Making a Homemade Stirling generator.

[chainblaids]

Does anyone think it is feasible to make a power producing Stirling
egine to run a small generator, with two lawn mower motors, (with
some modifications of course)? Could the transfer pipe be too
long?
I'm still in the planning phase. I plan to remove the camshafts,
and couple the crankshafts. Cut the cooling fins off and remove the
fan of the hot cylinder. Link the cylinders together through the
spark plug holes, with a regenerator inline. Add some insulation
between the two. Keep the cooling fins and fan on the cold side.
Heat with a closed car, compost, or fire, while shading the cool
side. This is the best idea I can easily build. Please, let me
know what you think. It would be greatly appreciated.

[stan.hornbaker]

Chris:

I hope that this is NOT an Off The Top of Your Head project. Do you have the machine tools and skills necessary? What type of generator and size? What does "Heat with a closed car" mean? It will take a LOT of heat, far more that a compost, or small wood fire, more like several propane burners or Mapp torches. Friction must be held to an absolute minimum. Ring leakage too must be reduced. What about the valves and valve ports? They too must be sealed. Bolting the two engines together with 90 deg phase off set makes the transfer pipe a bit longer. Be sure to provide access to couple and align the crankshafts. The one flywheel may have to be beefed up weight wise.


This is what Daniel Lyonett, Paris has done over the past few months.

Scroll half way down page to "Big Twin." There are 6 shop built propane burners on each hot cap. Be sure to see the movies.


Here is a link to "Stirling Engine Design Manual," by Martini

Cut and paste into your browser window. A complete text and it is free for the downloading.

[chainblaids]

Mr. Hombaker,
Yes, this is an off the top of my head project. I have plenty of machine skills, and a fabricator coworker. I don't have a generator size in mind, I want to build the engine first. While doing more research, I have discarded the car and compost ideas. I am now thinking of a mixture of wood, waste motor oil, and some coal.
About the valves. I am planning on using the valves to create a hot and cold side. It would give the gas more time to cool before entering the Hot cylinder, and give the gas more time to heat up before entering the Cold cylinder. The way I plan on building it the angle and coupler shaft access are not an issue. I was thinking about using a dual mass flywheel.

Thank you for your insight. I will check out the links you provided now. Thanks, Chris

[utopianwebsurfer]

just concentrate on using parts made out of the lightest materials 4 better efficiency and less drag, then make a sealed high pressure capable double glass enclosure to completely enclose your moving parts, so u can see it working.in the inner glass enclosure pump out all of the atmosphere so that your mechanism is basically a vacuum and is completely sealed inside for all moving parts,then pump in pure helium gas all around the moving parts of the moving parts of the mechanism for improved mechanical efficiency due to a pure helium atmosphere at an internal pressure of 14.7 lbs of helium that should help reduce friction and increase efficiency when moving. the outer glass housing should have at least 1/2 inch airgap between the outer and inner glass housing that is also pumped out of all atmosphere creating a gap vacuum just short of inward sagging of the glass structure, somthing like a vacuum packed pickle jar,then pump in 14.7 lbs of pure helium pressure to equalize all inner and outer pressure between the gap between both glass structures.make sure your glass and overall glass structure is rated for at least 35 lbs of pressure from any direction.the whole idea is to create a near frictionless sealed atmosphere for all internal moving parts, then use a magnetic armature that uses the subsequent spin of the engine to spin inside of an electrical coil electricity generator to generate as much electricity as u can which u should convert to d.c. and store in a car battery(s) at a rate of no more than 13.1 volts or the battery could burst and cause u severe disfiguring acid burns and possible blindness.u should wear goggles, gloves,long sleeve shirt and long pants and a face mask like a welders mask and a strapped on hard hat when charging and monitering the battery and u need to use a 13.1 voltage regulator as a go between circuit that keeps the voltage down to no more than 13.1 volts and find out what the charging amperage should be for the battery(s) you're using and never exceed that so that the batteries never burst and burn u with battery acid. u need to fasten down the battery caps with a clamp so they cant just fly off or pry them loose and loosely place them just over their own battery cells in such a loose way that pressure cannot build up inside the battery if they overcharge therefore the battery cannot just burst.a battery that starts to visibly swell is being greatly overcharged and is in danger of bursting and spraying lethal battery acid all around not to mention a mini fatal explosion.
so get it right the 1st time and all will be well and be sure to monitor the charge going to the battery at all time while charging to make sure you dont accidently overcharge the batteries and burst blow them up and burn up everything.to start the stirling engine u just need liquids and or gasses that generate enough of a temperature difference at their own room temperature to start and continue the engine at a spcific predictable rate, then u should be able to generate a lot of electricity by cranking the engine continually due to the natural differences in temperature of the stored gases and liquids. for example if u greatly compress and store
highly compressed air under the explosion threshold of the tank it is in then the tank storing the supercompressed air will generate a lot of natural heat and just use precooled ice water to start the cool side of the engine.ice water for one side of the stirling engine and heat energy from the supercompressed air tank to heat power the other side of the stirling engine.did u know that popping open a 24 ounce can of beer and then shaking the can will generate a lot of near ice cold energy just by shaking and vibrating the opened can?capture the vibration of the engine to shake the open can of beer and capture the cold temperature of the shaken aluminum can to power cold energy to the part of the engine than needs to be cold for a cold to heat temperature difference ratio.and use the heat of the supercompressed air thru the skin of the air holding tank to power the heated portion of the engine.the engine will seem to run 4 ever with this method if u get the balance of the start and run temperatures just right.then u should be able to generate a bunch of electricity at a specific rate strong enough to power a bunch of stuff.highly compressed air will naturally generate a bunch of extreme heat naturally.just capture the heat thru the skin of the tank the compressed air is stored in.an optimum temperature ratio difference captured between the differences of hot and cold should run the stirling engine for a long long time if u do it just right as long as u keep the air supercompressed, it will generate a lot of heat similar to an internal compression of a diesel engine.this will seem to run the engine for a really long time if u do it just right.
and generate huge amounts of what will seem to be free energy.be careful that the petroleum industry and certain branches of the government dont find out your success, because they might try to sieze and secretize your work and forbid u to work on/use your own project or even try to kill u.if u dont believe me, just go to
rense.com then at the website in your key word search type in "tom ogle", then the website will take u to a concealed webpage detailing conspiracy and espionage of the petroleum industry and the u.s. patent office and police corruption in regard to siezing,and secretizing projects like these, even throwing the inventors in jail on trumped up false charges.one guy even did 10 years in jail on false charges just b cause he had a gas efficiency device he invented that actually worked, just to shut him up and put him away.
thanxz 4 your time#utopian websurfer 7/18/08
p.s. let me know of your success! lots of luck.best wishes!

[stan.hornbaker]

utopianwebsurfer:
Your rambling unreadable post without punctuation and paragraphs is not acceptable. Nor is content about conspiracy theories.
If you wish to post to this board confine your post to Stirling engines, design information, and similar topics.
Your recent post is being DELETED!

[david_mathews]

Do a little more research, u might find better raw materials....

[david_mathews]

utopian websurfer......it isn't the vibration of a beer can that makes it cold.....it's the sudden release of pressure when u open the can that contributes to the cooling...????

[bptdude___2569]

The government is actually the best source of open and free information for new energy devices. Most of the hard math and lab work has been done to sort out most basic theories. You already paid for it, and it is sitting there. Look at the archives of major government labs.

The reason these ideas do not come to be practical, is more about backwards thinking. For example, you figure the more pressure in your beer can, the greater the cooling. So, putting the can in a ice cold stream, would lower pressure, and thus lower cooling, right?

;) *grins*