The Recycled Jet Engine

Step 9 Finishing Up

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And now, good people, I bid you adu, for my work here is done. I have delivered to you my story to the best of my ability and now must depart, but I wish you all the best wishes ever.

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Alright, yay! We're done. Just as a final word, I'm going to point out again that this project uses nearly all recycled materials. It may not seem like it during the build, but all the major components of the engine are recycled, saving our planet - Yay saving the planet! I actually forgot at points as I was building this that all this stuff would've been wasted. I put a lot of work into this project and hope I provided enough information for some of you to duplicate this.

Ok, three more things that would really make me happy:
1. Comment! I never seem to get many comments when I put things online, either on here or youtube or anywhere else, and I like comments! : )
2. Rate! I often forget to rate things, but it would be nice if you didn't.
3. Vote for me in the Epilog Contest! I'm kind of submitting this late, and I don't really think this is good enough to win, but only if you think it's helpful and informative should you vote for it.

Thanks for reading!

Comments

[morgoth_lord]

The main reason this will not work is because a jet engine will need a combination of compressor-turbine, if you look at the schematics of a real jet engine you will see that for the type of jet engine you were trying to build you would have needed first to create a compressor using a combination of rotors-stators in a convergent chamber, then you would need to incorporate the fuel delivery system and ignition system after that, then you would need the turbine, in an opposite combination of the compressor, that would be stators first, then rotors, in a divergent chamber, ah, and the turbine needs to have a lower number of rotors-stators than the compressor. you would actually be able to use any fuel, but i would recommend actual hobby airplanes gas... or jet fuel... but u might find that harder to come across... you will need to make the turbine blades-rotors from heat-resistant materials, as well as the combustion chamber, and remember that the objective of the fuel injectors is to make an aerosol out of the fuel, so you would need some sort of pump to deliver the fuel at pressure to create an aerosol at the injectors, this pump, with ingenuity can be driven by the jet engine itself after is started by means of external force (meaning for a small engine a crank or so, and a spark plug or some type of ignitor in the combustion chamber). After u get all that working (which might never happen for you, based on the designs you have made so far...) then u can add an augmenter, which is somewhat shaped like an hour-glass and will take advantage of the "Venturi" effect to increase the airflow the engine is pushing.... There's also the afterburner, but that would be too complicated in your case. the whole idea of the Ecological Jet Engine, made out of recycled materials is quite ridiculous (no pawn intended), sorry to say, but a jet engine burns hydrocarbon based fuels, that's not very ecological, and recycled materials are not fit to resist the high temps in the combustion chamber and turbine. I hope my comment gave you some insight on the real workings of jet engines and drives you to search for more content you can find all over the internet on their designs, (also, there are pulse jet engines, which are much easier to construct and you might actually find it possible to build one with not so much effort) I believe that you have the passion to get one working if you get the right designs and technical knowledge. Good Luck! Morgoth "If you think things can't get worse it's probably only because you lack sufficient imagination."

[fozzy13]

I appreciate your information. I have researched it much more since writing this Instructable and have found what I did wrong. As I said in the Instructable I did intend to run it off of hydrogen, making it ecological. I have ideas for a second turbine engine, but not enough time and materials..

[yardkarter]

Yeah, hydrogen is ECOLOGICAL, but is it ECONOMICAL? NO! Try propane. Much safer and easier to come by.

[fozzy13]

Hydrogen may not be particularly economical at the moment, but many people are working to change that. The most convincing attempt I have seen involves a genetically modified bacteria or algae, that produces hydrogen. Also, I am currently working on a solar array to directly make hydrogen. However, I believe I mentioned somewhere that at one point I switched to using butane, which is similar to propane.

[morgoth_lord]

Yep, I saw abt the hydrogen... not the best idea for jet engines, but I do know it was all in the ecological intent... I don't have much time to get into building one, but as soon as I can find the time I will be making a small jet engine, I will actually have the parts machined from cad designs of my own so they will be up to specs, but the heat resistant materials for the combustion chamber and the blades in the turbine will cost me a pretty penny. maybe i can get away with having them made out of carbon steel and see how long do they last... anyways... If i get anything going i will post, including CADs...

[chefaholic77]

hey, i think tht this is a rlly cool idea. The idea is well thought out and it was well executed. But after looking at one of your pictures (the one of a fan) and i noticed that the blades may not be equal in size and weight, which could prevent the turbine from doing it's job. Its just an observasion, and it might just be the view that the picture is in. Its worth checking out though.....

[fozzy13]

Thanks! I highly doubt the blades are all the same size and weight, I definatly didn't do the best job on those, but they do move air. I might go for a Mk II at some point but I'd like to find a cheap welder first so I don't have to use JB Weld that doesn't have enough temperature resistance..

