I use a starter on all my glow models and hand flip all my gassers. The latter all have wood props and I wear a heavy leather glove with extra knuckle protection. I think my current arthritis is traceable to my .049 and .15 glow control-line days and a gozillion thwacked fingers.

I love my electric starter

I have glow from .46 to 1.25 4strokes. I usually only use a starter on the first start of the day. Afetr that all mine start up with a flip or two. I also have gas engines ranging from 20cc to 50cc and i have never used a starter on any of them. And I always use a heavy leather glove!

LOVE YOUR FINGERS ??? USE A STARTER !!! DON'T PRACTICE BAD HABITS IN THIS HOBBY. TODAY, FOR THE FIRST TIME, I TRIED STARTING MY OS .91FS BY FINGER AND EVERYTHING WENT SMOOTH. HOWEVER, I DID FEEL A LIGHT BRUSHING OF THE PROP AGAINST MY FINGERTIP ON THE INITIAL FIRE-UP. MY WARNING !! YOU CAN DO IT, MAYBE FOR A LOT OF YEARS WITHOUT A PROBLEM, BUT REMEMBER THE ANALOGY ABOUT PLAYING WITH FIRE. THERE ARE A COUPLE OF FLYERS WHO LIKE TO USE GLOVES, AT THE FIELD. I NOTICED THAT THEY CUT THE FINGERTIPS OFF OF THE LEFT HAND, OF A SET OF LEATHER GLOVES AND GLUED THEM OVER THE INDEX AND MIDDLE FINGER OF THE RIGHT GLOVE, FOR THE EXTRA PROTECTION. THESE FLYERS LIKED TO BRAG ABOUT THEIR WELL TUNED ENGINES. THEY ALSO EXPLAINED WHY THEY DOUBLED-UP ON THE FINGERTIP LEATHER.... THEY SAID IT STINGS WHEN THE PROP GETS-YA THROUGH THE GLOVE.... WHEN, NOT IF,... WHEN. A LITTLE TECHNICAL NOTE FOR YA... AN 11" PROPELLER SPINNING AT 10,500 RPM'S, HAS A TIP SPEED OF ABOUT 345 MPH... YOU DON'T WANT NONE OF THAT!!! AT IDLE, YOUR LOOKING AT A KNIFE, SPINNING AT 70 TO 100 MILES AN HOUR, WITH A PITCH ON IT THAT MAKES IT SEEM HUNGRY.... GET IT ?!?! IN LIGHT OF THE POSTS TOPIC... YES !!! I USE A STARTER AND HOPE YOU WILL TO. I HAVE BEEN USING THE HOBBICO TORQMASTER 180 AND IT HAS BEEN DECENT. I TRIED TO START A NEW OS 1.20 AX AND IT STARTED IT TWICE. EVEN WITH A FULLY CHARGED BATTERY, IT COULDN'T SPIN THE PROP PAST THE COMPRESSION STROKE FOR A THIRD START.... SAD !! I BOUGHT A DIFFERENT STARTER AND IT IS WAY BETTER THAN THE TORQMASTER 180. IT'S CALLED THE MINIMAX HI-TQ GEAR REDUCTION STARTER. SOLD BY CENTURY/MPI. ON THE MAXX PRODUCTS INTERNATIONAL WEBSITE, IT IS LISTED AS ITEM #ACC1521 ELECTRIC GEAR STARTER $31.95. THAT STARTER HAS SOME TORQUE BABY !!! THE HELI VERSION IS $10 MORE. THIS THING WILL HANDLE THE 1.20 AX NO PROBLEM !!! THE MINIMAX IS CHEAPER TOO. A GEAR REDUCTION STARTER IS THE WAY TO GO. ENJOY A GREAT STARTER AND YOUR FINGERS !!!!

Cuts like that are not possible to get while hand flipping an engine. The worst cuts come from engines that are already running no matter how they were started...

Has anyone ever tried starting an engine using an electric drill? I was wondering how to make the plastic cone
for the spinner.

I hand start using a leather glove if possible.

WHY because it gives me a chance to 'feel' the engine as I flip it over and this can give me an early warning of a problem.

But I am not too proud to use a starter in competition or in cases like an inverted 4 st.

I prefer to use a chicken stick on my glow engines. For my gas engines I hand start with a leather welders glove on. I do have an electric starter that I will use if an engine gets cranky, but I prefer to hand start. Why?? I don't know. Pride in starting it by hand maybe. But I do know that I like having the chicken stick and glow driver in my back pocket and I can start my engines anywhere without having to go back to my electric starter.

Ken

like above starter for glow and hand flip gassers

I have seen a drill used to start gas engines,a short piece of radiator hose stuffed inside a hole saw attached to a 18v cordless drill. It worked very well.

