The Stirling Engine Project: Episode 3

[@sierraecho884]

Stirling engines might very well safe the world. They are the best way of converting waste heat in energy. They have many applications and if you can make a small one for the home it would be one step towards this future. Please keep going but at least share the 3D models with all of us.

[@sierraecho884]

@@astebbin Yes I agree turbines on a larger scale are way better as of today. However they are big, costly and difficult to manufacture with many moving parts. Thermoacoustic stirling engines on the other hand have basically zero moving parts and can be very cheap, however more research is needed in this field.

[@Boslandschap1]

I come here for the saga, not the perfect Stirling engine that i going to save the world. You're doing great, Leo 👍

[@leosbagoftricks3732]

Thanks! 👍

[@Palemagpie]

I mean. I come for the perfect Stirling engine..

[@jasonamosco318]

No it's not crazy saga! Sterling engine alone can't save the world but this kind of stuff videos of yours gonna save the world. Thanks for your dedication.

[@HughMessenger]

It's worth it! I haven't been this invested in someone else's obsession for a long time. Really looking forward to Part 4.

[@wdtripps6537]

Probably the best stirling on KZbin.

[@StirlingLighthouse]

Yup. You've caught the stirling madness. Great stuff!! Thank you for bringing us along.👍

[@cberge8]

Have you considered using a electric heating element to heat up the hot end? It seems like that would give much more fine control for tuning the engine. A small heating mantle and a pid controller would be a very easy setup to implement and control.

[@nuthenry2]

I was just about to suggest this

[@plainedgedsaw1694]

It would make calculating efficiency very easy.

[@HvdHaghen]

Yes, there are cheap band heaters on aliexpress. You can also use 3d printer hot end heater elements. Especialy if you want to make the engine more efficient it helps a lot if you can fine regulate the temperture and the amounth of watts that you put in the engine.

[@leosbagoftricks3732]

Yeah! many things to do! I am sure the real efficiency would be really low, almost don't want to know haha. For sure the electric heater is coming!

[@craignels]

One day at a time.....no wait...I don't want you in recovery, keep feeding the addiction! I love your channel!

[@williamwitter2812]

Reynolds number describes the difference between the fine steel wool and the potscruber. I also have noticed the phantom power surge associated with the steel wool.i believe you are correct in describing that phenomena as internal combustion. I have used poster board, Elmer's glue, fiberglass cloth, aluminum foil and plaster Paris in the development of a light weight displacer. I have thoroughly enjoyed your video, maybe I offered some benefit to your endeavor. Great inventing.

[@patmccormack8135]

Wonder if a regenerator could be printed from bronze powder? Thinking about how to characterize that in software.

[@Essin62]

Love the "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time" attitude! Looking forward to the next episode.

[@Resonanttheme]

One company on Ebay sells fine oil free 316 stainless steel wool as well as thicker stuff. I find it lasts much longer and maybe cuts down on volatile residue in the working parts. I got tired of the wool degrading. Anyway, you might like the Lustersheen 316L, average fiber width .002".

[@edmundkudzayi7571]

Your dedication is inspiring.

[@hackdurbrain]

The part about LabVIEW was cathartic

[@ivanpospelov7347]

Finally I found someone who gets what's a Stirling engine is all about. I always try to explain it to my dad, but he just don't gets it, it's a special Stirgling vibe, you know

[@TheWindGinProject]

Leo's Bag of Tricks is a must subscribe for any mechanical or electronic makers.

[@nickgardiner7319]

Really looking forward to part 4

[@maxdelaserna9540]

Absolutely lovely video. I actually believe that sterling could mean a lot in a renovable energy world. After all thermal storage is good and scales better.

[@someotherdude]

There may be far too much dead space volume inside the regenerator. I believe a stirling needs the vast majority of its volume on either side of the displacer and in the driven piston volume. I think the engine needs 1/8th of that volume of steel wool, the rest should be sealed off, air tight.

[@StainlessHelena]

Here's a comment to feed the Elle Goo Rhythm and your Stirling Engine Addiction. I'm really excited for part four. Hopefully it comes soon because otherwise I might start building my own.

