RunRyder - Poor quality or not !!!! Century Aluminum cooling fan

rrTV-PHOTO

New HD TV

HOME rrTV-PHOTO GALLERIES MY GALLERY HELP-FAQ

myHOME PM pmRR MEMBERS 542 ONLINE 42 EVENTS SEARCH REGISTER START HERE

1 page

555 views

POST REPLY

CanoMod	.	Futaba-RC	.	A Main Hobbies
	.		.

Century Hawk - Falcon - Raven - Predator > Poor quality or not !!!! Century Aluminum cooling fan

blazen
Senior Heliman
Location: California

I just purchased a Century Aluminum cooling fan or my Falcon SE V2. After I installed it on my OS 50 I decided to check it with a Dial Indicator. To my surprise it had well over .015 run out and .010 vertical wobble. Shezzzz I expected a whole lot better for a $40 CNC part. I have been building and flying Helis for over 20 years. I remember just a few years back when we would spend a great amount of time Dial Indicating our fan Hubs and clutch assemblies to within .0005. I am looking for a consensus from the group as to if the Century Aluminum Fan is within acceptable tolerance limits or not. Since there is no Start shaft attached to the fan hub it might not be an issues. The fan is light and the moment is only about 1.15 inches from the crank to the radius of the fan. Do you think this will cause a vibration issue or not. I could go through the trouble of shimming the fan to bring it to under .001 But I really did not want to have to drill it out and go to that much trouble just for the Falcon.

Just a note. Since Century decided to use the same cooling fan it had designed to cool a .30 size engine in its .50 size heli I decided to buy the aluminum fan hoping that moving up from 8 blades to 10 and the added efficiency of the airfoil blades would make a difference cooling the 0S 50

Which brings me to this question.
why do they call them cooling fans. They are not really fans in operation but more like impellers. Maybe it comes from early model helicopters like the Kavan that used a small fan to cool the engine. Or is it that most people think that any device that moves air is a fan ???

73’s
Blazen

07-22-2002 Over year old.

jimmyhua
Veteran
Location: Guam

Blazen,

Sorry to hear that the quality of parts in your Falcon kit has not been up on par to your expectations.

It's a bummer too, as I ordered the Falcon SE v2 just 2 days ago.

How do you check that all this stuff is good (aligned/balanced/calibrated) anyways?

I WAS expecting to be able to just BOLT the thing together. But now that you posted. It seems like I will have to check the balance and alignment of things?

This will be the first kit I'm building.

Or is it that most people think that any device that moves air is a fan ??? bummer

I think you answered your own question. A fan is a very generic term. Anything that moves air can be considered a fan, even those paper things that have ridges to stiffen them up that you flap around to cool yourself with.

I think the correct technical term to use, when you have squirrel cage or impeller in a shroud, is a "blower"

07-22-2002 Over year old.

Lift
Elite Veteran
Location: Houston, TX

Falcon

My experience after 3.5 gallons on the new Falcon SE II:

The stock fan cools great. I run CP30% and an TT .50 muffler(currently. Curtis Muscle Pipe coming). Max temps read with non-contact thermometer are 190F.

I too thought about the CNC Alum fan but have since junked the idea. I simply used a high point blancer on the fan and found that it was a tad out of balance. I dial indicated it to .0015 and left it at that. Now that the OS .50 is starting to break in it idles smooth with very little vibration.

07-22-2002 Over year old.

Doug
Elite Veteran
Location: Naples Florida....

I have always used the following: A "fan" has "zero" pressure rise a Blower has a "significant" Pressure rise.

First member of Member of Bearings Anonymous

07-22-2002 Over year old.

EChapkis
Veteran
Location: Tampa, FL

cooling

CP 30% has like 22% oil or close to it. That is where a lot of the cooling is coming from. I run PowerMaster 15%, 23% oil in my Centry Twinstar (OS 46) and Freya (OS 91). Both run cool.

Ev

Evan Chapkis Tampa, Florida

07-22-2002 Over year old.

DMShanks
Senior Heliman
Location: Salt Lake City, UT

Alright, what that heck are you doing when you "dial indicate" a part? Is the run out being checked? And is run out a situation where some portion of the part is a tad further from the axle than another? Hmmm..., if this is correct, how do you take the measurement? I've been meaning to ask this for months. Keep ‘em in the air! Dave

07-23-2002 Over year old.

the Wasp
rrProfessor
Location: Vt

dial indicator

Dave, you are correct,,, you can buy a dial indicator, for $40/$50 or more,,, a dial indicator has a little arm that sets/rides on the part, as you turn the part the face of the indicator looks like a clock and reads in 1 thousands or half thousends of an inch,,,

if you have a part that is indicated to be out-of-round by only .005, or less I think it would be OK to run it like that, but if you have more run-out, like more than .010/.015, maybe that part should be balanced, if you have more run-out .020 or more, you may need a lathe to fix this part, and maybe depending on the part you would most likely need a special jig to hold the part,,, so maybe that part should just be replaced !!

Also,
it doesn't hurt to balance that part that has less than .005 run-out !

Dave, I will Email you a photo of a dial indicator tomorrow !

Jim

07-23-2002 Over year old.

DMShanks
Senior Heliman
Location: Salt Lake City, UT

Thanks Jim! Dave

07-23-2002 Over year old.

Lift
Elite Veteran
Location: Houston, TX

Dial Indicators, Dial Calipers, High Point Balancers....

Dave,
Depending on your preferrences and attention to detail you might want to consider some of these tools. The reason I advise you to do so is because most of the guys complaining of radio equipment failure have some of the roughest running birds. They just buy a kit, slap it together, and then post here about how Thunder Tiger or Century or Hirobo sucks. Well, what do you expect? While the manuf does their best to make kits that are issue free they cannot compensate for poor building and mis-alignment always.

So, I use a dial caliper to measure the diameter shafts, rods, bearings as well as the lenght of my pushrods.

I use a dial indicator to measure the runout of any object that spins and could be a major cause of vibation. Usual culprits are the tail rotor assembly, enging/fan/clutch, main rotor assembly.

I use a Dubro High Point Balancer to balance the above items to remove as much vibration as possible.

I am not affiliated with Enco but you should browse their website for a dial indicator and dial caliper. I got my dial indicator from them for $20 bucks and it measures .0005. I then added on a $10 magnetic base and got a 1/2 thick steel plate that is 10" X 10" to set it on when making measurements.

Check them out. There are many other online shops so feel free to browse them too.
http://www.use-enco.com/

Hope this helps.

07-23-2002 Over year old.

DMShanks
Senior Heliman
Location: Salt Lake City, UT

Dial Indicators, Dial Calipers, High Point Balancers....

Thanks Lift, that is good information. I'll check out that site and see what they have. I strive to get my heli running as smooth as possible (that's part of why I like the hobby, the tinkering!) and have a High Point, so I'll be purchasing the dial indicator soon. Best, Dave

07-24-2002 Over year old.

the Wasp
rrProfessor
Location: Vt

Yea Dave, go to Enco, they will have a Dial Indicator, maybe you'll end-up with a lathe too,,, Heehee

Jim
I wish I had more money !!

07-24-2002 Over year old.

1 page

555 views

POST REPLY

Boca Bearings	.	Modefo's RC Helicopters	.	XHELI.COM
	.		.

Century Hawk - Falcon - Raven - Predator > Poor quality or not !!!! Century Aluminum cooling fan

UPDATE SCREEN PRINT TOPIC

Advertisers

Subscribe to This Topic