I am so encouraged about the ability of my foundry to cast
thin sections I decided to design a cast bell housing.
Anybody interested in a combination bell housing and
motor mount. One advantage is the mounts are moved back
a couple of inches to get them closer to the engine/psru/prop
CG.

Tom are you interested in doing the pattern?
The cost over a motor plate would probably be near a wash.
The material alone for a motor plate runs about $100.
Then there are those long 10 mm bolts that Tracy supplies
as well as the 1/2 inch plate spacers. Tracy could sell this thing
so perhaps he could make it optional.

Paul Lamar

Paul,
Didn't I suggest that a little while ago ? It was poo-pooed then !
While your at it look at doing rotor housings with periperial ports
and Intermediate/end housings - not joking !!
The castings are the best I've seen for sand castings, they looked
more like pressure die cast to me.
You will find they will be using silicone in the aluminium to help
 the pour.
Would you get an effective wear surface on an aluminium rotor
housing ????
George (down under)

Things changed George. I went to Sydney and looked at some that were
too heavy and they wanted $5000 US to do a bell house pattern. 
Now Tom Kendall is up to speed on pattern making and I have found 
a foundry out here that can do thin wall castings to cut the weight.

I think a cast aluminum end housing is too expensive to make.
The pattern cost would be big bucks with several very complicated
core boxes. There is a reason RB Jim is charging up to $1700 each.

Don't know about the silicon aluminum. I think the GM Vega engine
had a lot of problems with it. All I know is just about everything
has been tried and most have failed. Detonation gun coating with
carbide is a safe bet but too expensive. 

BTW I wonder why nobody is respecting the cheap two piece
end housing design. How can you beat a low tech replaceable hard steel 
wear surface that has been nitrided? The 4130 steel plate can be laser 
cut to shape at low cost. I was just thinking that I need to put 
that up on the web site.

Paul Lamar
 
The AirCraft Rotary Engine NewsLetter.              Powered by Linux.
ACRE NL web site. Copyright 1998-2002 All world wide rights reserved.
http://home.earthlink.net/~rotaryeng/            http://www.linux.org