Colin Furze Gets Burned

March 5, 2016 by Elliot Williams 83 Comments

Consider this a public service announcement. [Colin Furze], besides being a raging lunatic, seems to have the nine lives of a cat. Well, he’s not always so lucky, and now that we’ve recovered from being grossed out by the results, we’re glad that [Colin] posted this “fail” video.

Basically, he’s firing up one of his jet engines, and there’s a big fireball. He wasn’t wearing any protective clothing. This is hardly a spoiler — please don’t watch the video below if you’re grossed out by people visiting the doctor’s office to get their horrible second degree burns all up and down their forearm treated. You’ve probably learned the lesson already just by looking at the preview image.

Naturally, we’ve covered [Colin]’s videos before. He’s either very lucky or a little bit more careful than he lets on. We’ve seen him play with fire and not get burned, and stick a jet engine on a go-kart. We’re not gonna tell you what to do, but if that were us, we’d be wearing at least long sleeves and a helmet.

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Koenigsegg 3D-Printing For Production Vehicles

May 10, 2014 by Marsh 23 Comments

Koenigsegg with Printed Parts

We’re not surprised to see a car manufacturer using 3D-printing technology, but we think this may be the first time we’ve heard of 3D-prints going into production vehicles. You’ve likely heard of Christian von Koenigsegg’s cars if you’re a fan of BBC’s Top Gear, where the hypercar screams its way into the leading lap times.

Now it seems the Swedish car manufacturer has integrated 3D printing and scanning into the design process. Christian himself explains the benefits of both for iterative design: they roughed out a chair, adjusting it as they went until it was about the right shape and was comfortable. They then used a laser scanner to bring it into a CAD file, which significantly accelerated the production process. He’s also got some examples of brake pedals printed from ABS—they normally machine them out of aluminum—to test the fits and the feeling. They make adjustments as necessary to the prints, sometimes carving them up by hand, then break out the laser scanner again to capture any modifications, bring it back to CAD, and reprint the model.

Interestingly, they’ve been printing some bits and pieces for production cars out of ABS for a few years. Considering the low volume they are working with, it makes sense. Videos and more info after the jump.

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(Please Don’t) Build A Jet Engine From A Toilet Paper Holder

October 5, 2013 by Adam Fabio 49 Comments

Turbo charger Jet Engines have long been considered one of the holy grails of backyard engineering. This is with good reason – they’re hard to build, and even harder to run. Many a turbo has met an untimely end from a hot start or oil starvation. [Colin Furze] however, makes it look easy. [Colin] is a proponent of crazy hacks – we’ve featured him before for his land speed record holding baby carriage, and his pulse jet powered tea kettle.

In his latest video set, [Colin] takes a toilet brush holder, a toilet paper roll holder, a few plumbing fittings, and of course a small turbocharger from the scrap yard. Somehow he converts all of this into a working jet engine. The notable thing here is that there is no welding. Some of the joints are held together with nothing more than duct tape.

Calling this a working jet engine is not really an overstatement. As every backyard jet jockey knows, the first goal of DIY jets (aside from not hurting yourself) is self-sustaining. Turbines are spun up with air hoses, vacuums, or leaf blowers. The trick is to turn the fuel on, remove the air source, and have the turbine continue spinning under its own power. Once this happens, your engine is performing the same “Suck, Squeeze, Bang, Blow” combustion process an F-18 or a 747 uses.

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Engine Hacks: Build A Turbojet From Junkyard Parts

September 10, 2011 by Brian Benchoff 14 Comments

Turbo chargers from cars are readily available and easily modified, so why not modify a turbo into a jet engine?

While [Mike]’s junkyard jet made the rounds on the Internet over a decade ago, the theory behind the homebrew turbojet is still sound. After pulling a turbo out of a 1983 Nissan Pulsar, [Mike] built a combustion chamber out of 2-inch pipe fittings. The propane fuel is ignited with a simple motorcycle spark plug and produces a hot and powerful blast of air twenty feet from the exhaust.

We suppose [Mike] wasn’t satisfied with such a puny engine made out of junk, so he decided to step it up a notch and improve his engine. After some development, [Mike] managed to build another jet out of a larger turbo that doesn’t require a constant spark. The newer engine produces ‘hurricane force wind’ 10 feet from the exhaust. We’re not sure how much thrust that translates into, but we’re a little surprised this engine hasn’t been mounted to a go-kart yet.

Check out the walk through and demo of the junkyard jet after the break.

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