# AlphaVictory Engine Build



## IronHorse (Apr 12, 2010)

Time for a new project. I have had my Lathe & mill for about 3 years now, and I think it is time to design my own engine. I have decided to build an Alpha-type Hot-Air Engine.I was going to call this the "Alpha V" but after my wife saw the drawing, she put up 2 fingers and said "Victory" so the name will stick. I could not find much information on this type of engine, except for some research done at Gazi University in Turkey. http://journals.tubitak.gov.tr/engineering/issues/muh-00-24-2/muh-24-2-2-98073.pdf

 I also found this interesting animation on the web.









So I dusted off a old copy of Pro/Engineer and started to put some ideas together.Here is a picture of the model created in Pro/E:










After spending months designing this engine, I really appreciate all the people who make engine plans available on the net. This was a lot of work compared to just following a set of plans. I had to make a lot of assumptions and I Incorporated a lot of ideas I found from many different sources. I do not know if this design will even run, but I sure did learn a bunch of stuff on the way, and if it fails, it will make a nice doorstop! I will try to describe some of these design points along the way.

One of the most satisfying moments came when I finally got the motion analyses to run on the computer. It was like getting a model to run the first time. :big: Here is a short movie of the motion analyses.





Time to cut some metal. I started off with the cold cylinder, nothing too exotic here, just bore and cut some fins on some Ali. There are 2 threaded holes on the top of the cylinder. The large one is for the Regenerator (Economizer) and the other one is a port to release the compression in the cylinders for testing. This port can also be used to pressurize the engine. These type of engines will develop more power if the working gas is pressurized. Using Helium will increase the power even more. 

Cutting the fins;





Boring the cylinder;





Milling the flat;





Parting off;





Next will be the hot cylinder.

IronHorse


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## Deanofid (Apr 12, 2010)

That sure is a nice looking cylinder you have turned up there. I think this is an interesting design you've chosen, Ironhorse. This should be a great build!

I've come across a couple of these on Youtube. Possibly a search there would turn up another builder with a brain you could pick. Also, a fellow named Andrew Ross has a similar type, and I've seen pictures of it done up from castings. There are a few webpages about him out there.

Dean


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## Troutsqueezer (Apr 12, 2010)

Very nice rendering there IronHorse. It will be interesting to see it progress. 

On a side note: I like your avatar. When I was a kid, Ed Big Daddy Roth was one of my heroes. I built every plastic model he ever came up with and I cut my teeth on drawing each and every one of his creations until I could reproduce them line for line without looking. Rat Fink was always my favorite. I wound up with a minor in art mainly due to Roth and his Kustom Kulture and still pencil draw to this very day, although now I focus on portraits. 

-Trout


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## Longboy (Apr 12, 2010)

........I'll have to follow this one. I haven't made any Alphas and this type is scarce on You Tube and is the type developed for commercial usage. Lead the way IronH and if it doesn't pan out you can convert this one to a Gamma.     Dave.


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## BigBore (Apr 13, 2010)

Very cool!  8) Thm: 8) 

I'll be following this one. I don't have a clue as to how or why it works (yet) but I'm in for sure. Thanks for doing this build. Class has started.......sit down in your seats and pay attention!

Ed


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## Philjoe5 (Apr 13, 2010)

Interesting engine Iron Horse. Thanks for posting the pictures and video. Here's to success in your efforts *beer*

Cheers,
Phil


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## b.lindsey (Apr 13, 2010)

Great looking design IronHorse. Since the volume of air shared between the displacer side and power piston side is recycled (heated/cooled) does the lower portion of the displacer piston therefore have to seal with the cylinder wall? Also (and I may be mistaken here) I was thinking that the power piston is usually assisted on its return stroke by atmospheric pressure. If that is true then is the crankcase vented somehow to achieve that? Obviously I need to do more research on these Alpha types...but I am loving what you have done so far!! Looking forward to the build and best wishes for a successful runner.

Bill


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## IronHorse (Apr 13, 2010)

Trout; I have always liked the Rat Fink, sort of the anti-Micky ;D

Dean; I will check out those tonight.

Bill; I wondered about the lack of Atmospheric pressure too, but it is a closed system, so not too sure yet.


