Home made fuel

[nigel newby]

I was just wondering how many on here mix their own fuels? Is it worth the trouble. I was looking on e bay and 20 ltrs of methanol is £27. That's about 4 1/2 gallons I just paid £12 for half a gallon of fuel. Big difference.

[Malcolm Fisher]

I used to mix my own fuel years ago - mainly diesel but have made straight glow fuel. At the price you have been quoted for methanol it must be worth a try. If you add nitro it would push the price up considerably. Depends on whether your engines need nitro or not.

Malcolm

[Jon H]

if you try it make sure you get good methanol as there is more than one flavour and some have a high water content. I suspect cheapy stuff will be not the best quality

I dont think i really need to comment on not trying to to set yourself alight do i?

[Bruce Collinson]

Is it really worth the risk to the engine if you can’t get good synthetic oil or the methanol is what Jon alludes to, when I paid under £20 for a gallon of Laser 5 this afternoon? By the time I’ve driven there and back to the strip, bought Fat Rascals for all the club mates I owe favours to, replaced yet another Wot 4, it seems to me that fuel costs are a relatively small proportion of the total cost of flying.

BTC

[Don Fry]

Your problem, I think, is paying 25 quid a gallon.

You can save money by making your own, you will need a licence to buy nitromethane, buy containers, keep then stored, and sealed properly.

A club might do it. But one modeller with 27 litres of fuel. That is a lot of fuel unless you run big motors.

[nigel newby]

Just been looking through the forum and someone suggested Weston fuels. They sell Liquid Gold 5% at around £12 a gallon. Or £7.32 half gallon A much better price. Only trouble is (Due to EEC regulations) they only despatch in cases of four. But still a much better price

[nigel newby]

Bruce, what are Fat Rascals?

[John Rudd]

Posted by nigel newby on 06/11/2018 20:24:54:

Just been looking through the forum and someone suggested Weston fuels. They sell Liquid Gold 5% at around £12 a gallon. Or £7.32 half gallon A much better price. Only trouble is (Due to EEC regulations) they only despatch in cases of four. But still a much better price

Wait til after Brexit?

[Don Fry]

Yea, why does the EU forbid a gallon, but not four gallons.

And what is a Fat Rascal. I suspect I would rather not know, but there you go.

Edited By Don Fry on 06/11/2018 20:37:40

[Stearman65]

Fat Rascals, eeeh bye gum. **LINK**

[nigel newby]

Eh up Eric thou must think were all wassocks down ere in low county's.

£8.80 for 4 bloody scones, that's £2.20 each. Thou'

s the pilock if thou thinks we's rich folk and can af'ord that.

[Peter Miller]

Posted by nigel newby on 07/11/2018 00:38:43:

Eh up Eric thou must think were all wassocks down ere in low county's.

£8.80 for 4 bloody scones, that's £2.20 each. Thou'

s the pilock if thou thinks we's rich folk and can af'ord that.

Ah!! But they come in a "Pretty Box" That has to be worth £4.40!!!

[Frank Skilbeck]

Posted by Don Fry on 06/11/2018 20:36:03:

Yea, why does the EU forbid a gallon, but not four gallons.

Edited By Don Fry on 06/11/2018 20:37:40

It doesn't, it just requires special packaging/shipping for flammable liquids over 1 litre, it probably is not cost effective to ship one gallon so they have gone for a standard 4 gallon package.

[Bruce Collinson]

Fat Rascals. Well done Eric, the power of the interweb. Although resident in God's own county for more than half my adult life I am not a native Yorkshireman so the Python-esque phonetic patois is largely wasted on me, although it looks more like Barnsley than Harrogate anyway.

A schizophrenic manifestation of the confectioner's art; it can't decide whether it's a scone or a cake. Devised by Bettys, cloned by the bakers who supply an excellent farmshop which is en route to the strip; almost a meal in itself for a flying lunch with no Tupperware boxes, plastic (one-use) cutlery, paper napkins or other clutter. Almost divisible in two apart from the asymmetry of the cherries, of which there are three, a tremendous bellweather of the ambition vs. greed of any recipient of a free one, to see whether they take the half with one or two cherries.

The aeromodelling equivalent of the apocryphal multi-blade pocket knife in the joke about the attractive woman and the boy scout (punchlines only; "it's amazing what a Boy Scout will do to get his hands on one of these...."; most favours, tanks of fuel, spare plugs and props, Osamas for wreckage, an IT lesson on a Spektrum tx, all can be rewarded by half a Fat Rascal although technically ours are clones and are properly called Yorkshire Scallywags.

