What Stirling Engine to Build

[Dave TointonParticipant @davetointon92281]

G’Day All,

I’ve seen a few stirling engines lately on this site and others. I would like to build one. What would be the best one to start. Would rather a good plan as I live in Australia and kits will take too long to get here.

Thank you for your advice,

Regards

Dave Tointon

 

[Dave TointonParticipant @davetointon92281]

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

Hi Dave, I learned about hot air engines firstly in Model Engineer, then I got modeling Stirling and Hot Air Engines, and later The Stirl;ing Engine Manual, both of these by James G. Rizzo, there are other books, but with Rizzo’s books(There is another one)you should be able to produce a good working engine for a heck of a lot cheeper than any kit, thats assuming your not going to build a tin can motor, they seem to be the favourites on the web. Ian S C

PS Have a look at the books in MyHobbyStore, there is one good one there Stirlingand Hot Air Engines, by Roy Darlington & Keith Strong, you should be able to get such books in Austrailia.

Edited By Ian S C on 04/04/2011 13:49:21

Edited By Ian S C on 04/04/2011 14:03:29

[Gordon WParticipant @gordonw]

Ian has given you some books to look at, and there are lots more. Only advice I would give is to start with a reasonable size of engine, and relatively simple ,even “old fashioned” design. Say 1″ bore for power piston, this helps to make gland sealing etc. easier. I intend to make a beam engine design next, with 90 deg. cyl. configuration, then only one crank pin required, nice and simple

[TerrydParticipant @terryd72465]

Hi Dave,

 

If you search for Stirling engine plans on the web you will be surprised at the number of free plans available for many different types of engine, from tin can engines to those requiring sophisticated engineering.

 

You could do worse than star here at Jan Ridders site which has lots of examples. It is in Dutch but most pages have English translations and Jan will send you a set of plans for free if you ask, and just asks for a contribution if you build an engine.

 

Regards

 

Terry

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

The important things are, to understand how the motor works, and to get the proportions of the two cylinders right.

The tin can engines use a greater ratio between the cylinders, the normal for a high temperature motor is 1.5:i, the displacer being the larger one, absolute exact figures are not needed.

If you’v got a local library, go and see what they have, might save buying an expensive book, and if you find some thing that you like, scan it, I,v done that with a number of designs, its always handy to have some one elses ideas that you can refer to. Ian S C

 

[Dave TointonParticipant @davetointon92281]

Thank You Gentlemen, I have ordered James Rizzo’s book and a set of plans from Jan.

That’ll get me started

Regards

Dave Tointon

[TerrydParticipant @terryd72465]

Hi Dave,

 

Try searching for Fizgig, there are some downloadable plans for that as well.

 

Actually it’s here and a video here. You could also try John-Tom’s site as well he has Stirling ans steam engine plans galore, most free.

 

Regards

 

Terry

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

Depending on which book you get, a good start would be Dolly, I think no., 2 is the better one, then there is lolly 1 and 2. he one that I based my 2nd motor on is Dyna. My first one was my own design, a V type, so that it only required one crank on the crankshaft.

The only one of Jan’s motors I’v built is the little flame licker, it does not yet work, but time will tell. Ian S C

 

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