193.msg150662

[Alyn Foundry]

Hi Jason.

Here's a video of the Mk 1 ( original version ) engine ( 3 built ) before I altered the base design to a lighter box to reduce costs, all other components were the same apart from the flywheel which was from the RLE engine. The newer version used our Robinson 1/2 scale hot air engine flywheel at 7" diameter.

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S13wymzV0po" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S13wymzV0po</a>

CHUK 3 used all standard castings apart from the base. The base was made from an RLE sub base casting with an extension to carry the crankshaft bearing.

Kind regards, Graham.