Large Stirling Hot Air Engine
★Project: Build a stirling engine that can do some usefull work. This is an on-going project, the engine is not yet finished but it works! Built around 4 stud bar colums, the displacer cylinder is a stainless pasta tin, the piston is an old footpump cylinder (with a new cast polyester piston). Old saucepans form the furnace (bottom) and the water jacket (at the top) which creates the heat differential between the two ends. The oscilating piston is connected via bit of flexible garden hose, and the flywheel is cast iron. The plan is to use this to pump water for the garden pond, using anything that burns as fuel. The bricks form a makeshift fire box as this is the first time the engine has run on solid fuel, in this case a small wood fire. Thanks for viewing, I will upload more as the engine develops.★
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Tags: Bricks, Burns, Differential, Engine, Flywheel, Furnace, Garden Hose, Garden Pond, Hot Air Engine, Large, Oscilating, Pasta Tin, Piston, Polyester, Solid Fuel, Stirling, Stirling Engine, Stud Bar, Usefull Work, Water Jacket, Wood Fire
February 9th, 2010 at 3:56 am
pretty cool, but why is it sideways?
February 9th, 2010 at 4:33 am
whats with the bad camera angle?
This would have been a cool video if you had filmed the subject straight on
February 9th, 2010 at 4:58 am
You build one!
You could have had this one up until a few months ago, when I butchered it for parts.
February 9th, 2010 at 5:28 am
Where can I get one of these?
February 9th, 2010 at 5:52 am
I wish I didn’t have to twist my head to see this straight; but WOW that is wicked cool. Five stars even sideways.
February 9th, 2010 at 6:34 am
Both strokes are between 2-3” the displacer is the no regenerative closed cylinder type. I would go and take some measurements for you, but you need to build your engine around your parts – just make the swept volume of the dispacer 1.5 (or a bit bigger) times that of the power piston and it will work.
February 9th, 2010 at 7:18 am
Valvechest, thank you for your reply. In fact, I have a bicycle pump that is broke, so I have half of the spare parts!
What stroke did you use on the displacer and power piston? What are your dimensions for the displacer? Did you add a regenerator? I am thinking of using a pop can for a displacer and an empty hobby oxygen tank for the heat cylinder.
February 9th, 2010 at 7:40 am
hi, yes it will be capable of pumping water, just a question of volume + lift height really. I have tried putting weights on the top of the piston, to see how much it can lift while still running and it looks promising.
The plan is to pump the water through the waterjacket to maintain the heat differential.
February 9th, 2010 at 8:01 am
is this engine powerful enough to pump water? When you pump water do you plan to somehow cool the power piston?
February 9th, 2010 at 8:19 am
I had some left over from boat bulding but its easy to get hold of. Some people use it to repair car bodywork so you can probably get it at Halfords, and there is always some on ebay.
Be carefull because of the nasty chemicals through.
Hope this helps with your builds.
February 9th, 2010 at 8:31 am
Very awesome. I’m going to have to try this, since I don’t have a lathe. Where do you get the polyester resin? Off the shelf or is it a specialty thing?
February 9th, 2010 at 9:04 am
I replaced the original rubber piston and poured resin into the cylinder. (polyester, as used in GRP) I used a disk of card sealed with wax to stop the resin pouring out the bottom. The resin shrinks a little when it cures, so to make a good seal I removed it and made a groove round the piston, into which a strand of valve gland packing fits. This makes a really good, low friction seal (with the help of a little WD40)
The piston is attached to the original piston rod via central hole and bolt.
February 9th, 2010 at 9:04 am
I thought of using a bike pump cylinder recently too. More information on to to “cast” a “polyester piston” would be nice. And what’s with the weird angle here?