Stirlingengineforum.com

There is a wide range of fits of the bearings, so you should be able to find a few good ones. One of the two stove top fan motors that I built has used skate board bearings that are so worn I afraid the balls might fall out. That motor is unusual as Stirling Engines go, it's too powerful, the gyro e...

That's a neat way of setting up your crankshaft. If you read a bit about building Stirling Engines, you will come across a bit about removing the shields on bearings, and washing out the grease, these bearing don't have grease. If need be some very light oil, just a very small drop can be used, but ...

Don't worry they built a few thousand, but I live near Christchurch NZ, where they were developed, and until the workshop and design laboratory was destroyed in an earthquake in 2011. The EQ about put an end to Whisper Tech and the Whispergen. Now I can't call in when I'm in town, have a cup of tea,...

You can usually find 6 mm bearings in old VHS recorders, I suppose that they are, or have been chucked out over there. A source of 8 mm bearings (not the best bearings) is Fidgits, I got two for $NZ 1 each, less than 50 UK pence. That fly wheel looks good, it should be quite adequate. I had a motor ...

Hi Saska, I can understand the lime scale on the cooling side, I imagine that can be dissolved. Don't know how the pistons could get rusty unless it has layed up with the motor open to the atmosphere.
Hope you can get at least one running, they are quite a good little motor.
Ian S C

The cooling system has been one of the main problems in using Stirling Engines in motor vehicles. As for the piston, you might be able to modify it to reduce friction. If you can remove the piston and support it in the lathe so that you can put a number of grooves, about .010" in width and dept...

One of your problems may be that your power cylinder and piston are like metals, generally this is not good practice, you should make the power piston from cast iron. As metals go the only one that can be run together is cast iron, second best is cast iron and steel. What do you do with the water in...

A ha, Yorky, you missed the free piston bit, these motors have no crankshaft, the work from the power piston works against a spring, this can be a mechanical spring, or a gas spring, or as in this case using two magnets with like poles facing each other, at the base of the motor you can see the coil...

The ideal metal for the hot cap is stainless steel, heat conduction is no problem, it's only got to go the few thou, the thickness of the cap, the thing you don't need is the conduction of heat length wise toward the cold end. With a steel/stainless steel hot cap I use no insulation between the hot ...

Yorky, interesting form of construction, I'll follow along as you build your motor. Copper is not really the ideal material, it conducts hear too fast from the hot end to the cold end. Also when heated it looses it's strength, also with heating it corrodes and flakes of copper oxide come off it, bot...

Don't know, I would have to see the motor, but a guess would be that it is a tin can motor, and the displacer is vertical, gravity takes the displacer down and the crank lifts it up, so it only has to be able to take tension. The power piston has to push against the crank, so it must be ridged. Ian ...

Yorky, go for it, at least I will follow along. Oh and welcome to the forum.
Ian S C

I tried a snifter valve on a couple of my engines, but found there was little if any power gain, so I gave up. Some people have found quite a bit of power gain, maybe my machining is too sloppy.
Ian S C

If you can't get the magnets up. new magnets from steel or cast iron incorporating some rare earth magnets is a possibility, but you have a good chance, I have a remagnetiser, and rejuvenate magnets for old automotive magnetos.
Ian S C

The square one with two 20uf capacitors in parallel would be the same as one at 40uf.
Inside the flywheel there is a centrifugal brake that governs the speed to 3000rpm, seems a bit crude to me, but I suppose it works.
Ian S C