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Build Your Own Jet Engine
jgarland79 writes "Have you ever wanted your very own jet engine? Build one at home in your own garage. The guys over at www.garagejet.com have done just that. Their jet engine is made from an automotive turbo, spark plugs, and some scrap metal. I have made a mirror site here." We've had a couple of previous stories about a guy building pulsejet engines - the type of engine described above is a turbojet.
'Nuff said! ;)
I build one of those once. It was a blast until the FBI got to me.
Anything in parenthesis may (not) be ignored.
Now I'm going to have to start worrying about real rice rockets on the way home from work.
attempt to win the x prize. w00t
Combined with the Slashdot articles on Build Your Own Cruise Missle, I'm good to go!
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Two slashdottings for the price of one!
Both websites appear to have "flamed out".
It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men. -Frederick Douglass
Another site that shows you some of the steps in building a gas turbine engine (also known as a jet engine) this one uses a turbo charge, probably not quite as good though
http://asciimation.co.nz/turbine/
he also uses it to cool beer.
http://asciimation.co.nz/beer/
Please help with bandwidth! Please right click on the links, and choose save target as. These videos are in real audio format. If you do not have real player you can get it for free HERE
I don't see how that would help but I bet it goes down faster thatn a crashing jet airplain.
These guys are amateurs compared to Mark Nye of Nye Thermodynamics. I realize the page is a little old, but homebuilt gas turbines aren't exactly high tech till you get up to the FADEC systems of commercial jetliners
http://www.nyethermodynamics.com/
Off topic: Ooo... lets slashdot the server to oblivion. It's got MOVIES!
If you like small engines, take a look at 5bears.com -- he's made a turbojet (centrifugal compressor and turbine) and a turboprop, complete with microcontroller-based starter/fuel system, in addition to a couple of radial engines, a CNC mill, and a homebuilt spotwelder.
I bet you could move a shopping cart at greater than 3 ft/min with that thing.
They are going to die! The only good point is that it will be quick!
This server looks like it's begging for a slashdotting. Unfortunately, about 2 or 3 of us will be downloading the 5 or 6 .RM files hosted.
Anyone have the videos in a standard format?
funny munging
Great article, except for the fact that I can turbo my car for a little bit more than what they ask for on their site. I think it's a bit funny that they proclaim DONT DO THIS but proceed to sell kits for them, too.
No.
Next question...
This would definitely be a source of inspiration for those budding innovators and inventors.
Do they use the frozen chicken launcher test method or do they use more historical (but less modern) live chicken?
There is nothing wrong with being gay. It's getting caught where the trouble lies.
I like the drill being used as an oil pump, but what happens if some bright spark hits the reverse direction button?
I hope those chaps have good home & contents insurance!
Real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time.
-- Terry Pratchett, Hogfather
When building an engine that will potentially operate at over 1000 degrees Celsius, be sure to build frame out of wood.
Just a side note, the New Zealand government recently shot down bruce's $5,000 cruise missle project. read about it here.
Very sad, i was looking forward to its completion.
Newsie, Moderator, www.tauniverse.com
Especially if you plan on titling one of your videos "Ooops! Forgot to make sure the fittings were tight!"
Jeez...
More Power! for my riding lawn mower. grr grunt grr grunt grr grunt.
$cat
These guys are charging $20 for the 555 chip. These things go for around $0.90 at radio shack. At first I thought it was the entire assembly, but then I saw the assembly for $50.
-William
God is everything science has yet to explain.
Let's see, super chargers are ungodly expensive....
Adding turbo or even replacing turbo, out of this world....
But! Two 300 dollar jet engines welded to the side of your Ford Escort!?!?!?!? Francine Dee! Here I come!
"We've had a couple of previous stories about a guy building pulsejet engines - the type of engine described above is a turbojet
We just invented a new one...serverjet! That is where fire shoots out of the drive bays of a server so fast that the whole thing flies across the room!!
Sometimes I just think yall pick random servers to destroy. Kinda like that guy from the Jerk who flips through the newspaper and then just pops his finger down on a person and then he kills them. Likewise, you probably put in a topic to Google and hit "I'm feeling lucky!" Whoever the unlucky site is gets the slashdotting!
I can feel you laughing from here.
