RSSThe Two-Can Stirling Engine
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07: Backyard Biology, Page 90.
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Subscribers—read this article now in your digital edition!The Stirling engine has long captivated inventors and dreamers. Here are complete plans for building and operating a two-cylinder model that runs on almost any high-temperature heat source.
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Errata for this article
Correction for page 92
The direction of rotation of the pulleys is incorrect. Here's a corrected PDF of the page.
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- alternative material for the air pipe?
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I notice that the material used for conveying the air back and forth between the warm and cold reservoirs is copper, which is of course highly conductive. It seems like this would reduce the efficiency of the engine by transferring heat through the metal from the hot to cold reservoir. I understand that copper might be necessary for the connection to the coffee cans, as they are soldered, but could PVC or some other insulating pipe be substituted for a portion of the path to increase thermal resistance?Posted by jetrull on June 17, 2007 at 19:50:25 Pacific Time
- Reinserting the thumbtacks
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This has been the most difficult part of the project so far for me -- putting back the thumbtacks from the open side of the can. If you try to use your hands to do this, it's a fruitless endeavor unless you have tiny hands.
Finally the way that worked the best for me was to glue the thumbtack with some relatively weak glue (a glue gun works ok) to the back of a pencil and use the pencil to guide it in. Once the thumbtack is through, you can grasp the sharp end and pull off the pencil.Posted by ajitq on December 05, 2006 at 16:58:47 Pacific Time
- Problems With Crankshaft
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I am having trouble bending the metal rod into a crankshaft with a crank .75 inches away from the shaft, the pinchers on my vice grip are 1 inch long, any advice?Posted by FunkReverend on October 08, 2006 at 17:16:19 Pacific Time
- Problems With Crankshaft
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Find yourself a piece of metal stock (or any piece of square metal...perhaps one of your tools?) that is 3/4" wide, or if you can't find something like that, cut yourself a piece of hardwood 3/4" wide. Then use that as a "jig" for bending the rod around it. Don't worry too much about the bends not being aligned. Once it's bent you can always put the rod on a flat surface, then put a block of wood over the bends and hit it with a hammer until the bends are aligned.Posted by Sellami on January 10, 2007 at 17:22:09 Pacific Time
- Tried Yet?
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Has anyone tried one of these yet?
I am off to get the stuff to make one...Posted by theandrwe on August 19, 2006 at 13:42:55 Pacific Time
- Tried Yet?
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I tried,but failed. My water resivoir leaked,because I epoxyed it.The magazine is right,soldering is VERY HARD!I am in the process of fixing it,though.Posted by Bobomlette on September 04, 2006 at 08:44:30 Pacific Time
- Tried Yet?
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I had no problem sodering my containers to the copper pipe. All I did was use sandpaper to rough up the can so the soder could adhear to it and use a propane torch to soder it. However, I am having trouble with running the engine. My hot side rises to the top of the crankshaft fine, but can't seem to make it over that point to drop back down. When I push it, it falls down and rises up again to the same point no problem, but can't break over that point. Any suggestions?Posted by trebuchetz28 on August 10, 2008 at 18:02:29 Pacific Time
- Tried Yet?
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Posted by badooki on September 05, 2006 at 13:27:25 Pacific Time
- Tried Yet?
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Yes and no. The Scientific American Amateur Scientist CD (or whatever they call it) has mostly hand-waving plans that are similar to these but my version didn't work. My guess at the main problem was that the water reservoirs were too big.
I'm subscribing just to get this particular issue to see if there are some other things I may have messed up.Posted by drysdam on August 23, 2006 at 19:04:12 Pacific Time
- Tried Yet?
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Got everything from Lowes and WalMart except the diecast pulley (ordered from McMaster-Carr website) and the rubber stoppers (ordered from Ward's Science). Don't have the stand-offs yet. Started assembly today.Posted by CaptnScrappy on August 20, 2006 at 22:34:37 Pacific Time
- Tried Yet?
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One thing to keep in mind as a Maker is that you don't necessarily need to use everything as exactly specified in the article. Use you imagineering to come up with alternatives for what you don't have. I was trying to build one on Thanksgiving Day with my nephews but that's one of the few days out of the year where the hardware stores are closed. We didn't have pulleys for flywheels, so I improvised with some large washers that I glued together.
P.S. We didn't get it working because we ran out of time :(Posted by Sellami on January 10, 2007 at 17:15:07 Pacific Time
- Tried Yet?
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What bore size on the diecast pulley did you order from the McMaster-Carr site? The part number I'm looking at online is 6245K72 (the site says it is the same as 6245K45 which is listed in the Make instructions) and the bore sizes are:
1/2"
5/8"
3/4"
1"
I haven't purchased the metal rod or plastic spacers yet so I'm curious if you have a recommendation on what bore size I'll have the most luck matching the rod and plastic spacers to.
Or maybe someone found a pulley that works that is available at a big retail store?
http://www.mcmaster.com/Posted by jalessio on December 05, 2006 at 17:54:11 Pacific Time
- Tried Yet?
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Capnscrappy, you can also get nylon bushings in the unusual parts drawers in the hardware section at Lowe's.Posted by Bobomlette on September 04, 2006 at 08:46:21 Pacific Time
- Tried Yet?
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Thanks for the excellent tip.
Everything is assembled, except now I'm adding an electric heating element to boil the water.Posted by CaptnScrappy on October 03, 2006 at 21:12:56 Pacific Time
- Tried Yet?
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Im planning on making it soon, i have few quick questions. First off would it be better to insulate the pipes to lock in the heat? and second I was thinking of using solar power to heat the water and make it run.Posted by the_nuge on October 18, 2006 at 16:18:12 Pacific Time
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