dgliderguy

Holy cow!!! Did you guys see this???

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...EBWA%3AIT&rd=1

It's a Cox Venom .049 NIB. Apparently, there were only 1000 of 'em made. Talk about collector's frenzy, eh?

http://www.mh-aerotools.de/airfoils/cox_venom.htm

I'll stick to my trusty Baby Bees!

Don Bailey

combatpigg

My Feedback: (3)

HI DGLIDERGUY! Yea, you gotta question some peoples' sense of value. I want to know who ends up buying these, because I have lots of stuff to sell too[mostly junk]

Tim Wiltse-RCU

Well alot of people collect engines so to someone it's worth it. I would like to have one myself. The Mouse 1 control line record is held by a Cox Venom if I remember right. Thing is I could make a clone of one that looks just like the real one and runs just a good. My Witch Doctor .049 will run with a Venom or ahead of it and stay together longer! If you want to see an engine people go nuts over try to find a NIB Cox RR-1!!!!!!!!

Later,
Tim

www.hypercoloranodizing.com

DesignMan

Gee. and I have 2 brand new in the box Venoms. Time to retire?

Actually it is really rare because the pistons were special. They also turned out to be very delecate, and you could rip the top off them with poor break-in. Tends to cut that 1000 number down a bit. Otherwise, to come close, get an old Killer Bee (one with the anodized case only!), put on a pre- 1997 Tee Dee piston and cylinder, mount it on an old Black Widow tank, and there you are. Not quite identical, but close enough.

DICKEYBIRD

Larry, did the Venom pistons just have thinner skirts for less weight and the top ground to a more extreme taper?

fritzke

My Feedback: (1)

Tim,
A used RR1 with a bubble-package and a Cox brochure went for (drum roll...)
$183, just yesterday.
Item # 3176106907 (Cut and paste into the "search by item #" box.)
Dave

ajcoholic

My Feedback: (10)

Yeah, but I have sold more than one used RR-1 for over $300 US in the past.... sometimes you have to hit the right week and right collector for the big money.

The Cox market for collectors is up and down all the time. Its amazing to see how the prices fluctuate!

AJC

John Cole

My Feedback: (4)

Three years ago, I sold some NIB Cox engines to a friend of mine. Get this... an RR-1, a Strato-bug, Space-bug, and Space-Hopper. I kinda wish I`d kept them to put on eBay! I`m embarassed to tell you how much I got for them...

John

fritzke

My Feedback: (1)

Probably the same guy who got my Wen Mac outboard from me when I was a kid for $15![&o]
That remains the only engine I have EVER sold, guess I learnt my lesson...[&:]
Dave

ajcoholic

My Feedback: (10)

I searched for three years before getting a like new Strato-bug. Thats got to be the rarest of the old Cox engines, I have attended swap meets where space bugs, and SB jr's, thermal hoppers and space hoppers abound... even have had at least 5 or 6 nice RR-1's pass through my hands in the past few years. But the Strato bug is THE hard one to get.

I ended up selling off all my collection to pay off some loans (student loans from school) and I was surprised that my strato bug didnt get nearly as much as my RR-1's and actually most guys have no idea what a strato bug even is...

In ten more years I bet even I will be kicking myself in the *** for selling off my entire collection (had some sweet NIB engines too) but hey, we live today not 20 years from now, right?

AJC

phuffstatler

My Feedback: (20)

Crap!!! I had a Venom, and though it was fun and ran like a champ, I gave it to a friend of mine... Crap again!!!!!!



oh well,
phil in austin

gws1

My Feedback: (13)

Doesn't the Killer Bee have the lightened piston and crankshaft like the Venom?

I just picked up 3 of the good killer bees from a local hobby shop. He had them sitting in the case for many years now and I got a great deal on them.

combatpigg

My Feedback: (3)

This might sound crazy, but if you sealed off the ballsocket with something[silicone?], and mask off the rod, could you lighten the piston with ACID?

fastlash

My Feedback: (7)

You think that is nuts 2- 1 1/2 inch under tank reflectors for a 60,s BSA sold for a whopping $1,255.00 bucks thats right twelve hundred bucks. ebay were you pay for new but get used???I now some of you love it thats why I sell on it, sold a frame for $850 that I bought for $50, got to love it??? as far as cox goes look what people are paying for the old plastic control line planes, who would of thought that all those plastic crap flyers would be worth so much?

DICKEYBIRD

Naaah, we don't need no steenkin' acid! Just an old 1/2" drill clamped to a board (poor man's lathe) a piece of brass tubing wid a slot in it to carefully hold the piston in the chuck, a Dremel wid a tiny carbide bit, a bright light, a magnifier lense and a steady hand! For years I've been lightening all my .049 pistons down to 2.8 grams. People sometimes comment that my engines seem to run smoother than their's.

ps: Now that I done told ya, now I gotta kill ya!

combatpigg

My Feedback: (3)

HI DB! That's pure GENIUS! Thanks for sharing that with me! I've even got the same old HD B&D drill motor, they don't make 'em like that any more. I remember reading about the old SUPER STOCK drag racers and their ACID dipped bodies, and always thought it would be neat to own a car that had a body you could work on with the back side of a table spoon. When it comes to wall thickness, did you come to any conclusions[the hard way] about where to stop? PS,,, admit it now, doesn't the idea of pouring acid from an eye dropper into your pistons sound like a great science project for the kids?

DICKEYBIRD

I've never really measured it C/P....I just grind away, trying to steer clear of the ball socket area and remove metal in a tapering fashion, leaving it thinnest at the skirt. I ruined my BEST super honker old style Tee Dee .049 piston trying to get that last bit of weight off it for a reed valve sport race event a few years ago. It WAS one of them magic fitting piston/cyls. you get like one a hundred. I still have scars on my forehead from whacking myself over & over wid a ball-peen hammer!

ps: In case Roger Armstrong reads this thread, I cannot tell a lie....it was him whut come up with this piston lightening deal, the sneaky bugger! 'Course HE had to use his big 'ol mega dollar lathe! I came up wid the "Poor Man's Lathe."

combatpigg

My Feedback: (3)

Thanks again DB! Guess what I"ll be up to today? When a piston has to go up and down close to 500 times a second, every little bit helps that ball socket. I've always wondered why an ABC COX with a floating wrist pin never got done? Now THAT"S my idea of a collectors' item!

DesignMan

The taper was standard, but the piston wall something like .005 thinner than the stock TD piston. I guess that threw it over the line for durability. Too bad. They sure did scream.

DesignMan

The Killer Bee has a stock TD piston, we didn't think of lightening it until we got into the Venom. Then, of course, Estes bought the place and you know the rest of the story....[:'(]

DICKEYBIRD

I was real worried about grinding the copper plating (or whatever that coppery colored stuff is) off of the inside of the piston, thinking it would screw up the thermal properties or something, but so far I've had nothing but faster, smoother results doing it.

Tim Wiltse-RCU

C/B,


You can find a "normal" pinned piston in some rare Cox .15 Medallion's I believe.


LAter,
Tim

ajcoholic

My Feedback: (10)

DB, the copper plating is there only to prevent the entire piston from being case hardened. Only the outer surface that contacts the cylinder wall is left unplated and therefore is not brittle, after the case hardening process. It has nothing else to do with anything

AJC