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## Longboy (Apr 13, 2010)

b.lindsey  said:
			
		

> Great looking design IronHorse. Since the volume of air shared between the displacer side and power piston side is recycled (heated/cooled) does the lower portion of the displacer piston therefore have to seal with the cylinder wall? Also (and I may be mistaken here) I was thinking that the power piston is usually assisted on its return stroke by atmospheric pressure. If that is true then is the crankcase vented somehow to achieve that? Obviously I need to do more research on these Alpha types...but I am loving what you have done so far!! Looking forward to the build and best wishes for a successful runner.
> 
> Bill


   There is no displacer in an Alpha Stirling. Both sides have a conventional piston that seal with the cyl. wall. On the cold cyl. side the temperature drop in operation lowers atmospheric pressure to below ambient and therefore surrounding atmos. pressure contributes to piston returning up its bore. Since the Alpha Stirling principles are in play above the piston crowns, a sealed crankcase would be at ambient outside atmos. pressure anyway but a vent at this point may help intermediate pulsing by leaking pistons moving up & down in bore.   Dave.


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## Ed T (Apr 13, 2010)

This guy has some very interesting stuff about ALPHA Stirlings  www.stirling-fette.de/english.htm - Cached. I have not been able to access the site w/o going through GOOGLE. If you put the link into google, it should be one of the top listings.


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## Diy89 (Apr 13, 2010)

Sweet cylinder, this is going to be a nice runner.


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## kvom (Apr 14, 2010)

A lucite cover plate for the crankcase would be a nice touch.


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## IronHorse (Apr 14, 2010)

Kvom:

I had that idea too early on. I was going to use a watch crystal for the "Window". I may still do it on phase II.


IronHorse


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## robertvi (Apr 14, 2010)

Nice to see you will be able to seal the whole crankcase to allow pressurization. I read in James Senft's introductory book about Stirlings that a pressurised engine achieved a higher power density than a diesel


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## cfellows (Apr 14, 2010)

This is the first style of Stirling (is it a stirling?) I ever saw a drawing of. I've not seen one in operation. Looking forward to watching your progress.

Chuck


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## IronHorse (Apr 17, 2010)

The Hot Cylinder:

This was a new experience for me; cutting Stainless steel. I was going to make this out of CRS, but then I figured that since I am using a graphite piston and no oil is used, I might have a rusting problem on the inside of the cylinder. I decided to use some 303 Stainless for this part. My new indexable cutters worked good, but the chips that come off are really hot .






Boring out the cylinder;






Drilling the mounting holes; This was a little nasty operation. I was probably drilling at the wrong speed or something, but the drill bit looked like is was beat with a hammer after drilling a couple of these holes.






I had an idea to make a crude type of heat exchanger on the hot cylinder. I have read that you should make the cylinder walls as thin as possible, but I did not want to go less then 0.05" wall thickness. This heat exchanger will allow a local thinning at the heat source and also increase the surface area. I probably should have made more, closer cuts, but I will test this version first. I did not want the cuts completely around the cylinder, so I offset the part in the four jaw.






Parting off. I actually cut through the entire width, instead of resorting to a hacksaw. I think at times my neighbors thought I was skinning a live cat 






At the same time I used my RT to cut out a thermal spacer from some 1/8" Phenolic.






.

Next Up: Crankcase

IronHorse


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## b.lindsey (Apr 18, 2010)

Nice progress IronHorse...looks like you conquered the stainless as well, and with a very nice finish too!

Bill


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## kcmillin (Apr 18, 2010)

Beautiful work. 
How did you get such a nice finish on the cylinder? Its takes me alot of sandpaper and a few burnt fingers to get something that nice.

very impressive.

Kel


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## Deanofid (Apr 19, 2010)

It's coming along nicely, Ironhorse.
I recently got a supply of ceramic sheet for the insulators on my own current stirling build. I've read that it is more effective than other materials. It's 1/16" thick, and can be stacked a few layers thick if needed. I have a small excess. If you'd like some to use for this engine, you're welcome to it. 

Dean


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## Philjoe5 (Apr 19, 2010)

Looking good IH. That's a neat trick for making a thermal spacer.