[Triden2008]

Hello Have you fired up your jet engine on anything?how much thrust dose it put out

[fozzy13]

I have no way to measure thrust. Unfortunatly it's snowing so I can't test anything or make a video right now..

[KARTHIK99]

DID IT WORK OR NOT i have made a jet engine i have spend over 3000 on it but the intake of air is by two fans it needs a voltage of 24v it can produce a thrust 5 kg on paper i have tried th method you did but it did not work i think petrol is the best fuel for yours because it burns at high temp let me know if it works

[fozzy13]

No, it did not work and is in a condition where I can't make it work without rebuilding the whole thing..

[danman1453]

What about using stainless steal automotive brake line? Would that be able to hold the heat better?

[squirt8500]

The melting point of stainless steel is about 2000 degrees versus the melting point of brass 900 degrees.

[fozzy13]

Thanks for that information, I may have been wrong in using brass then.. I bought a windproof lighter yesterday, which would completely combust butane, and it wouldn't melt tin cans that I used so I'm hopeful..

[___]

where did u get the lighter?

[fozzy13]

Target, like you had said. They only had one left..

[squirt8500]

I think that the most cost effective way to get a good fuel line is to use copper while I was at ACE hardware I picked up some aluminum pipe (specifically for this project) and I also saw some copper there so I researched and found the melting point of Aluminum was 1300 degrees while the melting point of copper was 1900 degrees. It may be hard to find some stainless steel brake line...

[fozzy13]

That's great, I would love to see some pictures of your finished project : ).. I did some testing today with the windproof ligher and both the brass tubing and JB Weld lasted over a minute without melting with me holding the flame to it, so we'll see how things turn out..

[squirt8500]

Ya I'll try to post a some pictures and possibly a video, I was thinking of using compressed air to test it then use butane after I know it works.

[fozzy13]

That would be great! : ) I did think of using compressed air first, but wasn't sure it would work that way..

[squirt8500]

Actually nevermind I think the JB weld is your problem, it melts at 500 degrees.

[fozzy13]

That would definatly hold the heat better, probably unbelievably better than my current setup with the brass. a couple seconds after I lit it, it was gone..

[danman1453]

Any ideas how hot hydrogen burns? If you do get successful ignition, you will have a flaming puddle of molten can. Hydrogen ignites at a little over 1000 degrees F. A water jacket over the entire setup would work. You would have to keep the water moving though.

[fozzy13]

I did get successful ignition, until my fuel setup melted. I tried just torching some extra cans I had laying around and it was a lot harder to melt them than I thought, with the hydrogen. It took more than ten or twenty seconds, which would be suitable for me to prove the concept.. Making a water jacket over the whole thing is kind of impractical for me.. thanks! : )

[danman1453]

not true. the water jacket could be made of more brake line. just wrap it around the engine very tight. for a pump, you could use a fuel pump from a junk yard and a 12 volt battery to power the pump.

[fozzy13]

Ok great : ).. I don't have any brake line, nor do I know where to get any. I don't know where the junkyard is, nor can I drive there once I know.. The problems of being 15... : / Thanks for all your help and comments though!

[___]

thats the problem with too i can't drive wherever I want

[zippydaspinhead]

Dude, If I lived anywhere near you I would totally drive you just to see this thing in person, the pictures of the fans on the inside totally made my day. Have you heard of the jetman?

[fozzy13]

I think you're making this a lot better in your head than it actually is, but thats okay : ).. I think so, didn't he fly across the British Channel with a jet pack??

[zippydaspinhead]

yeah thats the one

[danman1453]

let me think about this for a minute or two...

[danman1453]

ok, how about that brass tube again, except for cooling instead of fuel delivery. Now for the pump, look at hobby shops and computer stores for water pumps for electronics cooling. Might not be strong enough though. Actually, there is a water pump with no moving parts... i have seen it used for small model boat propulsion. It used the heat of the candle with a special setup to move the water through a tube. Maybe an adaptation of that would work? Any help from anybody else on what that setup is called or where to research it?

[___]

http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2004/12/9/41413/0938

[fozzy13]

That would work, but I'm thinking I want to get it working at least for a few seconds to prove it will work before investing a bunch of time and effort into a cooling system. Do you think copper pipe would work better or as well as brass for a cooling system? Copper pipe would be easier to wrap around the jet..

[___]

or you could take it out of a fountain.

[danman1453]

Any luck with getting that engine fired up?

[fozzy13]

I tried to run it today. I used some hydrogen from my hydrolosys setup and sort of melted part of my fuel system, so I'll need to do some repairs before I try it again.. thanks for the comment : )

[squirt8500]

Could you post how you fix the fuel system? Because I think that a lot of people will have this problem especially since butane burns so hot.

[fozzy13]

I would LOVE to post how to fix the fuel system : )...but it's not fixed yet : /