Stirlingengineforum.com

Can anyone direct me to some sites with plans for useful, not toy Stirlings?

Could you define useful a bit better? Are you looking to run a generator? Perhaps run a series of gears for mechanical motion? Different uses would require different designs. Generators generally need high rpm / low torque, while mechanical drives require greater torque (sometimes). There are also several different types of Stirling engines to choose from, alpha, beta, gamma, tmg. Generally speaking, alphas are best for mechanical drives needing some torque (never truly high torque), while beta and tmg are best for generating electricity.

While waiting for your answer, here's a little google trick: use image search with keywords like stirling, design, plans, etc, and you will often find designs in PDF format. And yes, there will be lots of links to "toy" plans, but don't let the first page of results stop you. I know you can get plans for all of NASA's designs, not sure about the Phillips generator, there are lot's of other useful designs available.

Most of us begin with "toy" models in order to get a feeling for the intricacies of this supposedly "simple" engine. The experience gained can only help when designing/building a larger "useful" model.

ColonelKorn, heres some sites worth looking at for a start: (1) Notes on Hot Air Engines by Robert Sier.
(2)Although its not what you are looking for, "Boyd's Tin Can Stirling Hot Air Engines.
(3)"Lets Build Model Stirling Engines", by Koichi Hirata, this is a good site.
After youv seen these sites, you'll proberbly spend a good while looking through other sites, happy hunting. Ian S C

Again, nice info Ian. Have just spent some time looking at, and searching through your suggested sites for ColonelKorn
I have come across them before, but spent much more time looking through them this time. The information seems much more credible and worthwhile, when suggested bye an experienced eye and ear.
Good fundamentals and more.

ColonelKorn,
as Jerry and Ian have suggested go mad on the internet. Utilise image search links and advanced search methods, PDF, power point, word doc etc be word exclusive or inclusive or whatever method your familiar with. I personally go through specific binge search sessions sometimes and have accumulated more pdf's and documents than I could read comprehensively in a lifetime. I have loosely filed them, so if you can be more specific about your design choice then I will try and extract a few out of the fudge pile on my hard drive.
Or buy some books (some of them are Xspensive though).

The deeper I dig, the less I know, But the closer I get...

Best of luck

vamoose

If you just go to google, and put in, stirling/ hot air engines, or, build stirling engines, or something similar and you'll be suprised at what you find, worth scrolling through the immages too. Ian S C

Beta is probably what I'd find most useful. I'd like to run a generator. As suggested, I'd go nuts with google and see what I find. Thanks.

Dude i think right way to search out the hot air engines is Google because i also go here and there for the search of hot air engines no specific result is found after that i put hot air engines on the Google and its gave me a lot of information which is reliable for me..