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YouTuber Builds Working 3D-Printed Turbojet Engine and Tests It in His Attic
- holistio 6y agoHere is the link to the video directly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsvpU7G5IJg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsvpU7G5IJg It's really impressive how he turned to welding and... essentially learned welding in the process?
- bArray 6y agoAfter watching the original video when it was first released, 3D printing really doesn't play a massive part. Welding is the real winner. 3D printing is still plausible for building jet engines - just not to the average person for now and the foreseeable future. Metal printers (using fine powders) seems quite viable, but they are costing $100k+.
- thunderbong 6y agoHis enthusiasm when he gets it working is really great!
- hanniabu 6y ago19:30 is where it works
- dehrmann 6y agoI wonder what he could do with a hobbyist CNC mill.
- redis_mlc 6y agoNothing, because there's no soft high-temperature metals used in turbine engines. Once again, HN jumps the shark.
- rrmm 6y agoI imagine he could do a fair amount of cool stuff with a mill, but his shtick (as far as I can tell) is to push 3d printing as far as he can to implement interesting stuff.
- dehrmann 6y agoI think I saw his video on a different type of engine that was basically a poor-man's jet engine (I can't remember the name). It was equally impressive, but I didn't appreciate the shtick once parts started melting.
- sudosysgen 6y ago-wrong-, misremembered the video.
- osamagirl69 6y agoHe tried that, then gave up and switched to a traditional casting process.
- ObsoleteNerd 6y agoIntegza is that perfect mix of entertaining and actually-impressive-science. Every video he puts out is doing stuff no one (or very few people) have tried, and his passion for it all shines through regularly.
- osamagirl69 6y agoI feel like claiming it is "working" and "3d printed" are tenuous at best. It did work... for several seconds before it melted. It was 3d printed... except for the turbine, shaft, bearings, and combustion chamber which were made of metal, and the structural components which were cast from ceramic. Also, FWIW, the description of the how the turbojet came to be at the beginning is pretty grossly incorrect. It is sort of like how in grade school they say that planes fly due to the Bernoulli's principle. If you are interested to learn about how jet engines actually work and the technical details that go into them on youtube, I highly recommend AgentJayZ [1] If you want to see a youtuber make an actually good turbojet, check out these channels: -Игорь Негода [2] His videos are in russian, but are by far the most technically advanced and performant. I watch them with the auto generated/translated subtitles -Tech Ingredients [3] This is a traditional turbocharger based design, but is presented in a wonderful way packed full of interesting tech details -Colin Furze [4] The turbojet that inspired this video. Much more focused on presentation than tech details, but worth watching for the comedy at least! [1] https://www.youtube.com/c/AgentJayZ/playlists https://www.youtube.com/c/AgentJayZ/playlists [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7GFAbtsQKs&list=PLyyfwUFI3XU8JWC1l3YLrv53ZD5l3cb8V https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7GFAbtsQKs&list=PLyyfwUFI3X... [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzwfzgfJiJ4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzwfzgfJiJ4 [4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gh34A0b8MrE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gh34A0b8MrE
- ObsoleteNerd 6y agoHis entire point is trying to get stuff working (even for a few seconds) using cheap hobbyist printers and not requiring skills in metal fabrication or any special equipment. With that goal in mind, I think he does incredibly well on his projects. Of course other people can do better with CNCs and years of engineering/fabrication skills. That's like saying it's not worth playing with DIY "anything" because other people can do it better than you.
- TylerE 6y agoit works in the sense that a thrown brick flys.
- rdtwo 6y agoCool engine Bizarre safety protocols.
- latchkey 6y agoWeird, I submitted this yesterday... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26361523 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26361523
- geocrasher 6y agoSo many times I see people comment about what he could do if this, if that, or they'll say "yeah but it only worked for a few seconds at best." To this I say: Show me the turbojet you built at all using the tools he used. My own hobby is more fun when I build things or repair things not with unlimited resources, but with intentionally limited resources. Everybody knows that if you have enough money you can buy your way into many hobbies, but this fellow, eccentric as he is, figured out a way to use what he *already has* to build something that would be otherwise impossible with the resources given.
- pengaru 6y agoNext week: YouTuber burns down home MIG welding in unfinished attic of stick frame house
- WalterBright 6y agoPretty damn impressive! BTW, Whittle invented the radial flow turbojet. Ohain invented the axial flow turbojet, from which all modern turbojets descended from. P.S. Being an old guy, I'd have been pretty concerned about a turbine burst shredding my body.
- WalterBright 6y agoP.P.S. I would never ever had stood radially from the turbine. Off to one side is much better. At least he wore goggles. I'd also put a thick plate of steel between it and myself, and watched the engine via a mirror. Looks to me like there was no speed control on it, and a lot of power running through it. I think Whittle's first test run had the turbine overspeed and suffer a catastrophic unplanned disassembly.
- quattrofan 6y agoHe'll lose half his face but at least he'll be able to see that in a mirror!
- WalterBright 6y agoWhen I upped the power substantially in my Dodge, I replaced the cast aluminum bell housing with a forged steel one, because I like my feet.
- regularfry 6y agoThe Whittle story is a little more involved than that. His first run didn't go boom, but it did go out of control, get red-hot, and need to be shut down by cutting off the fuel pump. It didn't stop immediately, though, which is a terrifying failure mode. It took him a couple of years to sort out the design problem that led to unburnt fuel pooling where it shouldn't.
- fudged71 6y agoWhile there aren’t many 3D printed parts in the end product, he uses several printed jigs for shaping the sheet metal in clever ways. Very cost effective!
- mobilemidget 6y ago"Integza is known for a few things;" Dont forget his hate for tomatoes.
- elihu 6y agoThat looks like a lot of fun. For how simple it is, it seems about on the level of complexity of the sort of thing you could buy at Harbor Freight for about a hundred dollars. If it were that easy, why don't they sell these at Harbor Freight? Is making a reliable turbojet actually harder than it looks, or is there just no market for a small household turbojet engines? I'm not sure what I'd use one for, other than maybe as a sort of blowtorch.
- catmanjan 6y agoI think it's the latter, other than powering a plane what else are they good for?
- regularfry 6y agoThey tend to have a fairly narrow RPM range within which they're more efficient than conventional piston engines. That can make them good for generators, but maintenance can be a pain in a way that it isn't for a 2-stroke (for instance). They've got great power density, though.