[@christopherlee4152]

Hi Leo, I just wanted to send a quick thanks to you for your KZbin contributions. I was rummaging for information on sterling engines and stumbled upon your channel. Having found it fabulously educational and entertaining I immediately subscribed. KZbin has a big appetite for genuine, sincere, mad genius and you fit the bill. In that vein, I'd strongly recommend another Leo who's building a boat (Sampson Boat Co - Talley Ho). Like you he seems to have started his KZbin journey as a passion but over time has amassed a huge following and now has his work funded through his patreon subscribers. Just a though, as it seems you too might find good success with your channel. Anyway best of luck from us here in Berkeley California

[@leosbagoftricks3732]

I grew up there... North Berkeley.

[@myronalcock4716]

Excellent viewing, thank you! I'm not an engineer, but I still get a lot of insights from your work.

[@grazianoturbogas]

There is great possibilities of inspiration from Stirling models. One of those has adopted. single slot crankshaft and operates the displacer attracting it by magnetic action. It really reduces weight improving the timing of the displacer. There are some hits in the action but, who knows. Than there is an extremely complicated route but promising, making use of the TAUROZZI pendolar piston which really makes pistons very energy efficient optimizing friction. Other possibilities could come out from the "diafragm" compressors design which has metal sheets as diafragm... Let's keep thinking...

[@iamchukwueke]

Stirling engine is something I have great interest in and I hope to develop one that is reliable and functional. welldone on this amazing prohect

[@wdtripps6537]

What a wonderfully perverse sense of symmetry.

[@nijram15]

I really love the openess about the struggle, which is something I totally recognize in my projects. Glad to see people with way more experience have it too :). Keep it up!

[@scottneels2628]

I really enjoyed this saga, and I hope it continues indefintely!

[@danielmierop662]

Suggestion for vibrational noise. Change piston travel from vertical to diagonal. Would there be any chance that a stirling engine could function on the thermal differential from inside an attic to outside air on the north side of a home?

[@Paksusuoli95]

Maybe use a heating mantle for the top? To guarantee consistent temperature at the hot end.

[@leosbagoftricks3732]

Soon come!

[@LPdotLP]

An amazing combination of high-tech and low-tech!

[@derekbrn]

Thanks, Leo - It is a fantastic series and I'm really enjoying it. Keep up the great work - your fans want more!

[@zieverinkpatrick]

Great video! I love your Stirling Engine Project. I love to see your mistakes and your idea to fix them. As a mechanical engineer, I understand the thermodynamics of it, but in uni, I missed the optimization steps you are mostly talking about.

[@constants_are_variable]

Amazing content, I've been looking for something like this on stirling engines for ages. There's 3D printing, some nice graphs, perfomance testing. Same story, I've fallen in love with this engine concept the first time I saw it..

[@nickranson9113]

Eccellent work Leo! I work with eddy current dynos in the automotive test sector. Great to see the same technology applied on a slightly smaller scale!

[@carlo1081]

Nice!! can't wait for next Iteration!!!

[@jacquesdubord6844]

Hi Leo. I admire your work and perseverance along your journey. I'm also captive by Sterling engine. They are great discovery and they're many enthusiastic persons all around the world, but not with your passion. Thanks. Jacques from Quebec.

[@henkw1562]

You say at 12:52: "Sterling engines are not going to save the world". I think they will contribute to the salvation of the world. So keep up the good work and i will follow your saga with interest.

[@dstorm19]

Your engineering and explanations of how to get there is down right accurate and amusing, I love it man!!!

[@KarlMiller]

The dynamometer looks like a great success. You can now gleen all the juicy metrics that will allow you to tune your design which is a very useful way to be deterministic in your approach and get immediate feedback. This design gives me hope. I can't recall if you said, but are you targeting RPMs or constant torque? I keep imagining this design being useful for a metal roof-mounted ceiling fan motor to ease the work of air conditioning by recirculating air.

