source for large ss cups and concept for large alpha engine

Discussion on Stirling or "hot air" engines (all types)
Post Reply
onecycleDan1990
Posts: 22
Joined: Tue Jan 18, 2011 1:43 pm
Location: Massachusetts, United States

source for large ss cups and concept for large alpha engine

Post by onecycleDan1990 »

After a good bit of searching I found a source that sells a useful straight sided stainless steel (unsure if deep pressed or lathe spun) in a reasonably large size for a good price. The thing in question is a commercial kitchen spice dredge, specifically the Winco 22 ounce no handle model drg22h. it is 2 and 7/8 inch nominal diameter and 7.5 inches in height. The length will have to be reduced because the thread will need to be cut off, it will still be over 6 inches. I am under the impression that the company that makes it works mostly in 18-10 stainless alloy but am not entirely certain that this is what is being used for this spice dredge.

various sources can be found on google shopping notably able kitchen who sells in wholesale quantities (48 pieces for $266 usd plus shipping) here is a link: http://www.ablekitchen.com/supplies/WIN ... aign=feeds

My vision for these is a large alpha very like the Karabolut v twin project, using the cups as heylandt crown covers (the crowns will be about 25 to 30 cm overall), and use a narrow phase angle say 60 degrees, plain hot and cold caps, and a relatively small regenerator in order to achieve exceedingly high compression. The annular crown/cylinder gap would be tiny, probably about one fiftieth of one inch based on sample calulations from Dr. Allan Organ's website which suggest a annulus with a 500 to 800 to one length to gap width ratio as optimum. The burner would be cyclonic fueled by unfiltered wood gas likely produced by a small version of the Agua Das type foundry gasifier. Cooling would be forced water as I envision this as a boat motor. Hoping to eventually get well over a watt per cc unpressurized with air. The finished engine will as envisioned weigh about 70 to 100 pounds and is hoped to eventually produce somewhere from 300 to 800 watts. Unfortunately I am for the time being a college student relying on my family for funding and so it will likely be a while before I start such a large engine. This limits my stirling engine budget to a few hundered dollars a year, and I have been denied funding and machine time from my university due to intent to possibly sell similar engines if the prototypes can be made to work well.
Ian S C
Posts: 2218
Joined: Thu Dec 02, 2010 5:15 am
Location: New Zealand

Re: source for large ss cups and concept for large alpha eng

Post by Ian S C »

Hi, I spend no more than about $NZ 30on my motors (17) they range from a 2 1/4" BETA to a 3/8" GAMMA, and a 35 mm ALPHA. I'v started to use stainless vacuum cleaner extension tube with a cap TIG welded on the end. This tube is 35 mm bore with .010" thick wall, I have some smaller tube for displacers with .007" thickness, thats quite a test for the TIG welding man.
The local University in Christchurch New Zealand is where the Whispergen domestic generation system was developed, and a course to Doctrate level is run there on Stirling Engines. Ian S C
Post Reply