DC Bee (Cox Bee competitor)

The posting by "Happydad" intrigued me as I had never heard of the DC Bee before but was well aware that in the UK the prime competitor to Cox was Davis Charlton.

The first engine I ever purchased new was the DC Bantam. This was one of the most popular engines sold in the UK but it was not good. The crankase and crankshaft were reused from a .5cc diesel engine and weren't up to the job supporting a .8cc glo. This was replaced in the 70's by the Wasp, DC's fortuned may have been different had they introduced the Wasp earlier.

My Bantam didn't last long. First landing wher the propellor didn't level out and the crankcase and crankshaft bent.

Here is a picture of the Bantam together with the crankcase and crankshaft for the Bantam and the Wasp.



As can be seen, they are both same capacity engines but the Wasp crankcase and crankshaft are much sturdier. The Bantam crankshaft is slender and not even balanced. The Wasp crankshaft is very "Coxish".

I went for the Bee described in the post even though it was not perfect and missing the needle valve assembly. I had not heard of one before this. It arrived as described.



At the same time, there or there abouts, I notice a reed valve Enya 049. That arrived exactly as described but that had a DC needle valve assembly, wrong sized screws and was sealed using red hermatite instead of gasket material. Coincidently, I new of a source for Enya gaskets, screws and needle valve assemblies. My parts box also had an Enya 049 silencer (Muffler).


The Enya was in running condition.



I also had two Wasps awaiting restoration - one just needed cleaning and the other needed a bit more than that.



As you can see a little elbow grease works wonders but back to the Bee. The Bee was a Wasp with the mounting lugs shaved off - as simple as that! Any Wasp could be turned into a Bee but the Bee that I bought was a little damaged.

More elbow grease, adonising and fettling.



Followed by:-



Then back to the Enya.




Then I came across a Wasp Special - Dieselised.



While these may not be Cox engines, they were competitors and one simple question in this site spurred me on to carry out some restorations. I hope everyone can see that even the grimmest looking purchase can be turned around.