Cheers,
Phil


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## IronHorse (Apr 19, 2010)

Dean; How do you cut a ceramic sheet? I think I will try the phenolic, thanks for the offer, I may need it if this does not work.

Kcmillin; The finish came out nice. All I did was start with some 230Grit and worked up to 600, almost like chrome ;D


IronHorse


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## Deanofid (Apr 19, 2010)

Ironhorse, you can cut it with scissors. It's not hard like ceramic tiles. It's woven, like a thick fabric. 
Offer is open if you change your mind.

Dean


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## IronHorse (Apr 23, 2010)

I was shopping at Princess Auto (Canadian farm/auto supply) and I came across this. I guess it is called a caster wheel, but all I saw was a $6.99 already half machined flywheel ;D They had a few different sizes and I picked up this 2 1/2" one. The only true round surface was the outside of the rim, so I centered it in the 4 jaw and did most of the machining from this setup. The hole in the middle was too big and not in the center so I bored it out oversize. I then cleaned up as many surfaces I could. The outside rim had a slight crown on it so I cut that down while it was firmly gripped in the chuck. The wheel was then flipped and held on the inside of the recently trued rim. Some 230 to 600 grit sandpaper really brought out a nice shine. Later I press (Hammer) fit a brass plug in the center, re-chucked it and drilled and reamed the center hole. Surprisingly it runs true, and was easy to make. 














I have read that Alpha engines have a higher compression ratio then other types, so I want to start with a heavy flywheel. After machining it weighed 1/2 Lb.



IronHorse


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## kcmillin (Apr 23, 2010)

Nice idea for a flywheel source. It turned out great. I like that you left it rough on the spoked area.

Kel


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## Philjoe5 (Apr 23, 2010)

Nice looking flywheel there IH. I like the overboring, and plug approach to getting a true center. Nice tip

Cheers,
Phil


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## black85vette (Apr 23, 2010)

IronHorse  said:
			
		

> Trout; I have always liked the Rat Fink, sort of the anti-Micky ;D



Yep! Definitely the anti-Mickey. Don't know if you guys have seen it but there is a DVD called "Tails of the Rat Fink" that is a documentary of Roth. Even has some home movies of him.  I grew up in the LA area as a kid. Roth used to paint custom T shirts at the county fair.  He was well known in the car culture in Southern Cal back then. Have a look at who keeps my engines company on the shelf!!

Back to the topic: Love the engine and the layout of it. Great looks and concept. I'll have to keep an eye on this one. Always looking for another type of engine I have not tried yet.


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## SAM in LA (Apr 24, 2010)

Great idea using a castor wheel for a flywheel.

Harbor Freight puts theirs on sale quit often.

SAM


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## lee9966 (Apr 24, 2010)

I am always on the lookout for cheap ways to buy materials. This one is great, I never thought of it.

Thanks much,

Lee


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## IronHorse (May 8, 2010)

Here is the crankcase, It was the most time consuming part so far. I got to try out my new boring tool for the mill. It worked great and the supplied HSS toolbits cut like butter.


After squaring up a block of Ali, I milled the 45 deg cuts and bored the holes for the cylinders.





Here is the point that I realized that I should have bored the large hole first. :-[ I was a bit worried about the interupted cut, but all went well. ;D





This was the most scary part. I thought for sure I would bust the mill, or the bit, or the work, or all three  I started with 0.015" cuts, feed in the X, rotate the table, return, feed out X. I used tape to mark both extremes on the RT during the rough out. 





Next was to cut the material left on the "feet"






Almost done, just have to tap the holes for the covers and cylinders.







IronHorse


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## Deanofid (May 8, 2010)

Good progress. That crankcase is coming out nice!

Dean


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## kcmillin (May 8, 2010)

Very Nice indeed. Well done, those r/t setups can be quite difficult.

Kel


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## IronHorse (May 22, 2010)

Time for an update. Here is the simple crankshaft for the engine. A disk of CRS and a length of drill rod soldered together.





I then chucked it in the lathe to clean it up. I seem to have better luck if I thread the disk and turn a crank pin with a shoulder on it. Locktite in and everything runs true.





