Stirling Engine Horizontal Alpha Stationary Engine - Part 8

I've just modified the original stirling engine to hopefully improve it.
Update
It ran for the first time in my last video (As a vertical engine) but it had a few issues. I've since turned it horizontal to hopefully solve a few of these. The furnace gases can now flow upwards through the heat exchanger and the chimney is longer for more draw. I've fabricated and installed a big flywheel to capture that power!
The aim of this video is to see if it runs and to measure the expansion / compression pressure
Well, it ran, which is good news! I think the cold cylinder is conducting a lot of heat from the furnace radiantly (Someone suggested insulating this in the comments). I think the compression ratio to aim for is the big question and I think reducing this will be the key to getting this engine running well.
I think I will reduce the compression ratio but what do I set it as? Changing it requires cutting and welding so I'd like to only do it once!
To see other videos of the Mk3 stirling engine:
• Building a Stirling En...
Any help always appreciated
Cheers
If you need to contact me:
[e-mail]
Contents
0:33 Modifications explained
4:58 Fire up!

[@perrymattes4285]

This made my night. I do look forward to seeing your creations. Looks very nice.

[@davidcoates4852]

Very nice creation. My only attempt at a Stirling engine was made of a couple of soup cans a beer can, some stiff wire and a few other bits and bobs. It worked though. 🔧👍

[@epoh8698]

It looks great mate, Sounds pretty quiet and runs good. Thumbs up

[@Raw774]

Love seeing how these evolve over time

[@imagineering3dstl394]

And here is the evolution of this engine right before our eyes. Nice work and next jobs ahead is to heat guard the piston sleeves and this is going to keep it running and hopefully after that, do some work such as make electricity :) Well done!

[@stocky9218]

Pretty damn good for a singular person. NASA has taken it a step further with its evolution with nuclear stirling engines. I think they are pretty damn cool too

[@jimmyboy163]

Very impressive! Hope you get all the kinks worked out and we see another video on the results.

[@MadeleineTakam]

Well, with every video you have solved more problems. Certainly, solved the flywheel. Regarding high temp piston seals (there is some really interesting Gasket material around these days). = Dobson and Co [Gaskets] Ltd Unit 1 Holme Mill Ind Estate, Fell Lane, Keighley, West Yorkshire BD22 6BN. You might get a couple made up for free and maybe some good advice. Your project is interesting. Talk to the right person and send them a link to you channel.

[@cerberes]

Great project! Good work Shane.

[@TheBaconWizard]

A thing of beauty nonetheless, really nice way to save it. If you're still wanting to generate from it, magnets on the rim of that flywheel and a serpentine coil surounding it should give you some serious volts! I still think the regen needs looking-at, but I also agree that the one-way valve is the first thing to correct. As always, just the musings of an interested viewer. No expertise here.

[@ShanePomeroy]

Many thanks, all good ideas. I was wondering how to add a generator! Didn't consider using the rim! I will probably get to the regenerator when I've sorted the rest out. Cheers

[@oldsteamguy]

looking forward to seeing the power output measured once the bugs are worked out

[@markgeurts258]

Looking great so far! Cheers mate have a nice weekend ☺

[@ronmoore6598]

That thing is f'ing AWESOME!!! Well Done!

[@nigelwilliams7920]

Beautiful workmanship there sir! You mentioned the power output in another video - I guess this would be around 200 Watts here. Makes one appreciate how huge the original engines must have been to do their work lifting water our of mines etc! Makes one's efforts playing with coke cans and balloons seem rather pointless! But the path to knowledge takes many turns eh! Keep up the great work!

[@djm2A]

“I’ve made changes” completely upgrades and redesigns his sterling engine

[@Negyo]

Wow, nice job!

[@FidgetyGuy]

Jay Leno has Teddy Roosevelt's Sterling Hot Air Engine. It's displayed at the start of his video titled: 1832 Steam Engine - Jay Leno's Garage.

[@ShanePomeroy]

Just took a look at that : )

[@ambermin5442]

In order to minimise the vibration, I guess a boxer type configuration would balance the engine and make it work smoothly. Anyway is a nice machine I am going to build one myself soon!

