Projects
The glow engine was given to me as a gift by a good friend. My first experience with glow engines—it took me months to start this thing. With much research I discovered the amazing wonder of one way bearings. So…….. The project kicked off ......
STARTER GEARBOX FOR GLOW ENGINE
With the new crank shaft machined (and it works) enter phase 2 of the project....
Okay, so I needed another challenge. The starter gearbox works well on the glow engine and proceedings on this will follow. But the new project kicked off when I stumbled on some CAD drawings of a KJ66. It so happened that I had a turbocharger unit lying dormant in the garage—screeaming to be dismantled…
As projects progressed there was a need to do castings of components. The internet is flooded with good websites - THANKS TO ALL who post there work on the net!!! The Workshopsman's "HOTPOT" is born!!!
Need to get good quality castings done and have investigated the possibilities.... LOST FOAM CASTING is the way to go. The problem - shaping foam for the castings. This is easily sorted out aided by a CNC router....
PWM Controller for hot wire foam cutter
Pulse Width Modulation is used to control speeds on DC motors - can be thought of as an accelerator pedal for a DC motor. I needed to control the temperature of the cutting wire to get the smoothest cut on the foam specimens.......
The net is filled with all sorts of PWM circuits that you can build which range from easy to complicated. I tried two circuits (with lots of aggrevation and burnt out 555 timers), this one worked for me.
