Author Topic: APS/Ω Gas turbine bike build  (Read 930936 times)

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Offline Mobacken Racing

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Re: APS/Ω Gas turbine bike build
« Reply #1155 on: November 29, 2015, 02:38:33 PM »
Thanks Nanno!

But wait a second, why am I melting down the shaft tunnel???



It is because I found this when I turned the outer diameter down last night...



That is right, a couple of deep pores probably caused by the large volume of the shaft tunnel which couldn´t find enough material to compensate the shrinkage with. If I had a large diameter riser directly on top of the shaft tunnel it might have provided enough liquid metal to compensate for the shrinking. You live and you learn. :)



Today I found an empty turbine oil can that I decided to use for a solid shaft tunnel casting.



Here I have just poured the aluminum into the can, a bit of boiling on top the first couple of seconds when the tin plating burned off.



This was just before lunch today, I left the chunk in the furnace for heat treating at 180°C for six hours and picked it up a hour ago. I made a few cuts in the lathe to find out how it looked under the surface, looks good to me. I guess there is little problems with shrinkage pores with an open mold.



A setback once in a while is only healthy, keeps me from getting too cocky. :)

Offline Mobacken Racing

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Re: APS/Ω Gas turbine bike build
« Reply #1156 on: December 05, 2015, 03:44:05 PM »
I´ve started to build a car towing device for the bike, right now it is more dangerous to get the bike back to the pits than it is to race it at >250km/h since I have to hitch hike by clinging to other race vehicles for almost two kilometers. Not the safest (or easiest...) way of doing it...



I´ve also started making a stainless bushing for the piston ring seal/compressor spacer, a quite tricky part since there is very little room. I might even have to make a set of proper drawings before continuing instead of just winging it as usual. :-)



My dear friends Linus and Lars-E are also helping me out, Linus is trying to extract the compressor blade profile from the 3D scanned file I sent him last week and Lars-E will CNC-laser cut the stainless parts for the turbine NGV section. I love my friends. :-)

Cheers!
/Anders

Offline Speed Limit 1000

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Re: APS/Ω Gas turbine bike build
« Reply #1157 on: December 05, 2015, 03:54:23 PM »
A wise man once said "we get by with a little help of our friends" 8-) Your work is outstanding :cheers:
John Gowetski, red hat @ 221.183 MPH MSA Lakester, Bockscar #1000 60 ci normally aspirated w/N20

Offline wobblywalrus

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Re: APS/Ω Gas turbine bike build
« Reply #1158 on: December 05, 2015, 10:19:58 PM »
Anders, casting things is an art.  One good place to learn it is from the art department at your local community college.   

Offline Mobacken Racing

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Re: APS/Ω Gas turbine bike build
« Reply #1159 on: December 06, 2015, 05:36:41 AM »
A wise man once said "we get by with a little help of our friends" 8-) Your work is outstanding :cheers:

Indeed, without my friends both "in real life" and those abroad whom I have learned to know through the interests I would not be anywhere near where I am today.

Thanks a lot! I have been planning the water injection system during a 14km forest run this morning so hopefully you will see some progress on the bike soon.

Anders, casting things is an art.  One good place to learn it is from the art department at your local community college.   

Unfortunately the Swedish school isn´t very interested in such things, perhaps there is some independent school who deal with casting but nowhere around where I live. Mostly computer programming and ultra feminist norm breaking theatre plays nowadays... :)

Offline Mobacken Racing

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Re: APS/Ω Gas turbine bike build
« Reply #1160 on: December 07, 2015, 03:01:10 PM »
I figured it might be best if I finish the modifications on the bike well before next summer, so it was time to build the water injection. I drew up a spray nozzle holder in Inventor and printed it in nylon last night.



After removing all of the support material this was what it looked like, very tricky to take a picture of a nylon part since it is both white and shiny...



The other side where the nozzle will be fitted.



While I had the nylon filament loaded I printed a miniature crossbow for the kids, it shoots matches over the entire kitchen! :)



The best thing about 3D printed nylon apart from the strength is that it is 100% solid and can be milled, turned and threaded like a charm! Here I am threading the nozzle holder with 1/4"NPT.



With the nozzle in place I hooked it up to the pump and test flowed it with water, no leaks at all so I am satisfied. The plan is to fit it through the front wall in the air box so the spray cone is aimed directly at the compressor inlet.



I also made a bracket for the water pressure regulator, the placement of the regulator and pump needs to be out of the way for myself while riding the bike but eventually I figured out a good spot.



Just finished welding the bracket to the water tank, it isn´t the best looking part on the bike but what the heck...



Here you can see the entire system fitted to the bike, I haven´t decided yet if it will be controlled by a boost pressure switch or a simple push button switch on the handlebars. I´ll figure it out later. :)



Cheers!
/Anders

Offline Mobacken Racing

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Re: APS/Ω Gas turbine bike build
« Reply #1161 on: December 13, 2015, 05:33:18 PM »
I´ve been experimenting with the nylon settings in my 3D printer and I am finally getting to a point where the nylon prints just as good as PLA plastic, earlier the surface was very rough and I had problems with printing thin cross sections. I drew up a tank fitting for the water return line and riveted it in place.



Hooked up with transparent hose.



