T34/85 Conversion, reloaded pictures

[HERMAN BIX]

When this thing lights up, it might as well be

[capt midnight]

When this thing lights up, it might as well be

You just know going in that someone's gonna get sprayed!

Bill

[capt midnight]

Did some soldering on the headers last night. Here's a couple of pictures of where I'm at, so far. Still have to trim down the back ends where the hoses will attach.

Next up is the header that mounts on the side and breaks into 3 lines. Going to have to make a trip out and hunt up some black hose for them, then I can give the sprays a test run. I'm going to make some tips out of brass to give some back pressure and to make the sprays fan shaped.Maybe two sprays horizontal, and the one in the middle vertical. That should make it look like more there than what there really is.


Bill

[capt midnight]

Did some more work on the sprays today. I made up a mounting plate for the sprays, made some tips, and did the supply headers.

Here's a view of all the spray parts, except for the hoses.

overall view

Here's a couple of shots of the supply headers. One input line and the three outputs going to the spray bars.

supply headers

another view

And here's the tips I made up for the sprays. Not really sure if they'll work, or not. Might need a bit of tweaking. I'll find out how well they'll work once I figure out what kind of pump I'll be using.

spray tips

I think I might make up a Y fitting so that I can run all of them off of one pump. Maybe make up a cover for it so that it looks like some sort of industrial pump on a skid, or something of the sort.


Bill

[HERMAN BIX]

I have a plan to build a Flammepanzer.
Was going to use a fuel tank out of a nitro RC car, with a pump from an indoor water feature.
I will see if I can find the link to the pump in my old thread.

[AlwynTurner]

Have a look here
http://www.micropumps.co.uk/TCSproducts.html#M100

Alwyn

[capt midnight]

Have a look here
http://www.micropumps.co.uk/TCSproducts.html#M100

Alwyn

Thanks, Alwyn. I'm think I might be able to use one of the fuel pumps that they use for the nitro R/C planes. My dad has a couple, so I'm going to check them out before I pick one up.

From what I can understand about this build, it doesn't need that powerful a pump, the turbines do the major work.

Bill, got to ask this, why did you bother with making the nozzles? I can't see any on your original pictures on the first page of this thread!?

Mick.

On the real one, the pumps run about 8000 gallons per minute. When you add the 27,000 pounds of thrust from EACH engine, it throws the water at the fire at around 770 mph. Kind of like a one, two punch. The water acts as a coolant.

Mick, I made the nozzles up because I'm figuring that all I'll be able to get is streams of water from each nozzle. I'm hoping to kind of atomize it before it hits the exhaust from my "jet" engines. The motors for them should be here Friday, so if the weather cooperates, I'll be giving a test run on them this weekend. I'll try and video the results and post them. Might have to make up an adapter and use the garden hose as a water supply.


Now, on to the update!

Not too much headway, been doing a paint job on a Jagdpanther for a buddy. It's in the show off thread.

The brass screen arrived. Herman, you were right! This stuff is a pleasure to work with. Solders like a champ! I found a place that sells a smaller amount so I didn't have to buy a whole roll. Still expensive, but well worth it.

Anyway, here's the FOD screen for the jet intakes.

More to come, just have to get there!

Bill

[HERMAN BIX]

Slick brass work mate, and isn't bronze mesh the schiznik for working into tank stuff.

[capt midnight]

Slick brass work mate, and isn't bronze mesh the schiznik for working into tank stuff.

Sure is! Thanks for giving me the idea to hunt it up. So much easier than using the aluminum screen.

I spent most of the morning getting the elevation function to work on the jet engines. I used the HL elevation unit, with some of the case cut off so that it would fit inside the turret ring. The slide is made from a couple of telescoping, rectangular shaped brass tube. The arm that rides on the cam is steel rod, with a brass skid plate soldered onto it.

Here's some pictures from different angles.

There is a piece of brass angle that ties the engines together, I attached the slide to it with an R/C car swivel fitting. It slides on the screw to compensate for the forward / reverse travel .

And a link to a short video of it in action...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fEYF5SdL7A


After I got it all working correctly, I added the covers, ducted fans, and hoses. Of course, now there is too much weight for the elevation unit to move without the clutch slipping. Gonna have to think on this for a bit. It really moves pretty smooth, so I might just add some counter weight, or a couple of springs to carry some of the load.

Here's the interior layout that I think will work out. Still waiting for a Taigen V2 MFU board to be in stock. ALso, there will be 2 ESC's installed, one for each jet.

inside

The motors for the fans arrived Friday, so I tried running them up. Not sure if this beast will be able to run much above half throttle. Those little fans really move a load of air. Might not need those spray nozzles, after all, Mick!

It was about this point that I fried the ESC for the fans. Thought it was heavy enough to run the two. Think again. So, ordered a couple of them. Hopefully they'll be here this week.

Cut and installed the hoses for the sprays and took it outside to get some decent pictures.

The business end.

Also made up the access ladder.

Guess it's about time to start some painting!

Bill

[silversurfer1947]

Really looking forward to seeing it in action.