The Fat Lady ..................FM-1

[racket]

Hi Guys

With all the activity on the Site at the moment, its inspired me to get the FM-1 engine out of her 6 years of retirement, unfortunately she's been cannibalised a bit for subsequent engine builds so needed a few minor parts remade , the test stand also needed a new gauge or two and reinstatement of the low flow oil pump for the ball bearings in FM-1.

Its taken a few weeks to get everything back together and tested so this morning I thought "its time" , so wheeled the test stand out into the sunshine and parked her on the grass to stop her rolling away under thrust .

Heh heh , it was like old times firing up the leafblower ,...........with oil pump getting a steady flow going through the engine the ignition was switched on and some LPG fed into her , a nice muffled "woop" and it was time to get her spinning with a little help from the leafblower , with temps getting passed 200C it was time to start feeding in a full blast of air and open up the kero cock.

I'd forgotten how slow a leafblower spools up an engine after the fast 6 second spoolups of the 10/98 with the starter motor , so there was a fair bit of flame out the jet nozzle for a few seconds with TOTS of over 1,000 C , but she quickly settled at a steady idle .

So nice to smell burning kero again and feel a jet blast in the face :-)

For those Members who don't remember the build from over on the Yahoo DIY Gas Turbines Site , where theres lotsa pics in my Photos Folder groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/DIYGasTurbines/photos/albums/176970103

Some old video of FM-1 on my Youtube www.youtube.com/channel/UCHWNGFJ7enlzhsguJJbahyg or try this one www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX5U8DlBzzk

The engine idled away for several minutes, which was all I wanted, so decided to switch her off before anything happened , but turned off the wrong ball cock :-( ....... instead of the fuel to engine cock I hit the bypass to tank cock , the engine received "full throttle" for a couple of seconds before this old brain realised the mistake..............ah well , we're all human , the engine survived, thats all that mattered .................LOL , it did sound sweet though :-)

I'll try and add a couple of pics of the engine

The front side of engine parts

[pitciblackscotland]

Hi John,
Good to here that's she can still come to life :-))) Man 6 years!!! How time flys.

Cheers,
Mark..

[smithy1]

Excellent..!

1000C....! That's getting up there, as long as it's not for too long she should survive intact....

Well done for getting back on the horse Sir.

Cheers,
Smithy.

[enginewhisperer]

good stuff!

[racket]

Fuel manifolds , I used 3 segments to hopefully prevent variations in fuel flow , there was a "hydrostatic" pressure difference between top and bottom injectors which resulted in slightly higher idling fuel flows to the lower injectors




A virginal FM-1 waiting to be spooled up for the first



Such a well rounded rear end



And the "backside" of engine bits

[racket]

Hi Guys

Nice to be an "active" Member again

Its just like riding a bike , we never really forget , even if a bit rusty for the first few minutes.

M m m m ............might start looking at the 666 engine bits with a little more enthusiasm

Cheers
John

[Johansson]

Aug 31, 2014 22:07:08 GMT -5 racket said:

Hi Guys

Nice to be an "active" Member again

Its just like riding a bike , we never really forget , even if a bit rusty for the first few minutes.

M m m m ............might start looking at the 666 engine bits with a little more enthusiasm

Cheers
John

That´s the spirit John! The 666 beast needs to take its first deep breath soon.

[miuge]

That's a beautiful engine you got, it's great to follow your builds in real time!

[madpatty]

That's cool Racket,
The Teacher's Build thread......i am excited to follow the proceedings....

[finiteparts]

John,

That is some really nice work there! I am glad to be able to chat with you here and share ideas! Truly you are an "artist"...like I quoted to Anders,

“He who works with his hands is a laborer.
He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman.
He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist.” - Francis of Assisi

[racket]

Hi Guys

Looking at the pics, I think I put more effort into the FM-1 than I did subsequent builds , it was a less hurried build .

The diffuser with its large vaneless gap and longer less divergent passageways is I feel a better setup than the smaller diameter engines I made , also the TL92 comp wheel of only 44 Trim gave less inducer problems than the TV94's 48 Trim .

I had enormous bearing problems with the build , wrecking several comps and turbs when the bearings failed , the poor old NGV is pretty battle scared from turb tip shrapnel whilst the comp outer cover has a bit more inducer clearance than original machining produced :-(

She was a good learning tool though, and now that she's equipped with an axial thrust reducing labyrinth seal against the rear of the comp wheel and nice #8 bearings from an Allison C20 engine being squirted with plenty of turbine oil , she's a much more reliable engine deserving " to be put out to pasture " with just an occasional spoolup to keep the bearings happy ;-)

Cheers
John

[Deleted]

Aug 31, 2014 22:07:08 GMT -5 racket said:

Hi Guys

Nice to be an "active" Member again

Its just like riding a bike , we never really forget , even if a bit rusty for the first few minutes.

M m m m ............might start looking at the 666 engine bits with a little more enthusiasm

Cheers
John

Good to hear that she's still 'alive' ,seems like she's pretty solid
I hope the neighbours enjoyed you getting back on the 'horse' as much as you did
Cant wait for 666 to be ready ,need an excuse to come and have a look (not really)
Anyway am typing this at LAX waiting to board back to Brisbane, just spent the last 3 weeks at themeparks and NASA related displays
lotsa stuff here to get the creative thoughts going again.
Any way will catch up soon

Cheers chris

[racket]

Hi Chris

LOL........you certainly don't need an excuse for a visit ............anytime you like :-)

Have a safe trip home.

Cheers
John

[ashpowers]

Heh heh heh, how sweet it is! Thanks for posting this, John. Brings back some very good memories of time past!

I recall you working on FM-1 when I was first constructing the T04 engine - back on the Pulse-Jets site and then on to the Yahoo groups.

Lotsa email exchanges between the two of us too. Good times, happy to still be in the same circles with ya!

-Ash

[racket]

Hi Ash

Yep, lotsa emails :-)

There certainly were a number of ups and downs with FM-1 until you sourced the TV94 bits for me, that pretty much saved me, new parts were just what was required to start me building a "better" engine, the TV94 bits in the 10/98 engine have taken a lot of abuse both at my hands and with Andrews and they just keep on spinnin' around, heh heh , they may have slightly dated technology but they've got good "agricultural flog-ability "

I'm looking forward to seeing you get your TV94 bits spinning around as well :-)

Cheers
John