[@user-uh5of7md2t]

Never thought Jason Statham Build These 😂😂😂

[@toyotaprius79]

Need to see videos of your garden rail way ❤

[@trygvetveit4747]

Love it! but you should get a FLIR camera ,it will tell you a lot of where the energy goes (old scool engineer with a flir cam 😊)

[@MadeleineTakam]

Good idea. Big Clive has just reviewed the Doogee S98 camera / phone on his channel. His seemed very pleased with it.

[@greggallegos8747]

I like your project. I think it's informative and helpful. Im looking into building one myself. We burn a lot of wood at the cabin and I think that your idea would be ideal for what I want. The one I've been thinking about would be similar to yours but I'd like a 3 cylinder model. Also mine would be a little smaller. I think these would work better if they had a bigger flywheel. One that is weighted correctly. The momentum from the flywheel would make turning 2 alternators less labor intensive. But it is an amazing build. I think you should be proud of what you built. Thank you for all your videos.

[@ShanePomeroy]

Hi, I've always imagined one in a cabin that had the cold side outside through a wall. Whatever you build please do a video : )

[@Lechoslowianin]

I think that chrome-nickel steel for the regenerator is not the best material. Because it has low thermal penetration. Steel wool would be much better. Carbon steel has three times greater thermal transmittance and copper has over twenty times greater thermal transmittance

[@robertbrothers3733]

because the water outlet is on top, let that water cool the rest of the cold side. and add a heat shield, to direct heat away from the fire box.

[@IronGoober]

An easy test for seeing if radiant heat is causing issues is to use some aluminium foil as an "insulator". The aluminum should reflect away most of the radiant heat. So, for the seal on the hot side and the cold side cylinder, you could just wrap some aluminium foil to see if it helps. Highly reflective metals are usually the way to stop radiant heat, often aluminium sheets are used for this purpose in more permanent setups. Love the changes. It was humming along nicely to start! I wonder what sort of power it was developing at the beginning, I bet you were at that 500W mark. If you can solve the heat leakage issues, you'll surely have it running that nicely for longer periods.

[@ShanePomeroy]

Interested to hear about the aluminium insulation method, many thanks

[@IronGoober]

@@ShanePomeroy I forgot to mention, the more polished/reflective they are, the better they should work. (Emissivity=absorptivity)

[@ManualdoMotorStirling]

Hello friend, first your engine was very good and robust. I loved the diameter of the pistons as well as the stroke, and I was impressed with the high speed you achieved, given that your design has a giant internal displacement, congratulations. Were you able to find out what is the defect of your engine for stopping to work? Was it really just engine overheating?

[@GiesbertNijhuis]

Nice work. Wanna make a stirling myself also, one day. Suggestions: just optimize as much as you can. Is the hot side losing much heat by radiation? Is the cool side getting too much heat from the hot parts? The re-gen distance seems too short to me. Maybe running the air going to the fire first around the cool side, cooling the cool and pre-heating the air going to the fire.

[@anthonyd5079]

This is great work. Thinking you have it all figured out just some fine tuning as you put it. Heat shield for the cooling side,(heat shield from and engine block or muffler) a one way valve with a shutoff valve attached so can find the sweet spot, maybe less fire to start. And the hardest part... balance balance balance. I do worry the cement could crumble throwing the balance off if going to fast. If it's the pressure that stops it maybe you can use it like a Killswitch. Like a footpettle level with the ground attached to the valve. (Safety first...or was that 3rd?...) The water jacket is good but I won't do it just yet. I have an idea to make this same one but using solar tubes and geo thermal. Unfortunately I just have 60 tubes and an idea.

[@ShanePomeroy]

Hi Anthony. I'm also interested how the concrete will last! It is encased in steel sheet so it shouldn't go to far (hopefully!) I'm interest in your cooling idea? I'm not looking forward to welding another cooling jacket on : ) Cheers

[@anthonyd5079]

Well I think a copper line wrapped at one end with the hose to it first then copper to where the water is going now. I'll have to get back to yeah, gotta get ready for work.

[@toyotaprius79]

A stirling engine, splar panels and battery storage could really go a long way in all weathers

[@rogueart7706]

Beautiful engine, this one would actually perform some useful work. My guess is that the cylinder/piston temperatures equalized....maybe you need a regenerator to capture and recycle the heat. That water heat sink doesnt look like it has enough contacting surface area...the hot gas is blowing by without cooling. Also it was my understanding that the driving cylinder should be 2/3 the size of the displacer cylinder. Yours look about equal size. There's my 2 cent opinion. Please post an update when you figure it out...i want to see this beautiful engine running.

