Air Wasp

Well shit a brick!

It works!!!!!

I hooked up the Flasher Can to an Ignition Coil (out of the magneto off a old Briggs and Strugglin I had lying around!) and wired it to my Power Supply, and what do you know, a nice steady click,click,click, just like when you flick on your Indicator on you Car!

It throws a fair spark (a little on the orangey side) but certainly good enough to light an L.P.G. flame!



The poor quality of the spark is (I suspect) probably due to either;

no capacitor on the relay in the Flasher Can or,

that it is totally the Wrong coil or,

a combination of both!





I'll rectify that by getting a proper G.T. 40 R Coil (they actually run on 8 Volts and only require 12 Volts when starting) .

The upshot is I may be able to run it off a 9 volt battery to keep it all compact!

(it draws a fair bit of current cos the relay spends most of the time in the normally closed position i.e. dead short! So if it runs on a 9 volt battery it's already current limited!)

And of course, put a capacitor across the relay points in the Flasher Can!

Well that's it!

First update complete.

;-))

*End Communique*

Air Wasp

Well Mark would be pleased,
looks like I'm actually writing a blog!

OK here goes.

It all started when I was a Kid and my Dad got me into building and flying Control Line Model Air-Craft,
I can't really remember when I first heard of Pulse Jets but it was around then and, I have been fascinated ever since.
I've always wanted to build a Model of a V1 Flying Bomb (a.k.a. Buzz Bomb or Doodlebug. Best known during the Battle of Britain or more precisely the London Blitz.) and may still will but, to do that we need to acquire a power-plant i,e. a Pulse Jet. When I was a Kid they were banned in Victoria so, the only way to lay your hands on one was to send to the U.S. and mail order it or, build one. The problem there is, not a lot was known about them and, getting plans was nearly imposable! (no Internet back then!)

I sort of forgot (How could I?) until my early twenty's when I met a Bloke who had built one and he showed it to me.
It was BEAUTIFUL! (the fires burn Bright again but,.............die again to embers)

Fast Forward to present!

So the desire to have one was put on the back-burner again until, my friend Mark (a.k.a, my personal I.T. Tech., friend, confidant and many other things!) stumbled me a heap of Pulse Jet sites and U-tube's (not knowing of my previous hankerings. He didn't know me when I was a kid!) So the Fuse (so to speak) was well and truly RE-LIT!
And now we come to about a month back and I decide to go to my local Exhaust Joint and bought some stainless tube 2 1/4" (for the combustion chamber) 1 3/8" (for the exhaust pipe [which turned out to be mild steel! oh well )
I cut a pair of triangles out of one end of the 2 1/4" and heat and beat at it for the next 3 days! Till I had it necked down to the 1 3/8" I needed and Mig Welded it all together.
Next I went to my local Honda dealer and got a small spark-plug (NGK CM 6) and then off to the Bolt Joint for a suitable nut and some stainless socket bolts, nuts and 2 large washers all M8 x 1.25. (these are for the L.P.G. injector. More about that later)

Next comes the big decision, Reed Valves or Valveless!
(now having started my time as an Outboard Mechanic I actually knew where to source out petal type reed valves! heh heh sneaky little bastard aren't I!)
But I decided to go reed-less anyway!






And here's what I came up with;







Looks pretty spiffy doesn't it!
It isn't actually finished quite yet, it needs to have the injector cap affixed to it and then it's ready to fire up!

But last night I had a bout of design frenzy and came up with this sketch!


And so the Air Wasp was born!
(sorry about picture quality, my scanner seemed to read what was on the back of the page as well)
Obviously this is not to scale but I'm proud of my artist's impression anyway! (I've never been very good at drawing I usually just picture it in my mind's eye and then make it! [good for revisions that way, they're instant!])









I've had an idea about where to source out stainless stuff, Milking Machine suppliers!
(comes from living in a Rural area and working on a Dairy Farm when I was 17)
No shit the stuff they've got on their shelves is Manna from Heaven to people who are interested in experimenting with Pulse Jets!

Trouble is it's expensive!
But, not as expensive as having an engineer make it up for you!

