The story of my Stirling engines

[Titou16]

Hello,

I write this post to let you know the Stirling engines that I have made this last ten years.
Link to the playlist -> https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKqsC4zKkkEM243hEyCLbFcZsQmxaPc70

And especially the last one that I have called Stirling Alpha 2017. It will soon be turned into the Stirling Alpha 2018 because some modifications are currently made to improve its performance. I hope that post pleases you.

The video of my Stirling Alpha 2017 (this is the first video of the playlist link above).

Playlist of the making of my Stirling Alpha 2017 : https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKqsC4zKkkEPSziZrnlvfLpqwIOXzhG0s

 

[Bob Korves]

Very nice work!

 

[woodchucker]

Nice, did you cast the case yourself? Any idea how much torque or power it has? Seems like a rather robust Sterling.

 

[Titou16]

Thank you.

This a little Stirling engine, no pressurized and with air as working gas. So the power is very low. Maybe 6W. But I hope to increase that. I am casting parts at this time to make easier the travel of the working gas from the hot part to cold part and reciprocally. The engine max speed is about 2850 rpm and this is the diameter of the pipe that limits the speed. I have to balance the crankshaft too. And I want to try to pressurize it. I hope this modifications will increase the power.

I made all the castings myself. It includes the crankcase. It was the first part that I have molded, I did not make a video of that. But I did videos of castings of other parts of this engine like those one.

 

[woodchucker]

Nice job on the castings if you made them all and it was your first attempt. It looks like you had done a few b4 or bought them. So again very nice job. When you say all the castings. I can see the crankcase. I thought the heads were turned from solid stock, are those cast as well? What else? the fan was not really visible, so I'll assume that was cast.

 

[genec]

Hello,

I write this post to let you know the Stirling engines that I have made this last ten years.
Link to the playlist -> https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKqsC4zKkkEM243hEyCLbFcZsQmxaPc70

And especially the last one that I have called Stirling Alpha 2017. It will soon be turned into the Stirling Alpha 2018 because some modifications are currently made to improve its performance. I hope that post pleases you.

The video of my Stirling Alpha 2017 (this is the first video of the playlist link above).

Playlist of the making of my Stirling Alpha 2017 : https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKqsC4zKkkEPSziZrnlvfLpqwIOXzhG0s

have you tried that on a solar collector?

 

[Titou16]

For the two videos of castings above, it was the first time I made those parts and it was a success for the both from the first try. But it does not go so well every time. I am trying to mold the new cylinder head for this engine. I tried 4 times and made a video each time. But I still don't have uploaded one on youtube because all tries have failed. The cylinder head is particularly hard to mold. Because of the fins, I make a mold with sodium silicate. Until now I always have bubbles into the part. I have to work again to solve this issue. I started over the crankcase several time. The two firts were full. And after, I made a sodium silicate core to make it hollow. The green sand I made was made with sand for sandblasting and it was too rough. I started over after finding finest sand. It was the period during which I was looking for the good parameters.
The fan is not molded. It is 3D printed and screwed on the steel flywheel.

No I do not have seriously trying to solar heating. I made a little try with a magnifying glass one time but with no success.

 

[woodchucker]

Just finished watching one of the casting videos. Nice . I assume those were 3D printed molds?

 

[Titou16]

Absolutely. All the masters and the molds for the cores have been 3D printed with my modified XYZ DaVinci 1.0. On this photo, it was brand new. Before I modify it. First, I flashed the orignal firmware with the repetier firmware. It allows to use third party filaments and it allows to set all the paramaters. The original fimware was very closed and only parameters could be set. I changed the heat bed too because the original had a bad flatness and because it could not be easily and quickly removed too. It is better to can remove the bed to clean it, or prepare it to print. I modified the extruder too, to be able to put different nozzles. I made tries with 0.2mm nozzle instead of the classic 0.4mm. The parts was more precise but very long to print. So I came back to 0.4mm nozzle.