As you may know I have a small 1/2A engine – a Testor’s McCoy .049. I have been wanting to start it ever since I got it back in the spring. Well yesterday I ordered some fuel for it! I ordered a quart of Sig Champion 25 which has 25%nitro and 20% oil (1/2 castor and 1/2 synthetic). I planned to start the engine when the fuel arrives, but then I realized I don’t have a glow clip for it! I have a glow starter for a larger engine. The kind that twist locks on, but that won’t work with this small engine so I investigated where to buy one at. I came across this one from Amazon.com for about $12. Well obviously I didn’t buy it, or there would be no blog post today. So, I’ll go ahead and show you what I did so you can make one yourself.
The first thing I did was go watch some YouTube videos of people starting their small Cox engines to see how the glow clip attaches and whatnot. After watching some videos, I realized that it is just a spring clamp with metal pieces that are wired to a battery. So I went and found a clothespin, a piece of brass (leftover from my boat project), and some wire. My plan is to have a fork on the bottom of the clothespin that will slide onto the engine, and piece of metal that will mount to the top of the clothespin and will touch the center post of the glow plug. So I began working on the fork first. I sketched it out on the brass and cut it out using the combination of a hand nibbler and tin snips. The nibbler was used for the center of the fork part, the tin snips were used for the outer shape. I then used multiple different files to make it nice and smooth. I then cut out a strip of brass that acts as the top piece of the clamp.
I then warmed up my soldering iron and began to solder. I soldered an 18″ wire lead to each brass piece. I still don’t know what I’m going to do with the other end of the wire. Right now I just stripped it. I don’t know if I’ll put alligator clips on, or maybe some type of other plug. This Anyway, once I soldered the wires on I tried it on my engine.
I works just like I hoped it would’ve. It slides right onto the engine, and then clamps on. If you see in the picture the top piece of the clip is got a bend in it. This is so it stays on the center post of the glow plug better. I made this bend by using a center punch and repeatedly using it until it was bent in the way I wanted. I tried it out with a battery and it makes good connection with the glow plug and makes it glow red hot. I think this free version works just as good as the $12 version.
Have you tried to start it yet?
No, I plan on starting it for the first time in the next day or so. I got the fuel in the mail just yesterday, so hopefully this weekend I will start it!