mclintock

My Feedback: (3)

A few months ago, the .010 tee dee quietly disappeard from the earth, no longer manufactured.

Now, looking at the coxmodels.com website, it seems the PEE WEE is now a part of history too.

The Black widow, gone, the TEXACO, GONE! How can there no longer be texaco!?? Now no pee wee!!

DAMMIT!!!!

I don't know if the cox company website is the best measure of what cox makes or does not make, but if they don't list their engines, who will? They seem to be blowing out the .09 TD, so it's done for too.

Repent, the end is here!

Bipe Flyer

Yes, it's sad. Luckily I have 3 .010s and lots of .020s, which I'm hanging onto like they're gold. More people are buying electrics than 1/2A; a lot more!

Wufnu

My Feedback: (2)

Didn't Norvel just buy a new factory? I hear they're doing ok.

I would like to have some .010's someday when I can afford 'em, too bad they were discontinued I spoke a little bit on RCG about designing a .005 someday. Maybe I'll make all sorts of little engines. When I do, will you guys make me rich?

Bipe Flyer

They got the new factory in 2004, just before they built the AX 40. Hopefully it's just a supply problem, but the Shopatron thing seems weird.

flybug

I think norvel will be back as per this http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=498724

mclintock

My Feedback: (3)

Maybe Norvel can be cajoled into making a .020?

How much does a 'screw machine' cost?

One idea I had long ago but I'm sure others wondered the same thing- write a nice sweet letter to the guys at
[link=http://www.eifflaender.com/enginepics.htm]PAW[/link] , enclose the appropriate bribe, and have them make glow versions of their engines, using [link=http://www.pspec.com/html/high.html]Nelson plugs.[/link]

gcb

Cox engines will appear on the bay as we old guys croak and our treasures are sold.

George

Andrew

George --

What a thought! I expect my "stuff" will be either given away or thrown out.[]

hogflyer

Andrew -

Do as the Pharaoh’s did - have them buried with you so in 2000 years an archeologist can unearth your mortal remains and wonder what weird religion you practiced with those little engines......

HF

flyinrog

My Feedback: (1)

Do any of you guys remember the short lived craze of the cox .010 being used as a tie clip,,one man at my church did it...back in the early 70's I believe...Rog

mclintock

My Feedback: (3)

I see more and more in photos in magazines the desectation of the litte engines. Souless butchers fitting electric motors behind the firewall, driving the propellor of their farce plane through the lifeless carcass of one of our beloved piston engines. What next, speakers with sampled recordings on flash memory cards of the sound of a screaming thimble drome? Nitro and castor plane parfum for spaying on the plane after a few flights to complete the illusion? Blastphemy I tell you!

Perhaps someone could make a mint by marketing a 'solenoid' motor. The piston is a rare earth magnet, connected to a conventional connnecting rod in a normal enough crankcase, the cylinder is surrounded by a coil of wire, whose mangnetic field is controlled by either a cam operated switch, or a brushless controller.

Maybe it may sound a little like an engine.

BMatthews

Oh Lordy... that brought a chuckle to my day. YOU DA MAN MCLINTOCK ! ! ! !

Sadly you guys hit the nail on the head. It's an electric world out there moreso with each passing day and we are the anachronisms. Enjoy this stuff while you can as we are the last generation that will likely give the small glow engines a bit of our souls and set them off to perform like pet falcons. Soon these engines will be just another little placard holder upper on some collectors shelf or just plain forgotten.

Tim Wiltse-RCU

I feel your pains guys. I tell you what, I(we) have a dear friend that is close to going to the dark side I fear. Don't worry Raymond I wouldn't name any names but I worry about this poor fellow

Later,
Tim

Bipe Flyer

That's good news about Norvel. It's too bad that Cox no longer seems interested in selling engines.

mclintock

My Feedback: (3)

Here's the reply I got from cox about this subject-

Dear Mr. Stephenson.
Thank you for your email regarding your continued interest in Cox engines.
Your observation is correct, we have run out of parts for certain engines
and are in an out of stock position. Due to the severe decline in small glow
engine sales and the increased interest in electrics, we have not put a lot
of effort into production of some engines, especially the small specialty
versions. That's not to say we won't get some made sometime in the near
future, but we will have to see an increased demand before we can afford to
build them again and when we do, you had better be prepared for significant
price increases.
Best regards,
(I'm holding back the name-clint)
Cox Hobbies




I can't blame them really, it just makes me sad that's all.. If they had only tooled in china and made some engines with mufflers and throttles.. sniff.. (I DID spend over 30 minutes swearing by the time I finally managed to start my TD .049 last.) In this size class, even more so the pee wee size planes, it's hard to defend glow against now cheap lipo/brushless..

mr_leffe

Come on Guys . It's not ALL bad.... They did give us a $7 .049. And on the web site you can you can choose any one of 6 C*x engines, as long as it's a Sure Start.

EASYTIGER

My Feedback: (119)

Actually, I have read about the "demise" of the 01 every year or so for the last decade. They make up a production run every now and then, it is not in continuous production, wasn't even ten years ago before the advent of the electrics.
There are usually plenty of them floating around in the supply chain, and even IF they were not re-started in production for a few years, there would STILL be a ton of them around.
This MIGHT be the real end of production for these engines, but maybe not, Cox's letter above leaves it open...it's not actually anything new, they cycle engines out of production routinely, and re-do them when they have enough demand.

