The accidental pocket jet engine...

Yep, that's right a baby jet engine, it takes in air and uses fuel to heat and therefore expand the air, this particular engine is more a functioning model, it produces little thrust in real terms, it is however a lot of fun and makes one interesting ornament, albeit a dangerous one.

Continue on and see, by the way here's a video to go with it.

Step 1 Tools and materials

Tools:
*Pliers
*File (possibly avoided)
*A lighter

Materials:
*A metal pen barrel
*The cap of a bic pen
*Some wire (I used bare steel wire)
*A jet lighter nozzle (If you don't have one I'll soon have an instructable showing you how to make one)
*A lighter reservoir (I used one off another jet lighter that had three nozzles, converted it to one for power)

Comments

[ccopyrites1986]

I was thinking about using an old 30-06 bullet casing cut to size. might be thick enough to handle the heat better?

[Aron313]

Thats sick!! put it on a small plane!!!! or do what coonass said!!!!!!

[coonass]

Hot DAMN! This is unreal! Ever tried putting this on a flat bed HO scale rail car, setting the whole thing on HO rail tracks and re-creating a rocket sled? Just curious. You should be able to put a micro scale of some sort in front of the assembly so the jet sled/rail car pushes against it and allows you to measure your thrust in ounces or grams. In fact, you could calibrate a system like this by cutting the explosive charge off of a model rocket engine, putting THAT on your rail car and measuring the thrust as I described - then comparing that to the rated thrust of the engine. That would give you a comparison. By measuring several different sizes of model rocket engine, you could work out a conversion factor to allow you to calculate the actual thrust from the readings on your scale just by calculating ratios of real thrust to measured thrust. If you're serious, of course, you'd need to burn up several examples of each thrust level model rocket engine to reduce the impact of observational error and/or chance mishap on your calculations. Good work, dude!

[pastaking]

Or use model rockets specifically designed for cars - cutting off the explosive (recovery) charge prevents any thrust, if I remember rightly.

[geeklord]

carefull what you do with the explosive charge out of a model rocket engine(specificaly C6-3s and higher). Trust me, I would know that a 3rd degree burn all over the bottom of your hand hurts like hell, and takes really long to heal. Just a word of caution :)

[killerjackalope]

It's not quite at that stage but soon it will be...

[techno guy]

Where can I buy a jet lighter that is cheap and durable?

[HVahead]

walgreens for 5

[MANinYOURhouse]

I bought one at a local gas station for around 10 bucks. little reservoir though

[killerjackalope]

The funny thing is dollar store ones have pretty much the same innards as more expensive ones - try to get one with a metal body as they tend to have less integrated parts inside.

For your nozzle question, this guy got it before I did...

http://www.instructables.com/id/The-accidental-pocket-jet-engine-parts/

On the other 'ible you asked about making a nozzle for a lighter - I doubt you'd get one to fit and work in a lighter unless you machined one just like a manufactured one...

[techno guy]

How do you make a jet lighter nozzle?

[bio-logical]

i can't seem to find any kind of tube in some of the devices you have said like a jet lighter or what not, so is it possible to find them in bar-be-que lighters?

[jbman840]

sarey for the spelling i have dislexeya
your desine is intresting and prity cool i am going to make a jet engine useing and plasma torch you see plasma is som would say is the 4th state of matter and i will spin the plasma with magnetick felds and at the rite speed i will reles it and if all gos well it willl give a woping 66% afishinsee

[Ki1o]

I wonder if it would be possible to make a mini afterburner to add thrust to it.

[Tobor 2.0]

every try adjusting it so it creates more thrust

[tzq33tdq]

i've been wondering how to make a jet engine for some time now and i have finally found out how.

[killerjackalope]

There are a lot of better options than this one, it's more or less just a model, no serious thrust...

Pulse jets are a cheap way to start...

[ceraman]

is this a really jet engine or just a decorative model? i want to make a practical one. but i think that's not work in this way.

[killerjackalope]

This one won't produce serious thrust, for the size and valveless pulse jets probably the best option, I have plans to build a jet engine with useful thrust but at the moment I'm working on some high voltage projects

[115494]

since you know how to make a jet engine i was wondering if you know how to make a mini gasoline engine because i am trying to make one. thanks.

[killerjackalope]

Look at two stroke engines, the simplest type of piston engine if you're going to build one from scratch that's a good place to start.

[fly_boy_bc]

Um... Jet engines have thrust. This is NOT a jet engine it is a camp stove or cigarette lighter. Suggestion :read read read. There ARE working jet engines AS SIMPLE AS THIS ONE but they actually produce thrust. No moving parts required. It's called a ram jet but I would reccomend a pulsejet since it has STATIC thrust.

[For Better Or Worse]

Why are the pictures not showing!!!!!!! I'm trying to build one but I cannot see how you did yours.

[Pyro-crazy]

Here are the new nozzle pictures again. Do you think these will work?

[Pyro-crazy]

the images

[rug]

how does those work if u could have a look and answer a questain i posted on how does a jet lighter work . thanks

[junits15]

if you jb weld a nut the size of the threads on the to the back it would make fo and easy removal, but it might eventualy burn up and fall off, if you know how and have the tools you cloud weld it on

[killerjackalope]

Perfect looking one, looks just like the original ones I used, see the hole in the cross section, that's the one that needs to be outside the barrel with only the hole where the mixed gas and air comes out inside. Any objects you can find that stand the heat and make a good shape are game for experimentation, some people had luck with spent Co2 capsules by drilling holes in them - click view all comments and look at them for a few ideas.

[Mario1]

When is this "soon" going to be ???

[killerjackalope]

Very - I got sidetracked by a lot happening to me, plus other projects and tech work, I'm getting materials and such next week.

[Nicola Tesla]

Well??!

[killerjackalope]

Well I got somewhere with it then left it alone for a long time because it went a bit wrong and I still have nerve damage along the outside of index finger...  

[pocketsnzl]

 any idea when the instructable will be finished cos im eager to make another engine

[FaqMan]

Also when your engine is complete can we use it in RC vehicles?

[killerjackalope]

If it has enough thrust definitely, the new one's still in design, I realized I'd made a mistake in it and it couldn't work, it should work soon enough...

[FaqMan]

ok.

[FaqMan]

Can't wait till next week then.

[zack247]

what if you attatched a heatsink to it? would that help with dissipating the heat?

[Robotech112]

Mine just had a flame at first but i fixed it. Mine overheats quickly too

[bos0004]

can you put it in a model to fly or not?