Here endeth the first lesson. I do hope it was helpful.

BTC

[Frank Skilbeck]

Getting back to the original post, getting the methanol is one thing, but nitro methane another. Note on the Weston page that 10% nitro fuels are around £6 per gallon more expensive, so while methanol may be reasonable it doesn't include the oil and nitro which will push the price up substantially.

[nigel newby]

I quite agree Frank, but with £72 to play with, I am sure it will still prove cheaper. I guess the main problem is that it just ain't worth the hassle, unless you use gallons a month.

Back to Fat Rascals,

Yes Bruce, very helpful. My mouth was watering with your description.

Also as you say yours are clones/forgeries because a real fat rascal, as seen on Bettys web site, has only 2 glazed cherries and not 3. A simple mistake to make, unless as you stated these are scallywag's and not rascals.

Nigel

[Nigel R]

There are a few shops that will courier a single gallon for around £5, IIRC. If I were flying glow more often than I do, I'd be buying 4 packs of Westons 5% or 10%.

As to mixing my/your own, hardly seems worth it, the cost of fuel is buttons in the grand scheme of this malarkey. Especially in the 40 or 60 size bracket.

Come to think of it I already do buy 4 packs of Westons but its the drinking sort.

[Bruce Collinson]

Nigel,

If you used gallons a month you'd do what an erstwhile shooting acquaintance of mine did with cartridges and buy them by the pallet load, c. 20% discount and free delivery. Probably needed an explosives licence, technically, as might a large volume of nitromethane.

Rascals; yes the Bettys original is deficient in cherries.

So good, you posted it twice ... then twice more! Did you drool on the keyboard?

BTC (tongue in cheek ... got an almond stuck in lower R 7 ...)

[Nigel R]

Bruce, well yes, I agree, but, using something like 6 tanks of 6 oz a go, per session - when the glow model is out to play - doesn't churn through the gallons that quickly. Right now I don't even have any airworthy glow models (oh, the shame ).

[Bruce Collinson]

Share your shame. Had a leggy Excelsior patternship with a Saito 72 which rapidly became my go-to until a flaky battery made the ground rush up etc... have one petrol and 2 glow on production line, but too much time wasted working, answering posts on forums and nattering in the Precious Shop about the price of fish and the march of the ists and isms and how unfair it all is and there ought to be a law etc.

Plus it's raining and Wed is an informal club day. Bugger.

BTC

[nigel newby]

Now it gets complicated, TWO Nigels. Yes sorry about the multi posts. Computer looked like it was not working right, so clicked more than once and hey presto, multi postings. Tried to delete them but no joy. The Rascals look good, but I really love a big chunk of bread pudding.

Nigel N

[Don Fry]

Posted by Bruce Collinson on 07/11/2018 09:56:32:

Nigel,

If you used gallons a month you'd do what an erstwhile shooting acquaintance of mine did with cartridges and buy them by the pallet load, c. 20% discount and free delivery. Probably needed an explosives licence, technically, as might a large volume of nitromethane.

Rascals; yes the Bettys original is deficient in cherries.

So good, you posted it twice ... then twice more! Did you drool on the keyboard?

BTC (tongue in cheek ... got an almond stuck in lower R 7 ...)

Looked deficient in currents too. Where I currently lurk, debts are paid in cognac or whisky. Much healthier.

[Bruce Collinson]

Don,

That's the spirit!

Neither currents nor currants are deficient, all I've left to fly are powered by electrickery and the currants in a Rascal are mainly within.

The advantage of payment in confectionery/bakery is that the payment can be consumed post haste, whereas flying on even a small libation is reckless, or so I am lead to believe anyway. Although I did trade a case of white for a hand built, welded alloy silencer for a DLE 20 ....

BTC

[Jon H]

On the price of oil ML70 is around £13 a litre and klotz is nearly £20.

Working on 15% oil you need 682ml per gallon so your looking at nearly 9 quid a gallon just for the oil, plus methanol at the price in the OP and we are staring at £15 a gallon assuming no nitro. Clearly you could cheap out and use lard or something in place of the expensive oil, but long term i suspect that will work out more expensive!

Makes Laser 5 look good value at £16-17 a gallon.

[nigel newby]

Certainly does Jon, Trouble is my local shop does not seem to stock it. I use Addlestone models. I do try to support my local shops when I can

Nigel N