Best Reeds

I found copper creased
Easily and corroded bedor the others wore out bu this was in a pee wee .020.

I actually like the copper beryllium reeds when they are in good condition. They can be damaged easily when removing them. I have not tried the Teflon reeds yet but someday I'll get a set. I also like the mylar reeds. I have experimented with the reeds, thin plastic, brass and so on. Now what really got my attention once was glass reeds. Apparently a guy made some thin (.001) glass reeds. They worked for awhile but shattered after the 3rd run or so. I have also heard of neoprene, silicone, Polycarbonate and (aluminum like you said).

the copper reeds were good in their day but the mylar reeds which they started putting in engines in the mid 80s were better. they were not affected by the heat, fuel ingredents or movement. the copper reeds would start to get "rounded edges' after so many runs. If you open a engine that has been sitting for 30 plus years in old castor oil, you will notice the reed is all green and the oil around it is also green colored (meaning that the reed is falling apart). The teflon ones are ok, I purchased some from davis diesel back around 2002 2003. now glass reeds, that must be a joke, there is no way it would last even one run. in fact it would probably wreak the engine when it shatters in there. I have tried some plastic cut from a church cassette tape case , its not like normal tape cases, its more of a cheaper flexable case. that worked until the plastic started to melt....

Yeah, i heard of the issue with normal plastic not being tough enough to withstand the
heat inside the crank case. i believe thats why my laminated paper reed failed, because after i pulled it out of
the engine, the paper had actually ripped in the middle. it was probably because the heat inside started to melt
the lamination, thus weakening the structural integrity of the reed. but how do the stainless steel reeds do?
are they the most reliable or are they just failing after a few runs?

GermanBeez wrote:Yeah, i heard of the issue with normal plastic not being tough enough to withstand the
heat inside the crank case. i believe thats why my laminated paper reed failed, because after i pulled it out of
the engine, the paper had actually ripped in the middle. it was probably because the heat inside started to melt
the lamination, thus weakening the structural integrity of the reed. but how do the stainless steel reeds do?
are they the most reliable or are they just failing after a few runs?

The stainless steel are not too bad. They came in the later engines (post 1996).

I do not recall ever using the stainless steel ones but next time I buy reeds I'll try and get som of those.

the stainless steel reeds came from the estes days. estes=bad nuff-said

i dont like messing with estes engines all the ones i owned had a terrible parts fit.

I've heard that they actually sold a DIY engine kit that you had to put together yourself, so they could save money on assembly
costs...kinda like when they tried selling a Pee Wee 020 kit. But i just can't believe jacob found metal shavings in these engines...
where they low on air so they couldn't flush them out after milling them???

I found metal shavings inside my AE .1cc

wow, that's even worse!
shouldn't the producers have a zero-tolerance against stuff like that?

I found metal shavings in about 3 of my sure starts. They were actually good sized pieces too. Its like Estes didn't care what they were doing. I know if you clean all the parts out of a Estes-Cox engine in a ultrasonic cleaner, you'll fine a bunch of little metal shavings. Some of the engines have bad fitting parts lose or tight. The reeds are okay though, I have not found really any issue with them.

umm...should i perhaps clean my cylinder that i want to buy for my texaco before assembling it?

The shavings immune were more than a mm in size and there were about 25.

I wouldnt run any engine made after 1995 with out a very good cleaning! just about all my surestarts cast crankcase or stock crankcase, ive found shavings. I have also found shavings in the newer black widows babe bees, texacos and so on. i ordered at least 30 surestarts before cox went out and just about all of them had poorly fitted parts. sure most would have run, but not as good as they should. I dissembled most of them for use as parts so it didn't matter. but for the reeds, yeah the steel works, the mylar is better but I'm liking the davis diesel teflon reeds i purchased way back.

They also use Teflon in their diesel heads and it's pretty heat resistant and tough I wonder how long they last compared with Mylar

nitroairplane wrote:They also use Teflon in their diesel heads and it's pretty heat resistant and tough I wonder how long they last compared with Mylar

i'm not sure how long they would last, I only had 1 diesel converted tee dee way back in the early 80s. i believe it used copper or brass discs that lasted a few runs each time i no longer have the engine but someday i'll get another and mess around with it.

Hmm people said they only lasted a few runs but my pee wee has lasted ages on one but apart from cox engines I mostly run diesel.

Hi everybody, I just joined. Someone posted a link to this site at rcgroups.com. Now I don't remember what thread so I can't credit whichever of you posted it, but thanks. It might have been nitroairplane, I've seen his name here so far.
I guess this is where we can talk Cox without having to explain why we use them. Cool, I've used then since the '60s. I have 3 pre-1996 Black Widows and several .049 Bees and a few tankless backplates. I also have a box of new spare parts like I never dreamed was possible a few years ago.

So I figured I would throw in on a discussion.
I've read several times that you can make good reeds out of old floppy disks. They are mylar with an electromagnetic coating, and supposedly work pretty well. I have a couple of stainless steel reeds but have yet to try them. With more mass they may produce lower RPM, but they probably last forever. The solid Teflon reed in my son's PT-19 works fine. I have a woven Teflon reed which I haven't tried yet. I use the mylar ones in my Black Widows and have no problems. I rebuilt one of those the other night and the reed was slightly dome shaped. It had been working fine but I tossed it in the trash and replaced it. I bought a 10 pack from Cox International so I never have to make-do. With the mylar reeds, sometimes you have to deburr one side from where they were stamped out. When you put one in an engine, try it facing both ways to see which way it flows and seals the best, using the old suck-blow test, of course.

Yup I linked this sight as I saw some die hard cox fans posting on that thread.

Welcome to the forum! Yeah, it was nitro I'll have to try out the floppy disk reeds. I purchased a 15 pack of star shaped mylar reeds about 7 years ago, those ones I do like! The oval shaped mylar works great but I get better performance with the star shaped for some reason. I should really test out the teflon reeds, many people say they are great. I do like the copper reeds though!