I also fitted the nozzle holder to the front of the air box, that was very tricky since I just barely had enough room to drill the holes even after removing the oil pump and some hoses.



Anyone who knows what is in windscreen washing fluid except for ethanol, water and some colored parfume? It smells nice so I figured it might work as the water injection fluid if there isn´t any nasty stuff in it, much less aggressive for the pump and tank than a methanol/water mix.

My team mates usually drinks everything that doesen´t smell like kerosene which means that a poorly labeled bottle of methanol standing in the trailer isn´t the best idea... :)

Cheers!
/Anders

Offline sofadriver

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Re: APS/Ω Gas turbine bike build
« Reply #1162 on: December 13, 2015, 10:15:25 PM »


My team mates usually drinks everything that doesen´t smell like kerosene which means that a poorly labeled bottle of methanol standing in the trailer isn´t the best idea... :)

Cheers!
/Anders

Not nearly as bad an idea as making a mini crossbow that LIGHTS the matches as it fires them!  :evil:

How are you getting that nylon fitting to seal?
Mike in Tacoma

"aww, what the hell - let's just do it".............

Bike #833
100cc A/G, A/F and APS/G (in 2019)

Offline Mobacken Racing

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Re: APS/Ω Gas turbine bike build
« Reply #1163 on: December 14, 2015, 05:43:00 AM »


My team mates usually drinks everything that doesen´t smell like kerosene which means that a poorly labeled bottle of methanol standing in the trailer isn´t the best idea... :)

Cheers!
/Anders

Not nearly as bad an idea as making a mini crossbow that LIGHTS the matches as it fires them!  :evil:

How are you getting that nylon fitting to seal?

I´ll use liquid silicone and lock wire on the low pressure return line, on the spray nozzle holder where the pressure is high I´ll use a hose clamp.

If there is a minor leak it is no big deal since it is only water, the system would look different if it was oil or kero in the hoses.

Offline Glen

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Re: APS/Ω Gas turbine bike build
« Reply #1164 on: December 14, 2015, 11:43:03 AM »
Andres, love your ideas and neat workmenship.
Glen
Crew on Turbinator II

South West, Utah

Offline Mobacken Racing

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Re: APS/Ω Gas turbine bike build
« Reply #1165 on: December 15, 2015, 01:44:46 PM »
Andres, love your ideas and neat workmenship.

Thank you Glen! :cheers:

Offline Mobacken Racing

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Re: APS/Ω Gas turbine bike build
« Reply #1166 on: December 17, 2015, 05:20:30 PM »
After a refreshing three day flu I started to feel well enough for a couple of hours in the workshop, it was about time to check the gearbox for wear and change the somewhat abused C20 freepower turbine wheel for a "new" one.

But first I fitted all of the hoses for the water injection.



With that done I started to take the rear end of the bike apart to get the power turbine section out of the frame.



The C20 freepower turbine has been through both high temps and a ball bearing failure during the first road test that caused the turbine seal to rub against its housing, here I have just finished polishing the rub marks away.



Time to retire the old C20 wheel! :-)



I have noticed a vibration in the drive train from 0 to somewhere around 100km/h, it might very well be imbalance in the C20 wheel caused by the rubbing damage made to the seal. It will be interesting to run the bike with the undamaged turbine wheel and find out if the vibrations are gone.



Now it was time for the most exciting part, to check the gear mesh for wear. If it would show excessive wear it would be both expensive and troublesome to come up with a solution to the problem in time for next summers racing, fortunately I couldn´t see any difference at all from when I checked it before the One Mile race last summer! :-)



There are lots of very experienced "gear mesh analysists" out there that could probably find all kinds of issues with the wear pattern, but if I have made two one mile runs at >250km/h plus a number of stationary runs with the rear wheel spinning freely and there is no visible change to the gear mesh wear it is perfectly ok in my book.  8-)



Cheers!
/Anders

Offline Seldom Seen Slim

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Re: APS/Ω Gas turbine bike build
« Reply #1167 on: December 17, 2015, 09:03:26 PM »
Okay, Anders -- I give up.  Where'd you learn to take such good technical photos?  Those last few - showing the mesh - are simply amazing from my skill-set's point of view.

Thanks, as always for the great build diary.  No snow here in Michigan's Upper Peninsula -- way strange.  How 'bout at your house?
Jon E. Wennerberg
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Offline Mobacken Racing

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Re: APS/Ω Gas turbine bike build
« Reply #1168 on: December 18, 2015, 01:36:48 AM »
Okay, Anders -- I give up.  Where'd you learn to take such good technical photos?  Those last few - showing the mesh - are simply amazing from my skill-set's point of view.

Thanks, as always for the great build diary.  No snow here in Michigan's Upper Peninsula -- way strange.  How 'bout at your house?

50% luck and the rest Photoshop editing. :)

We have some snow but tonight it started raining and it looks like it will keep raining for 5-6 days so the snow might be gone by christmas morning... :x

Offline Buickguy3

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Re: APS/Ω Gas turbine bike build
« Reply #1169 on: December 18, 2015, 04:03:57 PM »
  Jon, Didn't you get the snow we sent your way a couple of days ago? I'll try to resend it.
     Doug  :cheers: :cheers: :cheers:
I keep going faster and faster and I don't know why. All I have to do is live and die.
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