Next was the crankshaft bearing holder. I turned the main body from Ali, then press fitted a spacer inside the bore to separate the ball bearings.





Here is what it looks like so far.






IronHorse


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## b.lindsey (May 22, 2010)

Truly elegant IH !! That caster wheel made a perfect flywheel too. Beautiful work.

Bill


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## hobby (May 22, 2010)

Looks great, nice design also.


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## kcmillin (May 22, 2010)

Coming together very nicely. The flywheel looks excellent.
 Thm:

Kel


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## Deanofid (May 23, 2010)

Very nice! Will be a really attractive engine.

Dean


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## IronHorse (Jun 11, 2010)

Work in my shop has slowed down a bit due to the nice weather, but I managed to mill out the front cover. I had to do some re-machining on my 4" rotary table that I got a while ago. I found that the hole was not in the center of the table, and the table its self was oval ??? I made a plug to press fit into the hole and chucked the table by the main bearing in the lathe. After center drilling the plug, I skimmed the outer face until it was round. It works good now as can be seen in the next picture. The milling operation left a thin consistant "ribbon" of material around the circumference.





I made the cover extra thick so latter I could mill a "V" or some fins into it. I also used a "Filling Button" to get a nice radius on the tabs.





Here is a shot of the engine to date. I made the connecting tube without the re generator for now. I will test it in this configuration first and may add the regen latter. I have read that on small scale model engines, a re generator may actually hurt the performance.





Till next time
IronHorse


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## cfellows (Jun 12, 2010)

Thats a darn nice looking engine. Can't wait to see it run. Are we there yet???  :big:

Chuck


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## IronHorse (Oct 17, 2010)

Well, time to get back to the Alpha Stirling project. I have being busy playing with old gas engines and my Mustang all summer, but now the leaves are falling and the daylight is getting shorter, time to build engines ;D 

Next was to make the piston rods. These are simple creations made from 1/8" brass rod, silver soldered to a brass ring finished to 0.374" ID ( I love over/under reamers ;D) A 1/16 hole was drilled in the end for the wrist pin.






I heated the rod in the toaster oven and cooled the bearing (0.375" OD)in the deep freeze. I used a brass punch in the mill chuck to press the two together. I was surprised how easy they slid together, I was worried that I would put too much pressure on the bearing.






Time to make the graphite pistons. I got a 10" piece of 1.125 diameter Graphite from a friend for free, but I needed only 3/4" pistons. That meant a BIG mess was going to happen. I decided to move the operation into the back yard. I covered a table with plastic and went to work. 






Here is the second piston, you can see the pile of the nasty stuff from the first one. I used those cheap carbide-tipped cutters and they cut well. I cut the pistons to within 0.010" of there final diameter and moved the operation inside for the final fit.






I hooked up a vacuum with a 1/2" tube at the tool post and slowly cut it down to about 0.002"
 over. I then used some 1000 then 2000 grit paper until it was a tight fit in the cylinder. Next it was parted off to the correct length. 






The last operation was to make a Mandel to mount the finished piston on. I used alternating 2000 grit paper and plain photo copier paper until the fit was nice and smooth.






I roughly assembed the engine and it feels very smooth and if I block any of the ports there is a lot of Compression/Vacuum. I just need to make a few gaskets and do a final fit on the connecting tube and I hope to get it to run. :big:

IronHorse


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## BlakeMcKee (Nov 19, 2010)

Very cool, you do nice work! Can't wait to seeing it running. What kind of lathe is that? If you don't mind me asking. I'm currently in the market... 

-Blake.


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## cfellows (Nov 19, 2010)

Love this engine. Can't wait to see it run.

Chuck


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## IronHorse (Nov 19, 2010)

Blake: The lathe is a Sieg X2 sold from Cummins Industrial Tools, They had the best price (299.00), but expenxive shipping (130.00). That was 4 years ago and I think the have gone thru some changes. Most people hate the colour, but I love it!

Chuck: I would really love to see this engine run too, but I cannot get it to run    ??? :'( (lots of emotions here!)

