Horizontal Stirling Engine from November/December 2005 HSM

[Brass_Machine]

Philjoe5 did. He has a picture of them in one of my posts: HERE scroll down to the bottom.

Gonna order that back issue on monday.

Eric

 

[deere_x475guy]

Eric thanks, I thought I had seen it posted here but a search didn't bring me back anything. I am studying the plans now for a future build...

 

[BobWarfield]

FYI, gents, that Stirling is Rudy Kouhoupt's design, and orginally appeared in his article, "An Air-Cooled Hot Air Engine." It's in volume 2 of his "Shop Wisdom" books, so if you ever thought you might want one of those books, this could be your excuse. I have both the book and the HSM article. The latter describes this engine as a project for a shop class. It has full plans as well as some good construction tips.

The original articles shows how Rudy built a little stove for heat that's pretty neat and then hooked the whole thing up to run a fan.

This one looks real nice compared to a lot of Stirlings, so it's been on my list to get around to one day. As these models go, this one didn't look like a "beginner" model, so I didn't want to attempt it as a first engine.

Cheers,

BW

 

[deere_x475guy]

I know what you mean about not a beginners model. I have had my eye on it since it came out in the magazine. I am going to have to try to substitute some of the materials once I start on it. The stuff I don't have on hand is the ABEC - 7 ball bearing, Hot End bronze, bronze for the Power Cylinder. Guess I better check to see how expensive these will be.

 

[mklotz]

Paul Chretien is a buddy of mine and consulted with me about building the engine shown in the pictures from our club website (URL in first post in this thread).

IIRC, Rudy's design calls for a bronze hot cap. I talked Paul into using stainless.
Ideally, the hot cap should have LOW thermal conductivity so it stays hot and doesn't transmit heat to the cold end to which it is attached. Even if there is insulation between the hot and cold sections of the displacer chamber, I would avoid using bronze for the hot cap.

Unlike an LTD, this engine will develop enough power that crankshaft bearings are not a major concern. Use any decent ball bearings you can scrounge. Originally, Paul used shielded bearings filled with grease. I told him to remove the seals and wash out the grease and lubricate the bearings with just a touch of light spindle oil. He did and that improved the top speed of the engine.

While Paul did use bronze for the power cylinder, I seriously doubt that it is necessary to the engine's operation. I have a very similar size Stirling that utilizes a steel cylinder with an aluminum piston and it's a very dependable runner. The fit of the piston in the cylinder is far more important than the materials from which they are made.

 

[deere_x475guy]

Marv thanks, that is exactly the information I was looking for. I have some 2" and 1.5" dia SS on hand. Not use if it's 303, 304 or what...It has yellow paint on the end. I need to get in touch with the guy I bought this from 5 years ago and see if he remembers....I knew I should have wrote in on the bars...

Now back to the bender build..)

 

[Philjoe5]

Let me add my $0.02. The HSM plans called for a bronze hot end. Have you priced bronze in the 2" diameter lately? However, at NAMES last year I saw this design running nicely at 3 different locations. Everyone was using some type of stainless. I used 1144 steel for mine.

Cheers,
Phil

 

[deere_x475guy]

Phil thanks for your input..and yes I was trying to say away from the more expensive materials. I have plenty of the other stuff. BTW your sterlings look great....nice job!

 

[BobWarfield]

FWIW, ABEC7 skate bearings are cheap. Buy them off eBay. I have bought several assortments so I'd have some on hand.

I had actually thought to make this Stirling my first CNC project. Then I came across the Hula Hula and decided it would be easier as a first. So now the Stirling will be my second CNC, LOL.

I guess I'd better get back to work finishing the CNC conversions, eh?

Best,

BW

PS PowderKeg (Wes) has been sending me links to Stirling pages on the web. I'm putting together a compendium of Stirling resources on my cnccookbook web site. When it's ready, I'll post so ya'll can see it.

 

[deere_x475guy]

BW thanks for the tip about the skate bearings. I will keep that in mind when I need some. Let us know when you get the sterling resources on your site. I would be nice to have one place to look.

 

[S_J_H]

I built a version of that engine in the 2005 issue. I changed up the look of it a tad just for fun. It runs well and I used run of the mill bearings. It was a fun project.
Steve

 

[Powder keg]

Nice!!!

 

[Brass_Machine]

Nice! Gonna order that back issue of HSM.



Eric