[@leosbagoftricks3732]

I think ultimately I would like to charge a cell phone, that seems like a reasonable goal - 5W of electrical power.

[@leosbagoftricks3732]

@Antonius Theiler It's what the masses want.

[@addfoxy]

Love this series, recently got into Stirling Engines myself so this is fascinating! Can't wait to see where this project goes.

[@ping170]

That was a really interesting trip into sterling's rabbit hole ! Thank you :)

[@eduardotijerina958]

great proyect, thank you for sharing

[@thesoupin8or673]

I love the idea of Stirling engines! This project has been really fun to follow so far. I'm subscribing so I can keep up with it. You're doing great, this is very entertaining! I'm hoping to build a big one someday, my parents just had a firepit put in and I thought it could be a cool heat source. Good luck on your upgrades!

[@peterhguk]

I know nothing at all, but I feel the compulsion. What a great set of videos!

[@samsgunsight1149]

Simply brilliant! Keep working at this and let us know how you do! Thanks!

[@IronGoober]

It's a fun journey, wouldn't you say?! Another great video. Your data collection on the engine is wonderful.

[@JessWLStuart]

I think this is worth pursuing more. A Stirling engine that is stable enough and produces decent power could produce green energy.

[@MrNeutross]

Thank you for making in-depth videos like this! Super interesting following the development

[@FilterYT]

Awesome job, thanks for sharing!

[@richardpereyra5183]

Even if it not produce a lot of power that was a really interesting journey. I love the way you present and analyce the data obtained, specialy on the strange spike of power. Hope that the proyect don`t end here, is a lot of work but seems that you enjoy the process of making and learning from it. Some day i want to make my own Stirling, and people like you give a lot of inspiration. Greetings from Argentina!

[@chuckayuey]

Hi Leo, I’m very interested in where you have got to with this. I understand that life gets in the way. I’m trying to renovate a house and that’s taking longer than expected. I’m looking forward to the next iteration - I saw the short video.

[@Dukey8668]

Great series, one of the best on youtube that I have seen.

[@nathanallen6411]

Wow Leo your dedicated! And your small comedic quips are quite entertaining. Great content!

[@pedrodunice]

Hi Leo, great striling engine project you got there especially because it's mostly 3dprint . I've too fallen in the youtube can stirling engine rabbit hole, but never actually tried to build one! I was about to suggest using a prony brake setup, to extract the actual mechanical power curve you have at the output axis, maybe with a bike disk brake, a leather belt some or thing like that, but I've seen you discarted this idea in the second video. I once used this setup with a motobike brake, strain gauge and rpm sensor to measure the mechanical power of a microhydro turbine. It worked like a charm.

[@andycepi]

been waiting for this! awesome project, love seeing all your ideas

[@michaellongacre2924]

Bro your channel is going to make me a genius just like you so thanks man for real this ain't no joke

[@dompfahr]

We need more!

[@chikenfajita]

Great content! I can't wait to see how version 2 will perform.

[@500kchevrolet9]

I hope you haven't completely forgotten about this addiction...My father was a commercial radio Engineer, with a "First Phone" Liscence that was 30 years old, at his demise. I myself had a sleave covered with "A S E" certs a life time ago, B4 I was sucked into the world of Automotive Competetion. Mechanicaly, this thing looks awesome...and I observed a few details that I feel could simplify/stabilize some of your issues. Please, I hope...you consider opening this bag of worms again. I am subbed and hope to see more.

[@adrianvonino2574]

Definitely looking forward to episode 4 :)

[@LeoLeoJR]

I hope the saga will continue some day ;) I enjoyed it very much so far, I hope it's not the end. And I like the way you collected data. I think some kind of "thermal shield" or "thermal chamber" for hot area of the engine can greatly contribute to quality of the result

[@gedr7664]

awesome work Leo thank you so much!

