The last week or so i have been a very busy boy. i have even had to miss out on streetluge ride day with the guys. the sacrifices we make huh. well the reason i have been so busy is i have been trying to get as much done on the jet luge as possible so we can do a start test on it. well, this weekend we have moved even closer to that goal with allot of the wiring being laid out. there is very little room for any of it to be honest and i still have to fit in six fuel pumps, five batteries and a heap of fuel lines. where is it all going to go? at the moment i have no idea. this week will have me in the shed laying out all the wiring and trying to hide most of it and trying to make it fit so we can have room for everything else. Oh! did i mention i also have to try stop it all from melting or catching fire? yeah there is a small risk of that happening. being that the afterburners sit on top of every bit of electronics and fuel line the board has. the temperatures expected to radiate off the after burners will be in the 1500 to 2000 degrees celsius area. have a look at the photos below of what i will be dealing with. Transporting the jet luge from place to place will not be a problem. as you can see my van look like it was custom made to take it. it wasn't but i am lucky that the Guinness World record rules state that the board cannot be wider than 60cm. You can see buy the wiring below i have a bit of work cut out before me to hide all this and find it a safe path away from heat and safe from any possible damage. Once i get it all laid out an in place i will show you photos of which does what on the board. we are still working out how to mount and set the forward controls. i will also be running a remote cutoff. As a little surprise i did a video for you all of us testing the synchronizing of the turbine engines. the engines push out a huge amount of are even at 3500rpm. i can't wait to have them at full throttle. The test went perfect and both motors start exactly how they should. one problem we found is that the port side motor is sheering on the afterburner at startup. though it is not too bad i will have to work on the afterburner a little to fix it. when heat gets into the engine and afterburner the expansion will start to cause major problems. not a good thing when you want to run a motor up to about 55,000rpm. other than that all i got to do now is tuck a lot of wiring away and do some soldering on some lines and she will be ready for a test fire.
Well we may not be rolling but we just maybe running at any minute. i thought i would share with you the latest photos of the jet luge in it's current state. there is still allot of work to be done but all the major stuff is over and done with. soon i will have it wired up and i will be test firing the engines. you may notice that the fuel tank is now completed and ready for filling. I am very happy to say i am just 3cm within the 60cm width allowance for the entire width of my luge to be eligible for the Guinness world record books. this leave me with a whole centimeter and half on either side to play with. i'm so excited i not sure what i should do with all the space. suggestions anyone? You can fit your entire fist into the afterburners. that is if you want to pull back a cigarette stub of an arm in less than a second. You can see the symmetry in engines A and B. it is a beautiful sight. i now just have to get some heat strapping in and they will be complete. Top dead center. you can see where my head will rest in between the starter motors at the front of the turbines. little known fact is that about 70% of the noise produced from a turbine is produced from the front compressor. i need a ear plug sponsor i think haha.
If you have any question at all or if i have missed anything feel free to ask me. And don't forget to click the like button below. thanks for dropping in. Can you feel that? No!?! oh! well ok... what i am trying to get across is the feeling of anticipation that myself and some other must be feeling leading up to the completion of the jet luge. i have been ripping into it hard to try get this thing done and the spoils of everyones hard work is showing off. have a look at the pictures below. Brett, my good mate over at AusJets did an amazing job and got the afterburners attached to the motors. there was so much work needed on getting them fitted he truly is a god. the next thing, you know that comes, is testing. hehe this is the fun part of owning any turbine engine. but with any fine motor you need a fuel source and to hold that fuel source you need a fuel tank. Josh at All Aluminium Welding has been killing it and come up with this piece of artwork you see below. it is almost done. this was taken from my original and one off design. let's hope it work huh haha. Above you will see the filler cap and breather valve for the tank. the cap is yet to be welded in place and i am working on a mounting system for the turbines as i type. In this shot you will see the the fuel pickups for the turbines at the very bottom on the left and right of the tank. the pipes you see in the middle that are bent to face each other will make a sight glass. this is done by putting a length of clear hose in between them. kinda how they did it back in the day on the old Bobber motorcycles. OLD SCHOOL BABY! haha. The entire tank is held to the board via six stainless steel bolts. this are some heavy duty bolts and i did kinda go over kill on them but hey i never have to worry about the tank separating from the board. that job is left up to me. lets hope i never do separate from the board. Above you will see The man Josh that has done all this fine work holding what will soon be the stupidest thing i have ever done. i can't thank him enough for the amazing work he is doing.
Well, thanks to a great guy and some handy helpers i have been able to get my alloy rolled for my fuel tank. Arthur down at ABS Air conditioning and sheet metal services in Chipping Norton in Sydneys west lent me his factory and a couple of his workers today. In no time at all we had the alloy cut and folded. below are a couple of photos from the job. Above you'll see the sheet in the foreground we used for the template we didn't want to stuff up the alloy. i had one shot at it as i couldn't afford any more sheets of alloy. as it was i was using off cuts. Yup! a precision jet powered board made with off cuts and scrape haha. A bit of a better angle for you to see the tank and board with the curve that will sit the engines once they are fitted.
Below is how i tend to spend allot of my time when someone sees me pulling this thing from my car. Funnily enough just like me everyone can't wait to see it going. I also have to have a shirt made up. saying two things. WHEN? soon. WHERE? i'll get back to you on that. if you can think of better let me know haha. Oh! if you're wondering that is a turbine in my arms in a plastic bag to prevent ditry and what not's getting in it. |
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