I spent less than $50.00 AUD all up on building the first one, (pictured above)
It cost me 50 bucks just to acquire 3 pieces of stainless to start the Air Wasp!





But I'm willing to pay for Beauty, and you'll see from the picture here that the potential is there to come up something really Beautiful!







As you can see the Air Wasp already looks good and I haven't even done anything to it yet!
You can also see that the first one (which I think I'll call the Bush Pig!) looks like it was home-made in someone's back yard workshop, (it was, Mine!) but the Air Wasp will look like a Bought One!
(Don't get me wrong I LOVE my Bush Pig[who wouldn't?] but the Air Wasp well.................!)


P.S, Air Wasp is sort of a tribute to my Dad, (who Passed Away last year). He raced Austin Specials in the 50s and 60s. He called his cars WASp. (Mk 1, Mk 2 and Mk 3.). Wasp stood for Woods Austin Special, which I have altered slightly to Woods Australian Special.

Hence Air Wasp!

Went to Darren's (where my Lathe is stored) and started work on the Air Wasp.



Didn't do a heap, just got out the boring bar and took some meat out of the combustion chamber (it was about 5 mm thick, so I bored it to about 2 mm thick) and










chamfered the rear of the combustion chamber to fit the cone a bit better.



It'll go together a little bit like this!

Mark came up with a novel idea for a budget igniter,
"why don't you hook up a flasher-can in series with the primary of an ignition coil?"

Well for the life of me I can't think "why not!" (well it did occur to me that the coil primary may require more Current (Amps) than the can could supply but, we can get around that if we need to! the idea is still basically sound!)

I've been to T.N.T. (my local Auto Parts Supplier) and Terry hooked me up with a 2 wire flasher-can (it can't get any simpler)


I'll get back to you and tell you how it goes!

And now we get to the bit where I say

"Watch This Space!"

It's getting dark, my glasses are dirty and it's getting hard to see to type, I'm hungry and so are my critters!

I'll be back when I have more to update on the build!

Cheers, Mick. ;-))

The Motorcycle Rider

I don't know who the original author is but one of my motorcycle email groups forwarded this email it is worth the read.

The Motorcycle Rider

I saw you pull your child closer when we passed each other on the sidewalk.
But you didn't see me playing Santa at the local mall.

I saw you change your mind about going into the restaurant. But you didn't see me attending a meeting to raise more money for the hurricane relief.

I saw you roll up your window and shake your head when I drove by.
But you didn't see me riding behind you when you flicked your cigarette butt out the car window.

I saw you frown at me when I smiled at your children. But you didn't see me when I took time off from work to run toys to the homeless.

I saw you stare at my long hair. But you didn't see me and my friends cut ten inches off for Locks of Love.

I saw you roll your eyes at our leather coats and gloves. But you didn't see me and my brothers donate our old coats and gloves to those that had none.

I saw you look in fright at my tattoos. But you didn't see me cry as my children were born and have their name written over and in my heart.

I saw you change lanes while rushing off to go somewhere. But you didn't see me going home to be with my family.

I saw you complain about how loud and noisy our bikes can be. But you didn't see me when you were changing the CD and drifted into my lane.

I saw you yelling at your kids in the car. But you didn't see me pat my child's hands, knowing he was safe behind me.

I saw you reading the newspaper or map as you drove down the road.
But you didn't see me squeeze my wife's leg when she told me to take the next turn.

I saw you race down the road in the rain. But you didn't see me get soaked to the skin so my son could have the car to go on his date.

I saw you run the yellow light just to save a few minutes of time.
But you didn't see me trying to turn right.

I saw you cut me off because you needed to be in the lane I was in.
But you didn't see me leave the road.

I saw you waiting impatiently for my friends to pass. But you didn't see me.
I wasn't there.

I saw you go home to your family. But you didn't see me. Because I died that day you cut me off.

I was just a bikie. A person with friends and a family. But, you didn't see me.

Lots of news on the RD

I haven't posted for a while and have been doing bits and pieces to the RD. Most of the stuff has been the fiddly things I didn't want to do, but the things I had to do to pass the Roadworthy certificate test.

