Search found 216 matches

by jimlarsen
Fri Feb 10, 2012 7:34 am
Forum: Stirling and "Hot Air" Engine Forum
Topic: Stirling Engine with Power
Replies: 1
Views: 2650

Stirling Engine with Power

I ran across some videos of a Stirling Engine in Indonesia that appears to put out some decent power. I know that question comes up frequently around here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHtepDdB9Ig http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qka5l9f0gRE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDxP3GYBsVg&feature=rel...
by jimlarsen
Mon Feb 06, 2012 3:52 pm
Forum: Stirling and "Hot Air" Engine Forum
Topic: FIRST BUILD OF POP CAN ENGINE HELP PLEASE!!
Replies: 6
Views: 5140

Re: FIRST BUILD OF POP CAN ENGINE HELP PLEASE!!

Check out the Troubleshooting Tips on the StirlingBuilder site. This link should get you there: http://sites.google.com/site/stirlingbuilder/troubleshooting-tips The displacer needs to move freely with as little friction as possible, with as little leaking as possible. Sometimes a drop of oil helps ...
by jimlarsen
Sun Jan 29, 2012 1:53 pm
Forum: Stirling and "Hot Air" Engine Forum
Topic: Eleven Stirling Engine Projects You Can Build
Replies: 7
Views: 7057

Re: Eleven Stirling Engine Projects You Can Build

I think we agree on the principles and are simply offering our own interpretation of the vocabulary used in the sales pitch on the back cover. I am not claiming to have invented anything! I agree, we both have original plans. Neither one of us invented the Stirling cycle or the hot air engine. Pleas...
by jimlarsen
Sun Jan 29, 2012 9:52 am
Forum: Stirling and "Hot Air" Engine Forum
Topic: Eleven Stirling Engine Projects You Can Build
Replies: 7
Views: 7057

Re: Eleven Stirling Engine Projects You Can Build

Are they groundbreaking and are they original designs? Yes to both! Here is where these designs break new ground: Currently all the popular pop can engines (such as The SFA Stirling Engine Project of Stephen F. Austin University, and The Easy to Build Stirling Engine by TheRecentPast) are cooled by ...
by jimlarsen
Sat Jan 28, 2012 11:32 pm
Forum: Stirling and "Hot Air" Engine Forum
Topic: Eleven Stirling Engine Projects You Can Build
Replies: 7
Views: 7057

Re: Eleven Stirling Engine Projects You Can Build

Darryl, If you are concerned that I may have copied your walking beam design, please rest assured that I did not. As you know, the application of the walking beam predates both of us and is used in a broad variety of applications from steam through Stirling. One of my original designs uses a walking...
by jimlarsen
Fri Jan 27, 2012 7:16 pm
Forum: Stirling and "Hot Air" Engine Forum
Topic: Eleven Stirling Engine Projects You Can Build
Replies: 7
Views: 7057

Eleven Stirling Engine Projects You Can Build

I have just released a new book that is packed full of Stirling engine plans, kit reviews, and more. The main focus of this collection is the pop can engine. There are illustrated plans for 5 pop can engines, including a two cylinder engine, a walking beam engine, and a horizontal pop can engine. Yo...
by jimlarsen
Thu Jan 19, 2012 10:47 am
Forum: Stirling and "Hot Air" Engine Forum
Topic: Diameter ratio
Replies: 4
Views: 4350

Re: Diameter ratio

I misunderstood the question. I was looking at the pressure chamber size. Sorry about that.

Displacement is more important that diameter. And adjusting the length of the power stroke can also impact displacement.
by jimlarsen
Wed Jan 18, 2012 12:29 am
Forum: Stirling and "Hot Air" Engine Forum
Topic: Diameter ratio
Replies: 4
Views: 4350

Re: Diameter ratio

For a pancake style LTD engine it works well to allow 1/8" clearance between the displacer and the sidewall of the pressure chamber. And you can make the displacer mass about 1/4 to1/3 of the total pressure chamber volume.
by jimlarsen
Mon Jan 16, 2012 2:09 pm
Forum: Stirling and "Hot Air" Engine Forum
Topic: My first stirling... on the brink of failure. HELP!
Replies: 19
Views: 13066

Re: My first stirling... on the brink of failure. HELP!

I have not seen a test that compares them. Pop Can Engines are difficult to build precisely enough for real scientific testing. But if YouTube is any indication, they both work about the same.
by jimlarsen
Sun Jan 15, 2012 6:05 pm
Forum: Stirling and "Hot Air" Engine Forum
Topic: Easy way to make a piston
Replies: 8
Views: 15579

Re: Easy way to make a piston

JB Weld slow setting epoxy claims to hold up to 500 degrees F. JB Kwik says it will hold until about 400. I suspect that the PVC may become soft before the epooxy does. I have used other epoxy that was not rated for high temperature and I did not have good results. JB Weld is great stuff. There are ...
by jimlarsen
Sun Jan 15, 2012 6:01 pm
Forum: Stirling and "Hot Air" Engine Forum
Topic: My first stirling... on the brink of failure. HELP!
Replies: 19
Views: 13066

Re: My first stirling... on the brink of failure. HELP!

The sealed displacer and the steel wool displacer are each a different appraoch. The sealed displacer functions as a solid mass. It causes the air in side the engine to move from one end of the engine to the other. It is a loose fitting piston. It moves the air by "displacing" it. The stee...
by jimlarsen
Fri Dec 09, 2011 10:32 am
Forum: Stirling and "Hot Air" Engine Forum
Topic: YouTube Networking
Replies: 0
Views: 4205

YouTube Networking

YouTube recently changed the look and feel of "Channel Pages" and it is now easy to add links to the channel pages of other users. I would be interested in exchanging links to channel pages with anyone who has a YouTube channel devoted to Stirling Engines. In other words, I will like to yo...
by jimlarsen
Thu Dec 01, 2011 9:07 pm
Forum: Stirling and "Hot Air" Engine Forum
Topic: Show your selfmade Stirling engine!
Replies: 9
Views: 8161

Re: Show your selfmade Stirling engine!

Thanks BWBzz. I have probably spent too much time building these things! My study looks like a Stirling engine museum.
by jimlarsen
Wed Nov 30, 2011 11:24 pm
Forum: Stirling and "Hot Air" Engine Forum
Topic: 3 foot LTD Stirling Engine
Replies: 9
Views: 7347

Re: 3 foot LTD Stirling Engine

I think the displacer might be made of Owens-Corning pink closed cell insulation foam sheets. It also looks as if there is air space sealed in plexiglas over the top plate to act as a solar collector and raise the temperature of the top plate. That's not a bad idea.
by jimlarsen
Wed Nov 30, 2011 11:19 pm
Forum: Stirling and "Hot Air" Engine Forum
Topic: displacer design advice
Replies: 4
Views: 5239

Re: displacer design advice

I will work, but with some disadvantage. A solid or sealed displacer piston does not introduce as much dead space as a wafer design. However your idea may provide some regenerator functionality, which would be a trade off.