[@marcangelodonelo5656]

I love the memes embedded in this video🤣I swear I would love to go to school if every teacher has this magnitude of awesomeness

[@keithcummins4380]

I loved it! I'll stick around to see what's next

[@tripleforwardslash5229]

Super nice episode.. I do want to try to build one myself as well...actually instead of redesigning it, if it would be possible to pre-pressurize (possibly with helium) the chamber where the piston is, the W and efficiency will raise exponetially.. and make the engine interesting in terms of energy collected. Congrats on the project 💪🏻

[@dr1verman]

I too had similar ideas to this, but through circumstances, there is not even a first prototype, and, unlikely to be happening in the near future, so, I will share my thoughts. What about using this engine to improve the efficiency of a diesel generator (could be petrol, I just like diesel) you mount the hot end of two of your engines in the exhaust gas of a generator. your engines being horizontally opposed should cancel out much of the vibration. an internal combustion engine running at peak torque would have a jet of flame out of the exhaust manifold to replace your gas torch.

[@SpinStar1956]

Great video Leo. I encourage you to re-design and optimize but I do fully understand the burn-out and how much blood, sweat and gears you've invested. When I first go into Sterling engines, I soon realized that even past the amount of fine-tuned tweaking, that ultimately professionals have never made them perform to the level of replacing anything we current use today. It was a sad conclusion because other than a few really niche applications, as neat as they are it's just a no-go...

[@FrankensteinDIYkayak]

I have to wonder how lubricants and coatings hold up in such enginer. I haven't seen anyone anodize aluminum in these parts or serious lubrication systems. Plastics look good as the lessen vibration but is there warpage over time? could regenerators be made of beer cans? what was the cylinder head made from. metal spinning might be a DIY option and temp resistant steel like Inconel or Hastelloy.

[@luhomo]

Thanks Leo for your amazing job!!! I'm doing some researchs by my own for build electricity at home and magenitcs and stirling engine catch my attention long time ago. I would like to follow your path, are out there some books to learn the principles of mechanics and using cad to know how to build my own devices? Would you mind to share the data to print it and rest of spare parts?

[@cracktact7676]

I'm sure you can increase power output by pressurizing the engine or switching the working fluid

[@patmccormack8135]

My addiction took the path of trying to simulate stirring engines in murtiphysics software. I got...not very far! But, considering how many degrees of freedom any actual physigal carnot cycle engine enjoys I still think we need to be able to run it in software for optimization. A la Ricardo. Your videos are great!

[@michaeld954]

Would it work if you put a water jacket on the top and run hot water? ... might help keep the temperature consistent

[@davidgleatham9966]

yup made something from a Coleman lantern globe,,, cylendar 4"dia. as the bottom and a tomatoes can piston. and it ran! was 10yr ago. and im back. and hooked. aa did help me once. consider kids selling upcycled art at farmers markets as parlor toys. they could run in a south facing window. kid gets to college. How about a pilates ball displacer. Yard art. Glad you presented this theme so well. Wanna trade a banjo for a dyno? Good vibes to you

[@mannysalgado7910]

I'm looking forward to episode #4.

[@foolishafraid562]

“I just poked at it until it worked, and then edged away.” You said that with some embarrassment, but that’s how I live my life. Which is why you should make the videos.

[@micultimy91]

1. Love your work, man! I'm looking for stirling engines materials since I was in high school. Your channel is so underrated. 2. Replace the plastic rombic drive parts with metal ones. I know, it's gonna make the whole 3D printed engine void, but you should have a visible increase in power! 3. Try using some automotive grade rubber for the working piston membrane. 4. Try using more tight tolerances and constant greasing of the piston shafts. It's hard with this configuration, but you're a genius guy and you'll find out a solution for that. 5. Have you considered presurizing the engine? I know, with all those printed parts it could not handle the pressure very well, but give it a try.

[@warrenchristie1416]

Any progress? I have a 3D printer and a lathe and would love to continue what you have been doing!

[@kennethalmond8922]

Thank you for these videos.

[@maxspruit8370]

Very good job.

[@AliAhmed-ko5nl]

Good stuff i love obsession, Is there any more episodes I want to see the redesign ?

[@en2oh]

did you ever get this into a 4th or 5th video? It looks like a great project. I was hoping you might have looked at carbon fiber as a regenerative media.

