Don Bruder wrote:
In article ,
"Ken Davey" wrote:

Don Bruder wrote:
In article ,
Winston wrote:

Ken Davey wrote:
Some time ago somebody (forgotten who) mentioned, in passing,
that hard drive discs might serve as rotors in a Tesla Turbine.
I had been working for some time on that idea and now I am finally
ready to show the world (or at least RCM) the results.
http://www.rupert.net/~solar/
Click on Tesla Turbine - go figure
The page is still incomplete but the basics are there.

Way excellent, Ken.

Please post again when you have performance and efficiency curves.

Indeed! This definitely ranks as one of the niftier hacks I've seen.
Can't wait to hear about power output and the rest of the details.

As a side note, this has inspired me to start looking at that scrap
3' chunk of 14"x8" "engineered wood" main beam from the house as a
potential housing for a many-many-more disks on an even longer shaft
version done in a wood case. If I've properly understood what I've
read
about TTs, it would seem to me that increasing disc count can do one
thing, and one thing only: Increase output torque. (Yes, Virginia,
I'm certain there's an upper limit of how much fluid you need to
feed it
to
get it spun up)

Ponders a compressed-air chainsaw where the chain going through the
wood drowns out the engine noise

I know, I know, I'm a heretic, working in wood... But hey! The
material
is there, and at this moment, it's considered something to be hauled
to
the dump! Chopping it up and making one of these gizmos out of it
would
only be enhancing its value!

Ken:
Love the milled spiders - The spooky part is I keep glancing at the
stack of them that's visible in the other window and seeing spiders
for 45 RPM records

Suggestion for improvement if there's a "next version" in your shop:
I've done some reading on these little beasties, and they, like so
many
other nifty gadgets that Ol' Nick came up with, intrigue me. One of
the things I've learned from that reading is something that you
mention on
your page - one of the key things is putting the drive fluid to the
rotor-bank at as close to a perfect tangent as possible, and *WITH
AS LITTLE TURBULENCE AS POSSIBLE*. (Emphasis mine)

Now, your manifold bar/nozzle bar setup is an excellent idea, but I
think I see a flaw in it that's quite likely to be putting extra
turbulence in the fluid path, but could be tuned up pretty easily,
with potentially significant improvement over the excellent-sounding
(so far - I'm waiting for the torque figures ) performance with
what I think
would be only a slight alteration of what you've already got.

It isn't clear for sure from your commentary what, if any, kind of
plans
you might have for maybe producing/selling this neat little widget
(which doesn't even consider whether there's an exploitable market
for
it if you want to try), so do you want me to talk about the idea
I've
got "in public", or would you prefer to go to email or some other
medium?

Let's keep it all in public - that's what this group is all about eh?
I present the idea and my version in the hopes that someone will
(and I just know they will) come up with something better.
Your comment about 'as little turbulence as possible' is right on
the money.

Regards.
Ken.



Hokay, then... Here we go!
Looking at http://www.rupert.net/~solar/Case.jpg I see a 180 degree
turn in the fluid path. Even if you point the brass fitting the other
way, you're still going to be turning two 90s between the supply
hookup
and the nozzle opening. Replacing it with a straight fitting is still
going to leave the 90 of going through the manifold bar and coming out
into the gap formed by the nozzle bar. The distance traveled after
that
last 90 can't possibly be anywhere near enough for that much
turbulence
to "settle out" before hitting the rotors.

Proposed fix/improvement:
Add another plate, suitably drilled and tapped to accept a (preferably
straight) fitting - Place it on the left side of the case as it's
shown
in the image noted, then lift the manifold bar and the left piece of
the nozzle bar, and finish milling the "slot" on the top of the
nozzle bar
all the way to the leftmost edge of the current case before
reassembling
it. The new plate for the left side should be drilled and tapped in
the right position to give the drive fluid a straight flow from
source to rotor-bank, which should give a serious decrease in
turbulence compared
to the two right-angle turns you've currently got.

Or am I completely off my rocker?

That should work to some extent.
The idea goes into the "going further" file.

Ken.