When the only tool you have is a claw hammer every problem starts to look like the back of someone's skull.
They used an automotive turbo, etc. It was the "jet car" episode.
As I recall it didn't generate very much thrust.
(didn't RTFA)
Once you'd built one of these, build another. Then tie a lawn chair in between, and start 'em up! Should be a real blast.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
This young man has the right idea for jet engine safety.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
since it doesn't provide thrust or torque. Propane-powered whistle would be more like it.
You need more than "ear and eye protection". You need a cement blast wall. I toured P&W's jet engine design plant once, and the engine test facility included a heavilly fortified blockhouse for the engineers. A turbine burst would be like a grenade going off with even a small engine.
Anyone have Non Real versions of the videos? Some MPEG 4 files maybe?
Thanks
- Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
The welds on those pipes were some of the worst I've ever seen. I'm surprised it didn't blow up!
It probably started out as an attempt to improve a blow-dryer for a chronically late person.
Table-ized A.I.
back in the mid 1980's. He was a mech engineer and used the company machine shop to fab the parts. He said it got up to about 200 lbs of thrust - until the turbine blades flew out the back end ( he used aluminum instead of titanium) - luckily he only got slightly injured.
Could we have a proper explanation of how it all fits together? Perhaps even a diagram. Does it produce any thrust?
Next
Pulsejets, turbojets... what's the big deal? They invented Laserjets years ago. Can get one of those for $400 or less, and the laser just runs on electricity, doesn't need fuel...
Next these guys will duct tape 10,000 model rocket engines to a tin can and send it into orbit as a homemade sputnick! oh wait John carmack has got this one covered!!! http://www.armadilloaerospace.com/n.x/Armadillo/Ho me
Let me sum up. Old turbo, propane tank, metal tube, power steering pump used as an oil pump driven by a hand drill, 6 inchs of flame shooting out the end of the tube and the whole thing is mounted on a couple of painted 2x4s. Tell me, which piece will fail first?
I love these homemade projects, but good lord, this one is 2 steps away from a stay in the burn ward.
www.linux-skunkworks.com
RCs have used jet engines for years. They can be had (the engine, not the RC) for about 3k. They feature computer control/startup etc.
Pretty cool stuff.
It does seem very bulky, it would be really interesting if they could provide some spec's.
I have read an article one (in a dutch magazine about radio controlled models so I can't provide a link) about someone who build his own turbojet. All parts were home made and it actually was installed in a model that could fly! That was in the early 80's so these guys seem to be a bit behind times...
why is the original site and the mirror still up ??? /. defeated by a meanie weenie server !!! Probably they have jet propelled apache.
You've seen the movie, now buy the book: Gas Turbine Engines for Model Aircraft by Kurt Schreckling
What Kurt's design looks like when built per plans.
Gas Turbine Builders Association
Photos from the GTBA of various completed motors, note the small sizes.
Luke, help me take this mask off
The guy who built the cruise missile and those pulsejets (me) also built a turbo-turbine back in 2001 and documented it here
Then I added the afterburner
And if you want to see a really cool turbine-powered gokart check out Nick's website.
More pulsejet/turbojet links and things here.
Now we're all really keen to enter the chinese version of full metal challenge!
Actually we used a turbojet made from a car turbo in my undergraduate mechanical engineering energy conversion lab.. Needless to say these thing get efficiency values around 10% to 12% or much less( I thin I remember a value 3% in my lab report). If I can recall my gas turbine design class, normal aircraft turbojets are closer to 60% or even 80%...
didn't see Donnie Darko.
I've been following the progress of home buyilders of similar turbines for at least the last 5 years. Many modellers are using these designs in actual flying model aircraft, and have been for some time. How is it news?
Very sad, i was looking forward to its completion
Don't worry, the first is completed and ready to test, the second is about 50% completed.
It will be tested, it's just a case of when and where so as to make sure it's done in a safe environment and without alerting those authorities who might want to confiscate it.
Is a good feeling to hear of people building their own engines it's about time to all of us attempt to go farther in faster then will build a day ambition to go into space
By the way I love commenting on slashed by with my Dragon NaturallySpeaking dispelling is an average and I'm sure you can understand what I'm saying he was not what I said that was not what I said but that was what I said to buy bye-bye goodbye bye-bye goodbye so long sea later sea later I'll see you later there that's better
Know your pads. One time pad: good for cryptography. Two timing pad: where to take your mistress.
