Laser Engines development.

[Jon H]

Hope they will take advantage of commonality on existing parts; 3 cyl radial? Opposed twin? Flat four? Petrol carb applied to more engines, etc.

Edited By Nigel R on 20/01/2021 10:23:38

The list of engines i want to offer is a long as my leg. Loads of ideas, not all of them crazy.

[Robin Colbourne]

Jon, getting the pre-production out into the field to find out any weaknesses or idiosyncracies is a great idea.

My son is a computer games programmer, and in a similar manner to you, his company release early versions for the game for feedback from willing players as an 'Early access Beta version', these beta players are obligated to provide feedback to allow continuous improvement of the 'Alpha' production variant.

I know JD8's post was partially tongue in cheek, but car manufacturers do build a quantityof cars to prove the design and the production line. These get driven by employees and other trusted people who provide feedback, and are eventually scrapped or gifted for off-highway use only. The must not ever be sold to the general public as they are pre-type approval for the model.

Is there something you could do to make these engines stand out, e.g. anodise parts a different colour, bead blast them, or mark them with a large Greek 'Beta' symbol, so it is obvious to a bystander that they are not the standard production engine? You don't want casual observers people going around saying 'I saw one of those Laser inline twins and it was hard to start/shook a lot/guzzled fuel/leaked like a sieve/throttled badly'.

Another approach would be to insist the model has a large sticker on it, that you provide, which reads 'Fitted with Laser Engines Experimental Development Motor - Not to production standard'.

[Martin McIntosh]

Pic of the in line available?

[Alan Gorham_]

Yes in this thread!

[Martin McIntosh]

Must have missed it.

[Ted Khinsoe]

Jon, since you’re considering taking orders for the pre production engine, would you also consider taking orders for the existing range? Perhaps in batches so at least you then have a target to work towards. I know you don’t want to have people waiting long periods for an engine but some of us (me!) may be happier in the knowledge that we’re in the queue.

Just my take.

ted

[Jon H]

Posted by Ted Khinsoe on 23/01/2021 14:58:41:

Jon, since you’re considering taking orders for the pre production engine, would you also consider taking orders for the existing range?

To clarify, i will accept orders for engines that are in stock and ready. I will not be accepting back orders.

You cant move forward if you are always behind.

[bert baker]

Hi Jon

I've sent you a mail via the Laser engines contat.

Srange thing is my phone shows no record of the email

Bert

[Jon H]

Ill check it tomorrow. Our emails have been a bit weird of late

[Robin Colbourne]

Posted by Jon - Laser Engines on 23/01/2021 17:10:55:

Posted by Ted Khinsoe on 23/01/2021 14:58:41:

Jon, since you’re considering taking orders for the pre production engine, would you also consider taking orders for the existing range?

To clarify, i will accept orders for engines that are in stock and ready. I will not be accepting back orders.

You cant move forward if you are always behind.

I had a tour of the Morgan car factory when I was about eighteen or so. The chap giving the tour said, "Place an order now, and your car will be ready when you can afford to insure it".

[Ron Gray]

Well today was Christmas all over again, i've just taken delivery of one of the 200 in-line twins. First impressions, what a beauty! I thought my Laser V twins were a work of art but this puts them to shame and as for the engine mount, gorgeous. No photos yet but they will come later.

Next job is to mount it to the test bed airframe, a GP Giant Super Sportster that is currently powered by a Laser GA30 petrol jobbie.

[Manish Chandrayan]

Ron, will you please stop ogling the engine and give us all a glimpse or better still, mount it and fly it so that we can all have a production ready version ready to order

Edited By Manish Chandrayan on 26/01/2021 17:41:05

[Piers Bowlan]

Posted by Manish Chandrayan on 26/01/2021 17:27:50:

Ron, will you please stop ogling at the engine and give us all a glimpse or better still, mount it and fly it so that we can all have a production ready version ready to order

Here, here

[Ron Gray]

I will, I will. I’ve only just unboxed it and laid it out on the bench but I mustn’t get distracted as I’m in the process of covering my latest build, Pete Miller’s Peggy Sue 2 and I want to get this finished in the next couple of days. I can then start working on fitting the in-line twin into the Sportster and will be photo recording what this entails.

[Nick Somerville]

Can’t you pop it in your Peggy Sue if its close to finishing 😂.

[Ron Gray]

Not too sure it would fit?

[Tim Flyer]

That’s a big starter motor Ron.. where does the engine go ?

[Ron Gray]

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

Oh - maybe 3mm rod or a carbon fibre link rod might be better?  Or is the bend intentional? I wonder if a slightly offset ball joint would avoid the need to bend it?  Would it at least benefit from locknuts?

I appreciate this is a pre-production engine and this may not be representative of the final product so I hope it's in order to give my feedback, which would be that while it may do the job, the link doesn't really reflect the reputation for fine engineering enjoyed by Laser.

Edited By Martin Harris - Moderator on 27/01/2021 14:17:40

[Ron Gray]

Problem with ball joints is slop and in an engine even the slightest amount of slop could be a problem with sync between the 2 cylinders. I used to use ball joints on the throttle arm of my other Lasers but stopped using them for that very reason. Personally I don’t see a problem with this connecting rod, after all, the Laser V twins have a bit of wire connecting the 2 carbs.

[Nigel R]

Struggling to understand how they can go out of sync... surely they're stuck together on a single crank!?

Edited By Nigel R on 27/01/2021 16:00:12

[Ron Gray]

Carbs going out of sync / balance!

Edited By Ron Gray on 27/01/2021 16:39:16

[Jon H]

Yea the throttle rod is a bit nasty. Its WIP and as i only had 2mm studding/clevises on hand that is what it got.

Ron if you want to upgrade it with some flash hardware you have in a drawer thats fine, just make sure the length is correct at 86mm between centres. To make sure its right, the throttle arms should be parallel to each other when they are at 90 degrees to the mount.

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

Just an observation Ron - to my eye it didn't look quite as I would have expected and to be honest, I assumed you posted the picture to invite comment. I'm surprised you've had slop in ball joints and would have thought wear through vibration and electrical noise might be considerations on a dissimilar metals pivot.

I take your point on the V twins but it's a short and thin gauge rod link with much less mass than a 2mm rod with clevices.

Edit: Posted before seeing Jon's reply

Edited By Martin Harris - Moderator on 27/01/2021 16:44:30

[Martin McIntosh]

Stopped using metal links years ago on anything because of the slop/wear and now mainly use the translucent mini ball joints from SLEC, especially useful on four stroke carbs. Latest batch needs a little freeing up with a heat gun on the ball but takes seconds to do.