[@JerryPaulTreeCreations]

Instead of using rubber for the diaphragm, could you use some type of spring system?

[@chunchen3169]

Hi, I guess that the air leakage introduce the stopping of the machine. You see the torque become high and high then go to a plane. I think it means the internal air presssure go to higher and may lead to air leaking some where.

[@kazimir8086]

I'm thinking to couple a Stirling engine to the hot side of my AC unit. Do you think it would help to reduce cost in power consumption, by using the waste heat to power a Stirling engine?

[@SERVOPUNK]

What a cool project. I hope your next design addresses the wobbly mount, it looks like it's tearing itself to pieces at high RPM...

[@eduardotijerina958]

New subscriber here, really nice stirling engine 👍

[@ianactually]

Hi! My name's Ian and I'm a... well, thought I got over the addiction about 10 years ago but thanks to your channel I'm contemplating going down that rabbit hole again! Will be on a larger scale this time. Instead of a rubber damper between the colliding crank parts, why not a little piezo element to harness (and maybe measure) all that wasted percussive energy? ;-) Really enjoyed the triptych 👍

[@garycheatham9472]

I wonder if kiln insulation would do in place of steel wool

[@connormcneill9024]

Have you tried running it as a heat pump? Curious what kind of cooling power it has.

[@peterhoulihan9766]

Neat project. I think it's worth it incidentally, stirling engines are a really simple way of converting heat back into more usable energy. If you could work out a way to easily print them in a range of sizes I can think of all kinds of uses it'd have.

[@patmlem]

Can the hot side work with a hot water jacket? Was thinking of ways to use my stored thermal heat.

[@littlefrogyboy1]

no part 4? :(

[@cameraderie2328]

I don't really know what I'm talking about, but I have witnessed a material that is impervious to heat and acts as a complete insulator. It is extremely light and could be the perfect material for replacing the wire wool?

[@xsirfr1958]

Hey Leo - What do you think about a regenerator with an insulating wall (with lots of holes), to separate cool steel wool from hot steel wool. The idea is to have a larger temp gradient in the regenerator, by preventing thermal conduction from hot end to cool end.

[@supercomtesse5050]

Hello, is that possible to have the plans of this motor? Cordially

[@juliannesermon8057]

I was just thinking about that project of yours and wouldn't you know it, new video comes up :-D

[@jonathantalley6715]

The other day i saw a video about a college researching near isothermal stirling heat pump to replace vapor compression style heat pumps. It probably isn't useful to your design, but i found it interesting.

[@reypolice5231]

Can you try a aluminum ceramic fire brick as a piston? They are cheap, should be interesting at least

[@AmaroqStarwind]

You should put a second tachometer magnet in the gears, but rotate the gear with the second magnet 180 degrees so that the two magnets are never in close proximity with eachother. You could also build *four* optical tachometer sensors. When you combine these things, you can get much smoother data. Maybe you can even take it a step further and eliminate a lot of the noise by using polyborbornene mounts and stuff! (And also, some graphite and teflon lubricant mixed into some silicone grease.) Lastly, stick with the diaphragm, but use a thin steel diaphragm or something. Much more durable, and much higher coefficient of restitution.

[@whatthefunction9140]

Can you use the stainless steele but just make it longer to increase its abilities

[@shesnotyourbro]

Interesting hypothesis about temporary internal combustion! You could test it by purging the cylinder with non-oxidizing gas; nitrogen (used for car tires), argon (welding), or CO2 (bb / paintball gun canisters) should be readily available. If purge gas makes the peak disappear, there's your answer. If you're interested in more scientific data logging, what about mounting some thermocouples on the hot and cold sides? I love this series, and I think you're a madman for casually building a custom torque meter as a side task. Even more impressive is that you nailed it. My opinion? You totally should keep playing with the engine (and showing us)!

[@LeoLeoJR]

I know that Hydrogen is the best (but it's dangerous), and helium is almost as good. CO₂ is one of the worst gases to try with,the same situation with plain air, but as it was proven in this awesome series it works quite well anyway :D