As for myself, I have never started a glow engine WITHOUT an electric starter and dont plan to.

I fired up my first glow engine in 1953. For the next 20 years I started all of my engines by hand flipping the prop. Then in 1973 I bought a Kavan electric starter. I have not started one by hand since.

Bruce

Be Safe
 Fingers are for holding coffee cups and pickin noses - Your own I hope
Starters are for motors as they can be replaced and fingers cant
 and it hurts when ya mess up
SO use a starter and play it safe and save the med bill money for more hobby stuff

I use an electric starter only on my r/c boats as it is a must! however noone has mentioned thus far that certain engines can be damaged! using the electric starter. I am a control line flyer and most all our engines are plain bushing engines.The Fox .35 C/L engine and others you can push the prop drive washer back into the soft crankcase as well as the crankshaft con/rod pin into the backing plate and cause severe damage over time.Ask me how i know????!lol And in a contest,the judges take points off your score if an electric starter is used.  

OK and thanks for all the replies.
I think I will try one of these by Hangar 9. http://www.hangar-9.com/Products/Def...x?ProdID=HAN18
I really don't need the separate battery for anything that I can think of and this setup seems all self contained.

If you can afford one and like your fingers why wouldn't you use an electric starter, I mean I like hard core but its like the kick-start Harley I had a long time ago then they came standard with electric starters it just makes sense.

Oh man, you just reminded me of a M/C I once had. It was a Norton (Snortin Norton) 750 Royal Commando.
Hard to start and could it kick back!It you were not over 200# you might as well not own the bike on a cold morning. It was the last of 3 British bikes I owned.

I carried a starter & battery for years 'just in case' I got caught out by a cranky engine while hand starting them.

Then, don't ask me why or when, the penny dropped & I thought why carry this junk out to the field & not use it?

The only engine I have 'hand' started since was a helicopter engine with pull start. - John.

It depends on the engine. Most of the time I use a chicken stick (1/2A I prefer my fingers since there is not really any room with a 5" prop for a chicken stick) since most of my engines will start by flip starting, but some (especially my OS .46 AX's) won't flip start. If the engine is difficult I'll resort to the electric starter. I have an old Astro Flight 1/2A starter that I do have to use on a couple of engines since for some reason they just don't like to flip start. At the end of the day when I put the after run oil in the engine I do use the electric starter to help get the oil get into the bearings.

Hogflyer

I mostly use the electric starter. I like my fingers and have them in 10s makes iteasier to do addition and subtraction.

I'll chicken stick start the engine only if the motor cuts on the runway. If in the pit I use the electric starter, always

I have observed the electric and hand starting since I started in the hobby last year and I have found that I can hand-start or electric start. The thing that I have done is timed the two and electric starting is so much faster than hand starting almost every time - hands-down. I am usually in the air flying just about every time before any of the guys that hand start. For some of the larger airplanes it might be a close time frame.

To me, the quicker electric starting makes electric starting the way to go and another plus is it is much less effort for me and as one person pointed out not as dangerous for your fingers. I am sure if you don't have your electric starter setup to use quickly and effectively hand starting might be better for you.

We have a few hand-starters at our field, but the best hand starter we have cannot start his planes and be in the air flying as fast as I can. If he and I start at the very same time I am taxiing out and starting my takeoff just when his plane starts. Some habits are hard to break and I guess hand-starting is one of them. For a reasonable sum you can get a battery and a decent starter and you are off and running. I like to be in the air flying instead of spending a great deal of my daylight flying hours starting an airplane. [8D]

I usually keep a started in the van when I go to the field but seldom use it. All of my 4 strokers start by hand (chicken stick). I do have a couple of 2 strokers that require a starter. All of my magneto gas motors require a starter, the electronic ignition gas engines do not require starter.

I tend to flip start mine with a chicken stick. If they're being stubborn, I'll pull out the electric starter. The other problem I have is that mine tend to like running backwards. So, if I can't get them to turn around and spin right, I'll occasionally force the issue with a starter. Usually though, it just takes a quick blip of the throttle to get them to reverse and run right.

Tom

Engines are like women they are contrary things and you don't always know what they are going to do next. Having been struck by a prop once I decided never to go there again. The major difficulty for me is being left handed and the whole process just doesn't work for me. I paid $30 for a starter and $60 for a battery so I use them each and every time I start an engine, thats all sizes no matter what. Getting hit by a prop is painfull, as we get older wounds take longer to heal and quite frankly my blood is far to valuable to lose because of my own stupidity.

Us an electric starter each and every time.

How many of you that have posted on this thread have thrown a prop and spinner or had them come loose when starting?

I did about 2 weeks ago.