Replace handlebars I used cut down AG bike bars they suit my more erect (read stuffed back) riding posture, it also has an instrument cluster protection bar that will make a great mount for the digital camera when I go on rides.

Sticky throttle- rubbed down the handlebars as they had some old paint on them that was causing problems, and take the burr of the end from the shortening I had done. Lubed up all the cables with WD40 and now I have a throttle that makes a decided thud as the slides in the carby close, nice and quick.

Replace clutch lever as the old one had been broken in the crash

Replace clutch cable as the old one is stretched

I had the back wheel straightened and a new tube fitted, tire is in RWC

Welded up the headlight shell then rewired the bike in to the back of the shell, up to this point I had just been working out the wiring and had it hooked up temporarily.

I had to rewire most of the cables running to the headlight shell as they had been ripped out during the crash. This was the first hurdle to get it running as we had no ignition as the wires had been ripped out so no spark, we ended up hot wiring the bike to start with.

Fitted the two remaining indicators to the front and am looking around for some chrome indicators, round ones that will suit the bike, this way I have pairs front to rear.

Stripped out the axles and brake pivot points (drum brakes front and rear) and lubricated, the brakes actually release now when you let them go and the wheels turn with a light push instead of busting a spleen trying to push it around with dry axles and brakes locked on.

Had the seat re trimmed in black vinyl with high frequency welded seams, it looks almost factory.

Swapped some rectangular mirrors I had been given by Mick for a pair of round ones that suited the bike better.

Replaced the fuel lines.

Cleaned some over spray off the tank, i used WD40 again, stripped the over spray off but didn't damage the original paint.

Replaced the plugs.

Replaced battery, this was a no brainer a 30 year old battery left unmaintained, I knew this would need replacing and had one on order before I picked up the bike.

Removed muffler baffle tubes to clean them but they look like they were replaced yesterday.

There was a light on the instruments that came on with the brake lights, I disconnected it as I didn't want it flashing on and off in winding roads at night especially as it was RED what the hell was that designer thinking, red is bad and how is putting the brakes on bad...

Brought an old style helmet on eBay and got some riding goggles with 3 different colour lenses as well.

Well that is about it for the list of things that have kept me busy, with no undercover area to work in I just work in among the rain and at this stage am looking good to have it on the road for Christmas. Then it is time to start getting her ready to take from Melbourne to Perth Australia one of the longest runs in the world, coast to coast it is about 3600 km's or about 2240 miles.

This is my first long distance trip so any suggestions from readers is most welcome, just leave it in comments. I plan to do about 500km a day or 5 hours riding but that is just a plan, when I get the time I will put the list of items I am taking with me.

Left for RWC

Okay I gave you a list of what i have done here is what i have left.

• Replace front tube. (leaks)
  
• Fit rear indicators. (missing or broken)
  
• Fit handlebar end caps (missing)
  
• Replace headlight lens (cracked)
• Adjust chain
• Fit clutch cable and adjust up clutch (stretched)
• Fit front brake switch (broken)
• Maybe replace forks (some light surface rust at very top)
• Maybe replace rear shocks (might be leaking)

Ferrofluids

Velcro was a great discovery (or was it given to us in a treaty agreement with an alien race) but Ferrofluids are really interesting. A mix of nano sized particles of something like haematite or magnetite with a carrier to keep it all in suspension. The nano particles are small enough that an equal dispersion is maintained by the heat in the system creating thermal agitation.

Some of the ideas these things are good for a killing cancer by injecting some directly in to the tumour and then making it "dance" around with magnets causing friction and local heat that destroys the tumour. Another is replacing the air around the voice coil in a loudspeaker with a ferrofluid, one of the things that a ferrofluid does is behave along the curie effect, as it gets hotter it loses its magnetism, in the voice coil this means that the colder ferrofluid is drawn to the voice coil, as it becomes hotter and reaches its curie point it is no longer magnetic and colder fluid comes in while the hotter fluid is moved to the outside near the heat sink, no moving parts required.

Oh and they look good as well here is a picture from the wikipedia article on ferrofluid's.