Introduction: The Accidental Pocket Jet Engine...
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)
Step 2: Explanations and Safety
Ok you are dealing with fire and gas here, so at this point I would like to explain that I take no responsibilty for injury or damage caused by the items shown in this instructable, also if you're under 13 I suggest not doing this at all, just because you're under thirteen, fire may cause rash judgements in males under 50 and females under 16.
Well how this happened... I was making a simple bunsen burner for the pocket instructables and as far as I can tell the new design I came up with affords too much slowing of the air/gas mixture, combined with the fact that the upper casing becomes hot, this meant that the flame reached a critical point and suddenly receded inside and turned in to a jet engine, by putting a tiny nozzle on the end after this may be able to create some thrust.
Again, I accidentally made a jet engine out of a pen.
Step 3: The Setup.
This is dead simple.
basically you have gas and air coming in one end, being burnt in the middle and hot gases coming out the other end...
So the nozzle goes on the bottom of the metal pen barrel, air holes outside the barrel, the pen lid is chopped up a tad and used to make a small sealing ring around the nozzle top, without that you'll only get a weak yellow flame because pressure can't build and also there's too much air to gas.
Step 4: Putting It Together.
So first thing you'll need is to make the nozzle fit tight in to the pen barrel, my way of doing this was simply to cut the end off of the bic pen lid and fit it over the barrel and shape it so that the air holes were open, very important. after fitting it to the nozzle you slide the nozzle assembly down the pen barrel and then grip the bottom part of the nozzle and pull and wiggle the nozzle down until the air holes are at least halfway clear of the barrel bottom.
Step 5: Stand It Up...
I used some wire and a bit of speaker mesh to create a decent collapsible stand for the rest of it, I then used some wire to hold the gas tank in place on the mesh aswell, after this I connected the nozzle up to the gas tank.
Step 6: It Lives!!!
So after pulling the little lever bit to start the gas flow I held a lit lighter to the end.
At first there was a nice flame out the end and after three seconds or so the was a small pop and the a strange wooshing noise, holy moses I made a jet engine out of a pen and lighter...
Step 7: Now It's Better
Second pic shows the engine in it's new shape, different stands.
Hopefully you'll be able to hear the engine in this video, it's hard to tell when you already know what it sounds like.
In the video it's running really hot and is burning the powder coat on the pen tube a bit, the actual barrel is made of brass so it's pretty safe.

First Prize in the
Pocket-Sized

First Prize in the
The Instructables Book Contest
1 Person Made This Project!
- Deckdogs11 made it!
518 Comments
9 years ago on Introduction
how do you ignite the fuel air mixture
Reply 1 year ago
Use a lighter.
Reply 6 years ago
Use electric sparks
Question 1 year ago on Step 7
Hi, does that thing generate any force.
Question 1 year ago on Introduction
Hi where can I find the instructable on making your own jet lighter nozzle mentioned in the beginning of the post? Or even any instructions on this that are simple enough for the average person to understand and follow please. I would appreciate anyone that could direct me, thank you.
3 years ago
Cool
12 years ago on Step 7
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.
Reply 5 years ago
i agree with you
this model of jet engine don't event have fan or motor for air compressor
it look like it have a power
but it actually don't have the power
Reply 7 years ago on Step 7
I would say this is more of a small rocket than a jet.
Reply 5 years ago
Actually its the definition of a jet. A jet engine draws air in, compresses it, burns it, then sends hot exhaust gas out in the form of thrust
Reply 12 years ago on Step 7
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
6 years ago
6 years ago
please help me with the nozzle i literally read all of the comments and wasn't able to find any help there...got almost everything of it except the nozzle which connects the fuel(lighter body) to the combustion chamber(pen body)...if you just give a rough design of the nozzle including the air holes (on this and the previous version) will be really a lot helpful...I just wanted to build a small working model showing the working of pulse jet for a demonstration active session to my colleagues...
any help will be appreciated..!!
Thank you
6 years ago
Hey how powerful can u make it and how big
7 years ago
i am makeing a me 163 rc plane so pls
7 years ago
make a biger vershon pls
7 years ago
pretty cool but slightly techo
7 years ago
Isn't it a blowtorch?
8 years ago on Introduction
What is the jet nozzle made of I can't find a video of how to make it.
8 years ago on Introduction
hey this is sweet and I want to build it but im not sure how if I can use a regular lighter or not and I don't know where to poke the holes.