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51 Comments
- nargilamonster, on 10/12/2007, -0/+19I miss my eyebrows
- deter1ii, on 10/12/2007, -0/+16Hey yall, watch this.
- DaffyDuck, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Don't you know? Those are the famous last words.
- mattsparkes, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8I'm personally thinking about shaving a few minutes off my commute, by putting it on my bike.
- revthwack, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Now they just need to include the step of making your own jet body to go with it.
- Valleye, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7I so want to put this in the centre of the rear bumper of my mini-van.
"TO THE BAT-VAN KIDS!" - masamunecyrus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Video of their Jet-Go-Kart
http://static2.instructables.com/ID/FPB/KDDP/KYXEP27WVU2/2CA786BE20111029BC6B001143E7E506.swf
From the looks of it, putting this on a bike would be entirely plausible. In fact, maybe I'll post this on the Mythbusters' boards. After doing their hovercraft and jetpack myths, I'm sure they'd love to do something that actually works. :-) - speedyrev, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7I'll show you! I'm gonna make one - and I'm not gonna be careful :P
- Cablito, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Chance the title to "How to injure yourself with high speed shrapnel from turbines"
Its not rocket science, so many have done this; its just flat out dangerous. - matthewaaron, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Why do I have the feeling the next article mattsparkes posts will be titled "How to perform a skin graft"?
- chris9902, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5"How to Make Your Own Jet Engine" followed by the warning "Please be careful..."
fantastic. There is no need to read the link because I got my laugh from that. - mattsparkes, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5I know some doctors, I'll ask them if they'll knock something up for me.
In my personal opinion though, there are some things where DIY is not a smart move - skin grafts is in that category. - JPJP, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I hope someone records it when they destroy their car trying to do this.
- mdmadph, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4i, for one, feel it is a wee bit sketchy to be building a jet engine from instructions created by someone who frequently misspells the word "two" as "to."
- russwmoore, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Nice to see we got listed on the front page of Digg. I see lots of comments about safety, and I can assure you that it is in place on the bike. Of course any project like this is only as safe as the builder makes it, and care must be taken in all aspects of the construction and operation. On the bike there are multiple redundant fuel cut off systems and a fire suppression system. There are also scatter shields around the engine, and lots of fireproof materials and heat barriers.
The turbos will handle the heat just fine, and temperatures are monitored to make sure that they do not exceed safe limits. Since these types of engines have been around a long time, and turbos actually are a derivative of radial jet engine technology, I think the safety has been proven. With that said, it is still advisable to use caution when building any project that has a potential for danger. What you build is your creation and you are responsible for the safety! Use common sense, and if you think it too dangerous, you probably shouldn't do it in the first place.
Sorry if the video quality wasn't up to the high standards that some of you expect on the internet. It is hard to find a balance between good quality and quick loading times, especially for those who view the site on dial-up connections. We have tried to make the site accessible to as many people as possible (www.badbros.net), and with about 250,000 hits a month I think we are doing a good job of it.
Finally, to the naysayers of the project. If you don't try something out of the ordinary every now and then you probably won't ever get the chance to do something fun, like drive your own jet powered motorcycle. Unless of course you can pop the $200,000 for a Y2K bike from Marine Turbine. I didn't have the cash, so I decided to build my own. I'll be the guy passing you on the freeway with full afterburners going and the huge smile on my face! Be sure to check out the whole bike build on our website, and see us finish up the entire project.
www.badbros.net - DaffyDuck, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5"there are some things where DIY is not a smart move - skin grafts is in that category."
Or jet engines. - GHOVO, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3A million geeks laughed evily when this was read...me included.
- ayeroxor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2And thusly, Digg earned its first Wrongful Death lawsuit...
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3if you follow the link to the badbros.net site, they ARE building it into a motorcycle...
- combatchuck, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3That's the funny thing about stereotypes. Most of the people that think they're true are complete *****.
- ayeroxor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"what useful purpose can it serve (besides a go kart, which would be dangerous)?"
Mom, I said leave me alone!!!! - hypnotizd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2That has to be the coolest DIY project I've ever seen! Amazing that he got the go-cart to 50mph! I now know what it is I must do.
- eclectro, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3One can't help but wonder what safety features are being left out of this. Also, while it's neat to build a jet engine, what useful purpose can it serve (besides a go kart, which would be dangerous)? I think it would be stupid to put this in an airplane (other than a model aka ultralight) that you would try to fly.
- ayeroxor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1yes. Now let me ask *you* a question: how many car parts are currently in your computer?
- russwmoore, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Yes, Gary builds some good engines. His jet kart does not even have an afterburner... YET! Gary's site is at http://www.garysjetjournal.com and mine is at http://www.badbros.net We work together to build these crazy projects, and will soon be going heads up with our latest creations for an all out race to see who has the fastest home-built-jet powered vehicle. There are plenty of updates to come, if I can get the time to sort through all of the pictures and get them up on the sites!
- trevizenet, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Reminds me of what this guy did, he made a jet engine beer cooler!
http://www.asciimation.co.nz/beer/index.html - m00dy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ej-2VQPzdSc bike jet
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EplL2jytDgE (imagine riding this on the road)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sy4wfl38tg (haha bicycle with jet engine!!!) - mdmadph, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1i take it back -- i looked around his site, and this guy's some sort of mad scientist.
