Hi
It has been a while since I flew control line model airplanes. but you used to
be able to but the needle valve assembly for .10 sized engines and larger as a
separate part, aside from the engine. Had something to do with people like me
who crashed a lot and broke them. Check hobby shops that sell model airplane
engines.
What you got was a tube that had an outside thread on one side, a hole in the
middle for the fuel to come out, and an internal thread on the other end into
which the needle valve screwed. I have often wondered if they would make good
steam flow regulators. It is worth a try.
Larry
Harry Wade wrote:
At 12:15 PM 12/18/01 -0800, you wrote:
Harry et al,
Hah! I knew that would lure the critter out of his hiding place!
I agree with Geoff on the lubricator valve business. I've often wondered
if there was some product already available that could be adapted to make
this building job easier, possibly make it a hand-tool job, not needing a
lathe. For instance what if one of the model aircraft engine makers made a
throttle valve needle which could be stuck into a threaded hole to make an
oil metering valve? I had a half dozen Cox engines during my early
childhood (currently being in late childhood) and all of them had a short
blackened steel needle valve with a knurled head and threaded shank. Cox
went out of business long ago and the only parts available now AFAIK are
NOS and dwindling fast. A more certain supply would be wanted.
For anyone who knows about such things or wants to pursue it
further the needle valve part numbers for Cox TD-010 and TD-020 engines
(their smallest) are 1309 1609 respectively. List price $.60 in 1962. I
have one of these from an 020 in front of me now and it is barely .700
long from end to end. The shank thread is only .085 OD and the thread is
so fine as to be unmeasurable with the tools I have. This is good . . . .
. and bad. Good because it would allow infinitessimily small adjustment of
oil flow, bad because it's anyone's guess what the pitch is and the thread
would be a bear to make without breaking a tap.
Cheers,
Harry