[@ShanePomeroy]

I think your on the money regarding temperatures equalising! There is a regenerator but I do wonder about it's effectiveness! It is basically made out of a stainless scouring pad. The cooling area is deceptively huge! If you look at the previous video's of the build you can see this. Knowing what I know now this would of been bigger / longer. The 2/3 rule of thumb is for displacer type stirling engines (beta, gamma). This is a alpha engine. I suppose technically they could be a different size with different strokes. Cheers

[@rogueart7706]

@@ShanePomeroy regarding the regenerator I seen a guy actually test different coarseness of steel wool and the coarseness matters. Fine wasnt the best and neither was the coarse. There was a "goldilocks" sweet size for the steel wool. Sounds like you know what you're doing. Ive always wanted to make a stirling of this size for a log cabin in the woods. Hope you git it goin👍

[@NotRodShop]

I'm no expert on stirling engines but I think your displacer tube should be above the heat source and the piston should be where your displacer tube is. As it is now the piston tube is heating up over time so your displacer is no longer able to feed cold air to your piston.

[@SoldadoRodrigues909]

He did a test for shipping and put in a radiator and a water pump to solve this.

[@gherkinisgreat]

Might be worth having a look at a mechanical lubricator for the cylinders from a model engineering supplier like macc models or reeves. Additionally some steam oil might cope better with the high tempretures. Looks like the engine is coming together well though!

[@ShanePomeroy]

Lubrication is my main concern, I will look at those lubricators, many thanks

[@ricardoGSimo0]

Ok. Very nice.

[@6258RB]

very cool.

[@niettefilmen]

i wonder if you balanced the flywheel against the weights of the pistons and pushrods, it might shake a bit less. but it runs fine.good job

[@dev-debug]

If you want to measure peak pressure use an automotive compression tester. Looks nice, always wanted to build a larger one to tinker around with. Maybe one day lol

[@dansw0rkshop]

Regenerator is too small, the high compression ratio would hint at this. The heat exchangers are likely too small, and it would probably benefit from water jacketing the entire cold side. It was smoking a bit from the seal on the hot side, guessing the epoxy and possibly leather is failing from the heat. Great project!

[@cerberes]

Might be cool to do one of the many waste oil burners in your heater box.

[@perrymattes4285]

Shane I know this is trivial but what about experimenting with different materials for the regenerator like aluminum or copper ? Also Ive often thought that you are pressurizing the system but the back end isn’t would there be a way to pressurize the back end so that the overall pressure and working fluid could be raised to improve the energy conversion

[@ronmoore6598]

Thanks!

[@ShanePomeroy]

Hi Ron, very kind of you to donate to the stirling engjne project! (I'll put this towards the next project starting this winter) many thanks

[@danielguthrie2615]

Put a damper in the chimney to hold more heat in.

[@zinckensteel]

Wonderful, but I was trying to put a finger on what seemed odd about everything - and then I noticed there are almost no shadows. There must have been some very diffuse light from directly above..

[@ShanePomeroy]

I had to google diffuse light because I didn't know what it meant! My house and all the houses around me are painted white if they are reflecting. It was late in the day so the sun would have been the other side of the house. It is certainly not my incredible filming skills!

[@RyanJBarnard]

I love what you are doing? Have you considered adding a sand battery jacket around the entire hot piston/cylinder assembly and extending the cooling battery jacket to cover the entire hot piston/ cylinder assembly? The increased temperature difference between the two cylinders should increase efficiency. Have you seen the Blade Attila channel as focuses on Stirling Engines, also another good channel is Robert Murray-Smith.

[@ShanePomeroy]

A sand jackets a new one on me! I'll take a look, cheers

[@kcinelgoog]

Could use a non-return valve between engine and gauge to capture and display peak pressure - like old car compression testers.

[@ShanePomeroy]

Yes, you are quite right. I'll order the bits to do this now, cheers

[@julmaj1479]

Great stuff! I would maybe find a way to engul the cold cylinder more in to the cold water supply, so that cylinder is in a sleeve. Better maybe add insulation to the hot side / in between. Some fire retardant wool perhaps to sleeve the cylinders?