Bipe Flyer

From SmallNet #399 - 25 Nov 2001

"Ed Stevens responds:

Dear SMALLsters,

Thank you for your recent emails to the SMALL list reminding me about the "smaller than .049 engine."

We are finishing a really big year of development, with our .40-size engines just coming on line. Our ideas for a small engine are based on Joe Wagner's suggestion that the engine turn a biggish prop, idle low, and be quiet. We were thinking somewhere around .03, with throttle control. I think the engine would probably cost somewhere around $59-69 dollars at the hobby shop.

I think the engine would have to work perfectly as a park flyer powerplant or we couldn't get the volume needed to justify development. Please send me your feedback to < [email protected] >. I would like to know specifically: 1) displacement preferred; 2) preference for big prop/quiet or maximum horsepower; and 3) price you think would be fair for an engine that really worked.

Figuring out what to make is always a head-scratcher, and we appreciate input from customers. Please reply to me directly to save Joe time."

Ed also posted here about a new small engine, sometime last year, IIRC.

EASYTIGER

My Feedback: (119)

Doubt it will ever happen, I have been hearing about a "maybe" 020 from Norvel since forever. And I guess norvel is right...there is very little market for it. It's a novelty thing. Like a 15 four stroke, once you satisfy the few hundred collectors out there, you are sunk!

subarubrat

My Feedback: (1)

I emailed in reply to that. I said essentialy:

1. .025 engine with two cyl sets, one for small prop high speed and one for big prop low speed.

2. .010 engine with exhaust throttle.

4. .42 7cyl radial for under $500.

EASYTIGER, you know I am mental for a small 4 sroke. A .15 or .10 would be nice. That said, I have been flying giant scale gas and electric so long that I have lost perspective. I was at the hobby shop the other day and saw a new production .20 or .25 4 stroke and it looked so small. I can't recall who made it but I am going to get a better look next time I go.

Bipe Flyer

I pretty much said the same thing in my email.

I have a Saito .30, which looks really small for a 4 stroke and is a real nice runner.

EASYTIGER

My Feedback: (119)

It's nice to dream, but think about this for a while...people have been asking Cox for a throttled 01 since 1961. Never happened! Ever wonder why?
Think about this for a while...the TD 01, 02, and Pee Wee have all been in production pretty much unchanged since 1960 or so. Forty six years or more. Totally unchanged.

Were it not for the fact that the tooling is long-amortized and it does not really cost cox much to do a run of these, they would be long, long gone. As it is, when enough stores place enough orders for 01s, cox will do a run. And even if they never do another run, remember they have been made for over 45 years, they are not exactly rare, and not very expensive, you will always be able to find one if you really want.

Norvel, well, I think they ain't stupid. A really cool 02 will sell like Popsicles to Eskimos...a few hundred to the guys who are hardcore and just have to have one...then the rest of the production run will remain unsold, because the basic joe schmoe customer just wants an effective powerplant for his park flyer, and the electric just does it sooo much better. The novelty value of the 02 glow is totally lost on the vast majority of customers.

SubaruBrat knows...I had my Kamdax powered A-4 out the other day...to you and me, it's cool as sin, we know what we are looking at, and how cool it is that it flies at all...but the comments from Joe Schmoe at the field are "Needs more power...why don't you put a .25 on the nose?" I mean...PHILISTINES. They don't "GET" it.

BMatthews

So... you're saying that we small engine lovers are the backroom crackpot geeks of the modelling world?

.... not that I'm arguing with you and not that it ain't true but I thought it would be best to just settle it once and for all......

If Norvel made an 030 or similar the they would sell one of those for every 100 of the .40's. Small engines are just NOT a big deal any more thanks to the electric options. If it wasn't for electrics you can bet that we would not have all the small servo and reciever options either.

Andrew

HA! Speak for yourself, Geekboy!![8D]

You are, unfortunately, quite correct. When I was young, COX engines were sold by the thousands -- no video games, no internet, not much TV. Kids grew up outside and did outside things most of the time. C/L was the only option for most of us and the .049 was the entry level engine.

Aside from this 1/2A forum and the one in RCG, 1/2A gets little press. The entry level glow plane in R/C is a basic .40 sized aircraft and the electrics are now having a significant impact in the hobby. The bottom line is simple financial success. Tooling is extremely expensive; changing production models is expensive; packaging is expensive; etc. Without volume sales, it's just not a viable market. Easytiger pretty well summed it up -- there just ain't enough of us to support a niche market.

mclintock

My Feedback: (3)

Ah, so it is WE who are disappearing, the cox going out of production is only a symptom. We deaf, scarred fingered, greasy handed, smeared glasses, glow plug wrench having, paper towel/409 using, castor oil smelling troopers.

I thought in the 1980's that fuel powered r/c cars were gone the way of the steam locomotive, but someone started calling them 'nitro' and noticed they had a greater power to weight ratio than the electrics, and now the only fuel many hobby shops carry is in the car section.

Just wait until some movie star's house burns down in a lipo fire... the safe little engines will be back... maybe..

more likely lipos will get safer and better, and brushless controllers even cheaper..