Hi Will,
As a CL "Retread" I was shocked to see that people were still starting their engines with their bare fingers. I do understand that some very experienced modelers can get their engines started easily under most circumstances. But this is not the case for many modelers, especially those who do not sleep with their engines under their pillow! ;-)
I still have the small scars on my fingers from childhood 1/2As. We had no idea what we were doing and no one to tell us to protect ourselves or even sand the nylon props to take off the knife edge, what did we know we were 7 yrs. old! But now we are grown up and know better. Sometime about 40 years ago I saw my first Electric starter, I never touched another prop on a glow engine again. I am aware of the extremely strong feelings about tradition in CL, but risking our valuable "FLYING" fingers/hand by placing them inside an efficient slicing machine is a risk not worth taking. The ONLY reason we used our hands when we were kids is that a safe alternative was not readily available. The chicken stick used with wooden props had obvious problems, as similar units still do today with wooden and CF props. I feel that there is never a good reason to use our fingers to start a glow engine. There are alternatives:
1.
INEXPENSIVE "SAFE" WAY: A fellow IMAC flyer and good friend from AZ came up with an excellent, safe, and inexpensive alternative to using our fingers to start our 6 cu. in. 10 HP engines with 28 x 10 CF props. I never liked using my hand, even with a very heavy glove. The computer ignition systems, and very low idle made it much easier than glow engines, but still it was more risk than I liked. With a CF three blade it was down right scary. I have three flying buddies that have severe hand, arm damage from these things.
His idea is simple: find a soft (safe for the prop), light, inexpensive, readily available, easily held, KIS, chicken stick!
If you want to make one for starting your CL engines, just go to Lowe's, Home Depeot, etc. and buy an inexpensive lightweight PLASTIC paint roller. Don't buy the ones with the heavy centers, get the lightest ones that are somewhat smaller dia. Find an old scrap of denim large enough to sew up a cover for the roller. If you have someone that sews this is easy, inside out sew up side and top, .... elastic, velcro, or drawstring bottom then turn rightside out so no hemlines showing and your ready. If you want the deluxe version, find some very soft, thin leather and make this cover with it. My wife made me one with very soft leather and it has lasted many years and still works fine! ..... Now you have the perfect chicken stick that will protect your fingers/hand AND your valuable wood, or CF, or APC props. Being light and soft it will not hurt any bystanders/holders when/if it flies out of your hand with a strong kick back on your belch-fire .80.
2.
ELECTRIC STARTERS: There are many good starters out there. As mentioned here, if you have an engine in the larger CL size of >.50 and it's cold you need a powerful starter. I have collected several over the years. The Sullivan 24V is very good, but actually larger than we need and it is bulky and heavy with 24V batteries. The regular "non geared" 12V starters are marginal on a cold day with a tight engine. Below is what I think is the best starter available for CL engines. I stopped using all my other starters after buying this one. It is small, light weight, and compact with it's own batteries as part of the unit. It uses rechargeable 14.2V NiCad batteries (two 7.2V in series) and has an internal 3 to 1 gear ratio. Before I converted all my RC and CL planes to electric power I used to use this starter on my OS 1.60 cu.in. glow engine. It is the gear ratio that makes it perfect for our size CL engines. It's small size and light weight makes it a pleasure to use.
If you are not ever going to use engines over .51, then the 1,800 mAh batteries are fine. If you are going to use larger CL engines then the 4,000 mAh batteries are better, and you will be able to be a hero at the local flying field by starting everyone else's cranky cold engines! ;-)
Link:
http://www.ecsvr.com/wrc/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=7&subcat=64&cat=StartersThe $109 one is fine the $149 one is even better. The charger is all automatic and goes to trickle when done. This starter will last for years and years of CL use. ..... Please see photo at bottom of this post.
3.
ULTIMATE SAFE SOLUTION: FLY WITH ELECTRIC POWERED CL PLANES 
This solution is self explanatory. Nothing more needs to be said.
Please be safe out there, perfectly working fingers on your flying hand are very hard to replace!
Regards,
Topic: Ouch!! (Read 4168 times)