I will post some pictures and results from the tests I am doing, but it does not look good. The piston fit is really nice and they slide smoothly and seal very good. There is tons of compression (maybe too much). I have tryed some alternate flywheels (some really large) but no luck. When it is cold, a flick of the flywheel will only spin 1/2 turn due to the compression. When I heat up the hot cylinder to high temps ( 1/3 of the side of the cylinder is red hot) It will spin for maybe 6 revolutions but showns no sign of wanting to run. With the pressure released from the cylinders a flick of the flywheel turns it over a dozen times at least. 

All of the above results are with the cover off and the crankcase unsealed. The guys in Turkey have the crankcase sealed, but I saw a nice one on YouTube by GreenPower and he has a un-sealed crankcase. If I seal the crankcase it feels the same with the heat on or off. 

The problem is there are not much I can adjust, on a IC engine you can play with the timming, ignition and fuel delivery, but on this thing everything is "fixed" in the design. 

It was a risk to build this but I just had to try it. I should have got a hint after looking at a design guide and it had hundreads of pages of calculations. I will try to get it running for a while, but I am considering redesigning a few things to convert it to a Beta type Sterling.

Any segestions welcome.


IronHorse


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## RichD (Nov 20, 2010)

IronHorse
I'm certainly no expert on Stirling engines, but I have built a "tin can" stirling engine and have run it for hours trying different things. One thing I've noticed is that it takes several minutes of heat to get it going. Don't even try to spin it for a few minutes and see if that helps.

My early attempts to get it to run were unsuccessful and I put it to the side for about a year thinking it was a failure. A lot of other builders' engines were shown running on small candles and oil burners so that is what I started out with. Tried two even three candles and no luck. Tried a small outdoor oil lamp with a wick and again no luck. Spun it a million times...no luck. Tried adding a 10" saw blade to the flywheel...no luck. Tried a lighter flywheel and...no luck. 

I decided to disconnect the connecting rod from the flywheel and manually stroked the walking beam on the displacer with heat applied to the displacer. The power piston stroked quite a bit further than my original design.
Lengthened the stroke to the max my engine would allow and it still didn't run without a little help.

Broke out the propane torch and built a little insulating/shielding system to trap the heat around the displacer firebox. To my surprise it ran and ran well. It just needed more heat. It actually has enough power to run with me dragging my finger on the flywheel. You can stall it out and it actually will run a little faster when you finally let go of it. 

Point of all this talk is, the engine thrives on heat and lots of it. Adding cold water to the cooling side on mine slows it down until everything reaches some kind of heat equilibrium. When the water reaches 180°F it seems to run the best.

I know this goes against all of the theory on heat engines, but I think it points in my case to:
1. Inefficient heat transfer, or not enough heat applied
2. Too much of a cold sink, or too much heat being lost somewhere.

Hope this helps somehow.

Rich


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## cfellows (Nov 20, 2010)

Ironhorse, can you post a link to the Greenpower engine on youtube? I can't find it. I have always liked this style of stirling engine but have never seen one run.

Chuck


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## IronHorse (Nov 20, 2010)

Rich: You are probably right about the need for heat, but since I silver soldered the pipe to the cylinder, I have to be careful how hot I get it. I do get a large area of the cylinder heat exchanger red hot. I think it may run if I could get the whole top half of it red hot. I think if it needed that much heat, my design has failed  I am going to try to spread out the heat some more by using two torches.


Chuck: Here is the link to the video. It is a nice powerful runner, and notice that the crankcase is not sealed.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pdqDQwehlk[/ame]

IronHorse


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## RichD (Nov 21, 2010)

IronHorse,
Did you have any success?
Try this link to a V twin Alpha running. 
Rich 

View attachment V-TWIN ALPHA watch.htm


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## IronHorse (Dec 22, 2010)

I have tried a few different things to get this engine to run. But I am have no luck so far. :'(  I tried a few flywheels of various sizes, but that just made it spin longer doing nothing! Here is a picture of the largest experimental flywheel, also one of the ugliest I have ever made.







Another concern was the amount of heat needed to run this engine. In the following picture I am heating the tube up with 2 torches ( I had to put one down to grab the camera) This is the absolute hotest I can get the cylinder temperature up to before the silver solder melts! Clearly I am using as much energy as to cook my dinner and getting 0 Watts output, I think I will finally stamp this one as a Failure and move on to the next project. I may in the future convert this to a different mode of Sterling engine, but in the meantime it still looks good on my shelf.