- russwmoore, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Hmm, interesting to see what we can do with ours then. We have played with it a little to improve the thrust quite a bit and have just added more goodies to push it even higher. We'll be posting thrust testing results on our website soon, and expect to go over that with just the one engine. Since the whole bike weighs around 250 pounds, it might make for an interesting ride!
- zbeast, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It's kind of a pointless project as thrust levels you can achieve
from engines made this way are pitiful.
Most model aircraft jet engine can develop thrust levels of 90 to 200lbs
You can buy for a song from most aircraft junk yards APU's.
that if you strip the gear box off of them can develop 500lbs.
Why play with a tiny turbo.
Go big or go home. :) - kd1s, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Oh but there was nothing like the thrill of putting a blower on a carb back in the day. Back in the late 70's and 80's a coupel friends and I used to hop up cars, things like a '67 GTO, a '70 Camaro, a 73 Charger... fun times.
But the thing was, back then you could pick up the car cheaply and it wasn't expensive to hop em' up. We had one advantage through a sequence of events including a stole set of bar lights for a tow truck that gave us access to a fully functional garage.
If the web was around then we'd have surely put a jet into a car. - zbeast, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1http://www.vortechonline.com/jets/ 120lb
http://www.microjeteng.com/products.html engines up to 650 lb thrust. - russwmoore, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Yes, they just might. And some people might also try to buy coffee at McDonalds too, and we all know how safe that is. Hey, try opening a bottle of Dr. Pepper soda, complete with the explosion warning that is present on the side of the bottle. Look for it, it is actually there! Nothing in the world is safe anymore. I think I'll put on my helmet and go play in the foam covered playground now.
- combatchuck, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I would think that a turbine from a 12 liter, 500 horsepower, 1700 foot-pound beast of an engine would be a a little bit more heavy duty than the one from a 4 banger.
- zbeast, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1There's nothing dangerous about building these engines at worse you
could burn yourself by coming in contact with hot oil or the very hot metal parts.
Working on high performance race motors is more dangerous. - signal15, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0A few years ago, someone sold a Nissan Pulsar on ebay that had 4 of these mounted on the back of it. It sold for over $10k. It had 160 total lbs of thrust. Which doesn't sound like a ton, but once they gutted the car, including the engine, it weighed very little.
- Margoo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Its interesting to consider that this type of information is available to everyday people. It would be hard to imagine some of the stupid people in the world trying this, but with instructions available at their fingertips, they just might do it.
- burdett, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0This is a very detailed account of the builder's progress. He set one engine on go-cart and hit 50 mph. His latest engine, still on a test stand, has managed to put out 62.5 lbs thrust, with Fuel consumption 10 GPH and Turbine outlet temps 900 degrees F.
- russwmoore, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Hmmm, From all th information I can find from sites about model aircraft turbines, most develop thrust in the 10 to 20 pound range. There are some larger units, but the cost is quite prohibitive at about $7000 to $10000 Interestingly, many of them use parts from turbochargers, such as the compressor wheels. Since I am expecting our engine to creat about 200 lbs of thrust or more, I think it will work ok for our needs. It is a large turbo from a big diesel truck engine. I did go big with it, and it just keeps getting better. By the way, a Solar T-62 APU produces no where near 500 lbs of thrust.
- JDByrider, on 12/09/2008, -0/+0Dangerous! Be careful everyone. While you are off building jet engines, I prefer to stick with cars and helping the community. http://blog.jdbyrider.com/2008/11/26/chandler-ariz ...
- crossers, on 07/11/2008, -0/+0this guide is very useful!
www.toyotaemployeepricing.com
http://www.chasr.org/ - MindTrigger, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Having owned and modified several turbo and supercharged cars myself, I wonder if they have found a turbo that will handle the heat well, especially after they shut the motor down. I suppose you could fit some type of oil circulator with a turbo timer on there to help cool the bearings down before it shuts completely off.
In my experience, turbos are pretty weak from an engineering standpoint. They are prone to all kinds of failures. Not to mention the cost.
I give it a digg for gearhead factor, but other than that, it's bunk.
P.S. Could that video clip be any more *****? Reminded me of the first version of Google Video. - russwmoore, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Hmm, I did not see any small turbines capable of producing 650 lbs of thrust on either site. As for the Gluhareff type engines, they are a bit impractical and very large which makes for difficult mounting. They work, but to get a vehicle large enough to mount one on, it looks a bit ungainly. I think I'll stick with our home built engines and keep going for our goal of 275 lbs of thrust. I think the cost is a lot better when compared as well.
- russwmoore, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I guess you didn't go to the websites at http://www.garysjetjournal.com or http://www.badbros.net to check that out before making the statement. Many people build these engines with no machine shop capabilities whatsoever. Try searching the web, and you will find many people building these, our goal was simply to take it to the next level and build engines capable of really moving a vehicle well with a high level of reliability.
- modtho, on 06/06/2008, -0/+0Instead, you can buy yourself an outboard motors: http://www.used-outboard-motors.com
- adolfojp, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2Am I the only one who thought that this was an article on Access databases?
- mattsparkes, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1Watch what?
- IEatHamburgers, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1deleted - guy implies CNC machine is unnecessary
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1WTF, this is useless. Yeah, you can make your own jet engine, but you need CNC equipment and a knowledge of mechanical engineering. That's like saying "MAKE YOUR OWN BATTLESHIP! ALL THATS REQUIRED IS A SHIPYARD!!"
Dugg down for stupidity. - DaffyDuck, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1digg down
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