I agree. But as I've mentionned before : a bad engine can become very collectable, everybody back to the modelshop, the shop owner complaining to the importer. Nobody wants to even think about the engine. Find one now !
And there are others. The German made Rauch. After WW2 the Germans were not even allowed to produce model airplane engines. What did Ernst Rauch do ? He mounted the engine on a Meccano like stand and fitted a flywheel.
It could now be sold because this fell under educational toys. So everybody trew the bright red stand away. And the engines were worthless. Find one today. And, the lithographed box is even rarer than the engine. Anyway, what I do'nt understand
is that so many thousends of engines and kits were sold before anyone complained. But that GHQ does nevertheless have it's place in a collection. What diesel collector would'nt like to have the original OS-15 Diesel. Was not a good engine.
Welding up cranks ? I have seen my dear gone friend Harry de Blanger do it. But in a fixture. And machined after that. All other brazings fail indeed . Still they must have done it in a jig. That's all gone with CNC. Are there still bad engines beeing made ?
it was nice talking to you all
ORIGINAL: earlwb
We need to remember that we only hear about the poor folks who couldn't get a engine to work, or run, or that failed in some manner. There were quite a few people using them and not having any problems with the engines. They just run the engines in their model airplanes. Being in the USA at the time, model diesels weren't popular to start with, glow engines were all the rage at the time, so many people couldn't figure out how to start and run the engines. usually if someone had someone with diesel experience help them, the engines would work. Now as to how well the engine would work might be a arguable subject too.
Yeah I did. It appears that they did braze the crankweb and crankpin on it. There is a thin layer of of a brass colored like coating on the end. If you look at the pic of the inside of the crankcase view, you can see the circular brazing layer on the crankweb to crankshaft. But at the joints you can also see the brazing. it sort of looks like they heated the assembly up, smeared some plux on it and dipped it into molten bronze. But I can agree it may or may not be very good in any case. But if the people assembling the crankshaft had good tight fits and good brazing joints it ought to be fine.
It does help show where they could screw up in making the engine.
1) brazing on the mounting lug flange on the cylinder sleeve. Get it a little crooked and then the cylinder is misaligned. At the time, that was a big cost saver as you didn't have to machine a large chunk of steel down into a cylinder as a one piece unit.
2) brazing the crankshaft together out of three pieces. Get it wrong and the crankshaft is crooked. Many engine companies have done this too. Especially when they want a hardened crankpin but leave the crankshaft softer. So there isn't as big of a concern here. But the companies weld the crankshaft together not braze it. Although on the crankpin, I see a lot of them just pressing it in very carefully. Machining the crank as one piece means you have to machine down a large chunk of steel again. But this is a pretty large cost saver using a multipiece crank.
3.) using a brass gudgeon pin. Is too easy to break of course. That saved costs as they didn't have to used snap rings or small thin bushings on the tips.
I think the problem is mostly Gotham Hobbies at the time having employees who didn't care about fitting the parts together and giving it that extra attention and care that the other engine companies did. It fits in with the infamous engines that America's Hobby Center did at that era too, like the GHQ engine for example. But they had what appears to be a money maker of a sorts, make a engine as cheap as possible and it'll sell no matter what. But as information started spreading faster and faster, then more people would find the engines are poorly done, and they'd sell less and less. which shows in the advertisements for it over the time it was made, where at first it cost $5.95 and at the end they were blowing them out at $1.95. I would assume the early made versions would work better than the last of the engines made. The two hobby shops Gotham and AHC owners were all related to each other, so I can see them both using their shady business practices to advantage.
ORIGINAL: peterburford
Gordon told me, a potential customer once asked if his "Deezil" would run.
Dad replied, "Of course not! It's a replica."
The person bought one.
Peter
Peter, that is pretty funny.