Stirlingengineforum.com

Nice engine! Congratulations! :D

So far I only ever heard of 90 deg timing in 'kinematic' engines like yours, but I'm no expert. (As you probably know, reducing friction and keeping a good temperature difference between the two ends of the displacer should make it run at its best.)

Hi, hopefully a real expert will answer your question properly soon :D I think the kinetic energy is telling you how much energy is stored in the flywheel when it reaches max RPMs (like how much energy you could get out of it if you did some work like lifting a weight by slowing the wheel down to a ...

one way to make the crank shaft is to get some wire that you can just about bend using tools (like a coat hanger), and bend it into the shape you need i also tried making one out of flat aluminium pieces and bolts, screwed together very tight - it sort of worked, but the problem is the shaft ended u...

Mmm I see :) the pivot point can be adjusted much more easily than the piston location. Having read some of MIT's "thermodynamics and propulsion course" online, I can imagine how hard I would probably turn out to be to calculate all this stuff in advance of actually building it :D Here be ...

Did you see this video BTW? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zmuvR6EgcI I think rotary Stirlings like this are more simple to build but less efficient. Why? Think about the rotating displacer - it moves from the hot to the cold side just like the air does (only in an opposite phase obviously) - so th...

Interesting design! I only just discovered this type of Stirling :)

I wonder if it would work better if the pivot point was right at the bottom of the air box rather than a little bit up from the bottom? Or did you find that having it like that makes it run better?

Cheers

I agree that you should try to make do with only 2 pistons (one power piston and one displacer piston). A little air will leak out for each piston - if you have too many the machine will leak too much, or else have too much friction to work. I don't know where to get graphite pistons - they would pr...