[@ShanePomeroy]

Hi, I'll try the insulation first and resort to water coolers if needed, many thanks

[@julmaj1479]

@@ShanePomeroy No, Shane! Many thanks to you for making such inspirational content! It makes me want to try out also!

[@robinburkey2466]

Exelent project, thankyou for sharing. Maybe you would consider selling plans,when you finalize the design?

[@ShanePomeroy]

Any build info I have is free to anyone if they email : )

[@dlongdenfamilyable]

What about a solar lens for heat? Could you use like, a large magnifying glass to run it?

[@black5f]

The longer chimney will give more draft when its hot. Secondary combustion is thing? I don't there is wrong with the heat exchanger? Tdiff?

[@donwright3427]

What make lathe is that you got there

[@theanthillfromknow.theanop3960]

How strong is such a engine. Can it power a home or something. Always wanna know what power they can deliver in which sizes. You need and how hot do dlthey meed to get.

[@baskorjuli2010]

Can you make it hybrid with steam engine using the excess heat?

[@tiktaka3773]

how much degrees do the pistons have to be apart on the flywheel?

[@ShanePomeroy]

Roughly 110-120 degrees

[@sunoncream1118]

can u link the video of wath inside the heat exchanger?

[@ShanePomeroy]

I can't remember which video it was on! It's there somewhere

[@jimjam6958]

Surely the smoke coming out of the open end of the hot piston means the hot piston has a hole in it? See @6:56

[@ShanePomeroy]

I think it's the seal leaking 🤔. I will take a closer look next time, cheers

[@ricardoGSimo0]

I want to built a big one.

[@davidredfearn664]

Have you thought about heat sinks on the cylinders. My small model engine has heat sinks.

[@ShanePomeroy]

It wouldn't be a bad idea : )

[@ShanePomeroy]

I'd like to try that with the next engine

[@unusualfabrication9937]

why was there smoke coming from the back of the hot side piston? like at 6:59

[@ShanePomeroy]

Oil vaporising inside. hot side is getting a little hot really!

[@EdgePrecision]

Why don't you, just as a test. Take the discharge of the cooling water and let it spill out over the top cold cylinder to cool it. Maybe it will continue to run that way. Just to give you an idea if that's the problem.

[@ShanePomeroy]

I've gone one step further and welded a cooling jacket on! Stay posted for a video in the next few days, many thanks

[@mikeptag]

Could you try to modify the first firebox to work in this configuration? Have it exit straight up instead of turning. Because i think the insulation would help. Especially if heat radiating from the propane tank firebox is affecting things, plus heat going somewhere it shouldn't affects efficiency. Also i don't see why it wouldn't be a configuration for a practical engine. If it can make some decent power I could imagine it an awesome off grid power generator. One could build a more permanent brick firebox and the engine can be on a strong table with storage underneath, maybe firewood storage. A big belt around the flywheel to an alternator. Id want to build one at my place!

[@ShanePomeroy]

The rocket stove could work yet. It would be fairly easy to make it fit if only to experiment..... One benefit of a horizontal engine is everything is very easy to get to. Cheers

[@ricardoGSimo0]

El pistón de 200 mm de diámetro.

[@starcitizenmodding4436]

lol maya was not very happy 7:51 dont make her face like that for our sake! 😆👍

[@user-rd9bq3xs4w]

С чего сделан поршень и гильза , какая смазка ?

[@ShanePomeroy]

Piston is a ram / plunger type so there is no honed bores to worry about. Piston is sealed externally with stationary leather seal on cylinder top. Lubricated with light mineral oil

[@user-rd9bq3xs4w]

Спасибо за ответ

[@user-rd9bq3xs4w]

​@@ShanePomeroyсами поршни сделаны из алюминия ? Или нержавейки?

[@zengalfeic3434]

Я очень рад за тебя . Ты мастер хороший . А можно их делать на продажу . Как думаете ?

[@ShanePomeroy]

Thankyou. Maybe make for sale if their good enough

[@vernonalderson2368]

I would buy one!

[@johnmarquez7413]

first

[@leifvejby8023]

No, that was in the last video.

[@ieatYTP59]

Excuse me sir, what is the best stirling engine for electric production ?