I've been learning to TIG weld now for a few months. Most of the welding done in class is on 6 inch strips of metal [mild, stainless, aluminum]. I want to venture a little, so I've come up with a project of my own - I'm going to build a pulse jet engine.
I'm following the Lockwood Hiller design, and drew up the plans right from the patent. I'm going to build a small one, as creating tons of thrust isn't important to me right now - I just want to see if I can get the thing to run.
The limiting factor on how small I can make it is the size of the mandrel bend - the smallest I could find in 304 SS is 1.5" 16 gage]. From this I drew up plans in SolidWorks and made a 3D model. I'm going to purchase a sheet of .020" thick 304 SS to make the rest of the engine from. I am experimenting here - the material may be too thin, but I have NO way of bending 16 gage stainless if I purchased it to match the thickness of the mandrel bend. The overall length is about 3 feet.
Materials are going to run me around $80-$100 probably. I will probably use LPG for fuel. I have no idea how to build a 555 timer circuit, but I'm going to scour the net and see if I can put one together for the cheap. Another thing I'm having difficult with is the bung for the spark plug - From what I gather the typical Honda plug has a thread size of M14 x 1.25 mm - I can't find any nuts of this size on McMaster-Carr. Does anyone know where I can find a nut this size or probably even better an alterntative spark plug and its thread size?
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