At first I thought it was shot down after it was launched
Brought to you by Dragon NaturallySpeaking
To spelling is a little better the spelling is a little better when I speak slower
Know your pads. One time pad: good for cryptography. Two timing pad: where to take your mistress.
had plans for a jet engine that worked... BIG FUCKING DEAL! You Slashdot Fucks are about 41 years to frigging late...losers!
And I would NOT walk around perpendicular to the axis of the tubine while it's running! Jesus Christ, at least put the thing in a 55 gallon drum or something!
Thats the most "ghetto" engine I've ever seen - look at those welds for gods sake!. This Guy has made a jet engine from kit parts, and a 9 cylinder radial engine from nothing but plans and blocks of aluminium. I've also seen a website somewhere (can't find it now) where a guy built a Wren MW54 jet engine from just the plans, machining all the parts himself.
Check out the Wikipedia featured article on Jet engines
Andy Rabagliati
It was a rocket car, not a jet car, and this story claims to be a true account of the actual events.
Those who sacrifice security to condemn liberty deserve to repeat history or something. - Benjamin Santayana
Because pulse jets are on the edge of technology, they were essentially abondoned by most people who are only starting to look at them again for short single-flight machines like cruse missiles, so there is real development work a guy in his shed can do.
Car turbo based jets are built by every man and his dog, though I think there was a junkyard wars where one team built a pulse-jet (readless type) and the other team built one with a car turbo.
My car is getting old. It's current value is down to about $450, so it's getting to the point that the only upgrades that are worthwhile are the ones I build myself.
This would also let me build entirely new skills like jet-assisted parallel parking.
...actually remember that ad, back classified pages of popular mechanics.
As an aside, those ads were the coolest place to browse far out inventions/gadgets evah. They ruled the garage inventor space. I'd like to see a website were all of them are reproduced, going back to day one of that magazine. Like build your own pedal kayak, send off here for plans for your electric bulldozer, etc. Carbide cannons give big boom (heh), and etc. Neat stuff.
I call BS. 100 PSI is nearly 7 atmospheres, and there is no way you are getting a pressure ratio of 7 out of a single-stage radial compressor. I could see a pressure ratio of 3, maybe, (45 PSI), but 100 PSI is blowing that much pressure out your butt.
I read that entirely a few years ago, and found at least three serious flaws in the story. I did however, find it quite entertaining.
The light at the end of the tunnel is a train.
Yes, I laughed and smiled once or twice myself.
The writing seems too "literary" to have been written by the average high-school teacher.
It looks more like it was done by a professional author.
(That is why I wrote that it claims to be a true account, not that it acutally is a true account.)
I am curious, what were the flaws that you found in the story?
Those who sacrifice security to condemn liberty deserve to repeat history or something. - Benjamin Santayana
Based on the website and this statement "These engine are for entertainment purposes only. They are not certified to be airworthy or for use on aircraft." I'm guessing that this is an American venture.
Doesn't look like they've done any research at all. Not only are Europeans making real jet engines, they also have figured out how to certify them so that a hobbist can build and fly them with insurance coverage by joining GTBA.
I'm coming to the conclusion that with "technology" being defined as anything having to do with software and with the most advanced software projects being hacking viruses and worm, combined with mechanical engineering, machine tool technology, and manufacturing processes as being menial work best left to third world countries, that America is doomed to becoming a third world country.
...does not a good thrust turbine make.
The reason is an automotive turbocharger is designed to provide a lot of pressure at a modest flow rate. It does this with particular sizes of intake and exhaust turbines (amongst other things). A car engine (compared to a jet engine) ingests air slowly, so higher pressure at this slower rate is what is needed to turbocharge a car engine. In a jet engine, you need a much higher flow rate, which is much better suited to a different design of turbine.
What you end up with if you use an automotive turbo is a wonky contraption that once you finally get it working under its own power doesn't run for very long, is terrifyingly loud, and produces next to no thrust.
-Jesse
Nothing says "unprofessional job" like wrinkles in your duct tape.