ptwizz

More photos added to the album and more progress. The supercharger housing has been bored to the profile to fit the impeller, using a fiendishly bodged copy technique which worked rather better than expected. I have not yet bored the holes for the inlet tracts to the cylinders. The inlet tracts will be fabricated from stainless steel and I have a better chance of boring the holes to match the geometry of the fabricated parts than the other way around. In the meantime, the supercharger parts are assembled and the SU carb hung on the front, looking like it means business. In other news, I am now the holder of a NPPL(M) and my aircraft passed inspection. I may be gone for some time...

As our 20th wedding anniversary was coming up, my wife asked me to get something 'to spice things up in the bedroom'. I bought her a small, potted rubber tree. "There you are", I said, "It's a latex fetish starter kit".

Thanks Alan. I've just completed the last couple of hours solo at the weekend, so I'll be sending off for my license this week and getting a permit on my Thruster, G-BZNP.

Another photo added - Supercharger housing. This one is guaranteed to raise accusations of having a CNC mill hidden away in the back of my garage. All the machining was carried out on my manual mill, using an improvised profile copying device. Kiwi dropped in during the process and has seen how it's done. I'll add some photos of the process in the coming days.

A few more photos added to the album. The supercharger (it'd be rude not to) impeller is fabricated around a cone, turned using my home made radius turning attachment. Nine of each of two sizes of impeller vane are cut from 2mm steel, with tabs which fit into the slots on the cone. Each vane is TIG welded at the back of the cone where the tab goes through, then the whole assembly is brazed, using the TIG torch at lower current to accurately heat and draw the Sifbronze material along the join (mostly) without forming blobs and puddles. The assembly is finally trued in the lathe. PS I have now passed GST for the microlight, so look out for G-BZNP at an airfield near you (provided its not too far from me).

Cheers Simon. More photos added: A large bearing is fitted to the cam front plate, concentric with its bearing on the crankshaft nose. This large bearing supports a ring gear which runs free except when the supercharger (S/C) is engaged. A nut screws onto the nose of the crankshaft and locks the bearing inner races and cam drive gear in place. This nut also carried the planet gears for the S/C drive, each of which runs on a needle roller bearing. A brake band will be mounted to the S/C gear housing. A cable will pull the brake band tight around the ring gear, holding it still so the S/C impeller is driven at 4x crankshaft speed. The arrangement is similar to that used in Model T Ford and automatic transmissions.

I've created an album, titled 'Off topic - radial engine build'. Here I have posted some more photos showing machine setups for the rockers, finished and fitted rockers and the supercharger gear housing. I'll post more soon.