Stirlingengineforum.com

Why didn't someone warn me? Building stirling engines is addictive.
Today i found this in my junk bin and i dicided to build a nice little stirling out of it.
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I thought i would show you guys my progress building this.
First step : Heat chamber and displacer.(new pics coming soon)
roger

I’m using a diamond disc to cut the bottle. The little bottle is made out of very thin glass,
so I can't use a regular glass cutter for this.
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The capacitor is an excellent air tight aluminum can.
After removing the inside it fits very nice in the bottle.
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For the displacer rod I’m using a linear slide from an old floppy drive.
In my previous sterling projects I’ve used them with great success.
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FR4 material is used to connect the rod with the displacer.
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Roger, you'll have to watch it, the glass bottle won't stand the heat that a test tube will (different type of glass). Ian S C

Yes your right, I know these bottles are very fragile to heat. Lucky I have a few on spare and can replace them if they break.
Also I don’t like the flame touching the glass.Thanks for the advice.

It might be possible to get a similar sized test tube, maybe on the net, don't know where I'd find one, but it does make the motor more interesting if you can see whats going on inside. I find I just use whats available. The steel case of a NiCad battery makes a displacer, or displacer cylinder, and you get them from AAA, AA, C, and D cells. Ian S C

I to love finding ways to recycle items that are just lying around.
Finally found use for this microscope part I had for a few years
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The bottle nearly fits.
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Here you can see some parts after machining to the right dimensions.
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Two component glue is used to hold the linear slide from the floppy drive in place.
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It starts to look like a real stirling now.
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After this project I’m starting to look for real test tubes (maby on ebay)

Next step: Flywheel and power piston.

This flywheel is another part I found in my junk bin.
I really don’t know where it’s coming from (I think it’s from a old tape recorder)
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The connection with the shaft is made by these two discs with many holes for adjusting.
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The piston is made from a fluorescent tube lamp. The glass tube is very straight and makes an excellent piston.
I bought this graphite rod at a local jewelry repair shop, they use them for stirring molten silver.
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A small bearing is used to make the connection, this way the friction is reduced to a minimum.
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This aluminum tube is placed over the piston to protect the fragile glass.
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The piston and heat chamber are ready to be mounted and connected to the flywheel.
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Hopefully I can see it run today……..

Nice work! It's looking good :)

Thanks junkie
There it is, my new stirling engine.
It’s all holding together with glue for the moment just to do a quick test run.
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It needed a few seconds to heat up and tadaaa! It runs first time.
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Currently I’m making a video for YouTube so you can see it running.
When it’s ready I post the link below.

I uploaded a YouTube video where you can see it in action.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... PKND59P3c8

I added a coreless dc motor to generate some power and drive a RGB led circuit.

A little update on my engine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... CUwaDVeb1Y

Great little engine for so many household pieces.

just one question... where do you fine bearings so tiny?

One place to find very small ball raced is the pinch wheel (rubber roller) in a VHS vidio recorder, but you only get one per machine, they have a bore of between 2.5, to 4 mm, if you'r lucky al the ones you find are the same, but all is not lost if they are different. Also look at DVD/CD players, floppy disk units, all small electronics stuff that goes round & round, some have plain bearings, others ball. Or they can be bought, try a bearing stockest first, if not a hobby shop, RC cars use them. Ian S C