Hi,

When I was new in this hobby I built a very nice engine test stand.
It was easily adjustable for different engines.
The fuel tank height was adjustable.
It had variable throttle control for running at a consistent speed.
Unfortunately, I am now dealing with bigger engines and need a new stand.

Please post pictures of what you have built or bought.
I am looking for projects that have some thought put into
their future use and adjustability for different engines.
I am not interested in seeing engines bolted to 2x4s and clamped to a picnic table.
While these may work well they don't give me ideas for what I want to build.

Thanks for your help,
KW_Counter

Here are some of mine and in one case one for multi engines, This one for a trimotor.

John

Heres mine. I just finished it.

It's a 4X4 block of wood bolted to a cinder block. I no longer have the room to store a real test stand. I'm keeping my eyes open for one of those saw horse tables the Sear's sells though. They work great and fold up for storage.

Okay, here are pictures of the test stand I made after asking this question.
The base is 3/4" Maple covered cabinet grade plywood from my scrap pile.
The super structure is Poplar. The paint is Fusion.
Here is a link to the actual engine mounting bracket:
[link]http://www.modelshops.org/model-engine-test-stand/model-engine-test-stand.php[/link]
Please note, on the base it can be moved from side to side for a better fit.
The receiver and battery are in a plastic (Hitec servo) box for fuel protection.
The base is designed to be used with my B&D Shop Mate.
If you have any questions feel free to ask, I'll answer to the best of my ability.

KW_Counter

A beautiful and well thought out stand KW, Kudos

John

The best part, I got to make sawdust!
Life is good!

Thanks, John.

KW_Counter

The machined one has a locating pin on each side, I offset the tank on both for rear exhaust motors, and use soft wire with a Z bend for throttle control. It is fairly soft and stays where you put it. They both have limitations. the manufactured one sometimes makes it impossible to use a muffler because of the big wing nuts, and the one I machined doesn't fit a rear rotor motor. I guess I could machine some material away.

Can the aluminum bracket be purchased in the US? Thanks.

Sorry just can't resist LOL I'm from the school of breaking them in while in flight. So here are a couple of my test stands

I just made the aluminum one myself out of 1/4" .  I guess you could purchase one from me or get someone else to make it locally. It likely took a couple of hours. I just made mine because the other one didn't fit .049 motors and I needed something else. I really don't use them much for breaking in like the other guy speedracerntrixie says.  I did test out a whole bunch of motors over the winter just to sort out the slower and faster ones, and to see if some swap meet deals worked and it came in handy.

Hi aspeed thats likely since when that pattern for those old Tatones was first produced in the sixties, as you know a time when mufflers were for cars not airplanes

You can use it for some Half A's even with some mufflers. The last time for me in one of my Tatones was my little MP Jet.051 diesel and it has a muffler as well as a throttle. The trick is to loose the big quarter twenty wing nut and replace with a thin Quarter twenty hex nut. Another trick to use the tatones with the little guys is to grind down the bump behind the stud base and the length of the stud itself a bit.

And I do agree with you there really is no such thing as a one size fits all with stands. While I do not use them for every engine I do find them a far better way to 'learn' a new engine to me.

Speedracertrixie

Those are lovely llyushin's - Seems a strange choice for scale warbird racing but interesting


John

I have four of these that I made a few years ago. These will work with any engine, any size. The adjustable back mounts are bolted in place they are slotted with three different size mounting threads used for all rear mounted gas and nitro motors. The Saito is sitting in the beam mounts and these too are completely adjustable. You can even mount the engines in the same orientation as it will sit in the airframe. Looking at the fuel tank plate it to is fully adjustable for height.

Dennis

Dangit Speed! You beat me to it.
I guess that is why you are Speedracer.

Dennis.  Far Out Man.  Must be nice to have a CNC.

Mine is very simple. Just a steel plate with clamps on our carport corner post. I drill and tap additional holes as needed for different engines. A typical motor mount can be installed for a glow engine.
This is not a great picture or video but it is all i have at the moment. If someone wants more detail, i will take more pictures. Here is video of it in action http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ld8vicXl5kU

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKllSthtbjQ[/youtube] one of our memebers did this one day at the field them took it down for testing purpose

No, unfortunately not.
However, the price delivered was less than some of the US products I looked at.

Good Luck,
KW_Counter

Dennis,

Very nice job.
I'll keep that in mind if I ever progress to large gas engines.

Thanks for sharing.

KW_Counter

Here's mine..........I started with a run-in stand that was featured in the AMA Model Aviation and then added the PSP aluminum engine test setup. I added the wheels so I can use it where ever I need to. It's been very very helpful and is very stable.

Indeed very nice setup. Is this in your back yard or at the field? If the field how do you avoid theft?


John

OS 70 heli on prop, K&B 100DF on prop, Moki 210.

Thanks for the compliment. It is in my yard but we have 6 or these stands at our field........not with the engine test feature..........but they've been there for 3-4 years.............no problem. Of course our field is 17 miles out of town in the middle of nowhere so that helps but to this point........20 years.......we've had no theft problems.