Stirlingengineforum.com

I see the Australian gumment is committed to spending $20 billion on about a dozen Japanese Soryu submarines with Stirling engines that can run underwater to charge the batteries. They run on LOX and diesel fuel. Exhuast is mixed with seawater and pumped overboard. http://www.news.com.au/national/ne...

Possibly a simpler way to make a variable phase engine, adjustable in motion, might be to build it with the power cylinder mounted on a quadrant so it pivoted around a point concentric with the crankshaft (thinking gamma engine here).

Seems like a lot of people are looking for this book - it is probably the best introduction to Stirlings the Noob can read. But other than the odd copy sold on here, it is prohibitively expensive. For anyone in Australia, you local city library can inter-library loan a copy for you. State Library of...

And if you really want to have some fun, throw an old VW Bug magnesium gearbox housing on a campfire. There are two common problems with first run on a Stirling: Friction and Sealing. Friction must be so low that with the hot cap removed, you should be able to spin the flywheel by hand and it will k...

The old Stirlings seemed to use a 2:1 or 3:1 ratio between the hot end and cold end lengths respectively. Before designing my own Gamma type engine recently I did survey of a good handful of currently available model Stirling plans and kits with a proven track record and most of them have closer to ...

Best solar LT Stirling I have seen had a clear Perspex top disc instead of the usual aluminium. The top of the displacer piston was covered in matt black aluminium foil or thin sheet. So the sun shone through the top of the displacer chamber and heated the black alum. on top of the displacer piston....

It looks basically good. The cooling fins on the 'cold end" may be a little too long. Most of the commercial stirlings produced in the old days had the cold end comprising about one third of the total length of the displacer cylinder. That was using brass or steel for the cylinder. Most modern ...

Or you could try making a slipper piston, that is one that the piston skirt is cut away on the sides below the gudgeon pin but left intact on the load bearing front and back surfaces.

Yeah, I remember those big old round batteries with two threaded terminals on top. The staple of backyard science projects for boys of several generations. Just googling around, it appears that most of today's large square six volt batteries actually contain 32 AA cell batteries. So its a cheap way ...

It's hard to tell from your video but it looks to me like part of the problem may be too much friction and too much reciprocating weight. Is that main crankshaft bearing a ball bearing? What about the connecting rod bearings? They all need to be almost totally friction free for a Stirling to work on...

Chris, that cooking hood filter engine really motors! Anyone know a source of small diameter graphite like he uses for the con rod bearings etc? I see plenty on eBay but all half inch diameter and upwards. Stuff is so damn messy to machine I would rather start with smaller stock if possible. Will th...

That's cool. Thanks for the tip. And the wind turbines too. I have heard of guys making them out of washing machine motors. I think they are probably the way for cheap energy in developing countries. Stirling engines have potential too, but there is already enough problems with deforestation without...

Neat. Any details of your production process? Is the epoxy cast and then machined to final size and shape? How do you get the graphite to stick to the epoxy? Or do you just spray it on the finished piston then intsal into cylinder? I really like the video of your engine disassembly too. Very nice wo...

Insainhouserecords wrote:That's awesome! It looks great! You should think of you tubing a vid of it running, it looks fast.

All I got to do is remember how to use my camera to take video. Doh!

Well, after following this thread for a while I had to have a go at one of these tin can engines myself. I have made engines on my lathe before but never out of old tins and nails and bits of wire. I had an old sweets tin lying around so I made an engine to Myfordboy's EZ Stirling design and it work...