IronHorse


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## cfellows (Dec 23, 2010)

I've studied the animation at the beginning of this thread and I have a couple of observations (OK, opinions).

1. The difference between your engine and all the other examples I've seen running is the displacer piston. Your engine uses a positive displacer which means that as the air is heated it is trying to push the displacer back down. The other engines use a loose displacer which allows the heated air to bypass it and act only on the power piston.

2. I think for the positive displacer idea to work, the air has to give up a lot of heat, perhaps through a regenerator, as it passes out of the heating chamber and into the power cylinder. I also think it requires some really tricky timing between the air heating/cooling cycle and the engine movement.

I'm wondering if blowing a jet of compressed air across the cooling fins of the power cylinder while heating the displacer cylinder would work?

Chuck


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## robertvi (Jan 15, 2011)

I'm thinking of trying to build an alpha stirling, so I recalled your build thread, which I was following in June. Sorry to hear it's not running  My 2 cents: try replacing the connecting pipe between the cylinders with a fatter one and stuff it with metal wool to make a regenerator.

All the best,
Rob


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## IronHorse (Feb 10, 2011)

I am going to take another stab at getting this engine to run. I have being reading up on Andy Ross's designs, especially his V15 engine. Mine is very similar to his, but it appears he is able to flow more air from cylinder to cylinder than I can. I am going to take Robertvi suggestion and cut off the connecting pipe and fabricate a new thicker one. I should have this done this weekend, and I am hoping to get it to run soon. 

IronHorse


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## IronHorse (Nov 27, 2011)

Well after the third modification this engine finally runs :big: I would not call it a great runner yet, but things are looking up. I finally made a re-generator like I had designed for originally. The re-generator is simply a copper tube, stuffed with copper scrub pad. One of the main purposes of this is to remove some of the heat before it enters the cool cylinder and to preheat the cold air as it returns to the hot cylinder. Sound pretty simple, but there have being few efficient designs of this type of engine in the last 200 years! 

I am really happy that I finally got this engine to run. After all the design work and machining, it was disappointing that I could not get it to run.

Here is the new Re-generator





The scrub pad used for the Re generator





Finally, the engine running





Thanks to Cfellows and robertvi for the suggestions.

IronHorse


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## Jeremy_BP (Nov 27, 2011)

Congratulations on completing a very spiffy looking engine!
Are you planning to make a set of drawings?


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## Deanofid (Nov 28, 2011)

Looks like it runs pretty well to me! Good looking engine, and quiet too.
By how quickly it came to a stop when you removed the heat, I wonder if you might
have a little excess friction going on. 
Whatever the case, it certainly does run! Congrats. 

Dean


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## SBWHART (Nov 28, 2011)

Great job :bow: :bow: :bow:

A very nice looking engine and a good runner.

Stew


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## lazylathe (Nov 28, 2011)

Congratulations on a running Stirling engine!!! ;D

I am always amazed that we all never give up and always seem to get them running! :big:

A bit of friction here and there, but hey IT RUNS!!!!! th_wav

Andrew


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## IronHorse (Nov 28, 2011)

Thanks for the comments.

I think it stops so fast after the flame is turned off, is because this engine has such a long stroke, the compression ratio is quite high. If you look at any of Andy Ross's engines the thing will run for minuit's after the flame is removed. I noticed he usually uses a short stroke on his engines. When I open the bled screw to remove the compression, the flywheel will spin easy. 

As for drawings; I have learnt from doing this design that there are a few problems. First is that too much heat transfers thru the re-generator pipe. It should be farther from the heat source. Also I think the pipe could be a little larger. I think I will wait for an improved design before publishing any drawings. 

IronHorse


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## kcmillin (Nov 30, 2011)

Congrats IronHorse!!

It is a fine engine indeed.

Once again proving that perseverance is everything.


Kel


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## ChrisB (Nov 30, 2011)

A really beautiful engine and great success in getting it running too.

Don't know how but I have missed this thread up to now. Really interesting build thread with some really great and inspiring tips for new people like me.

Thanks for taking the time to share.


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## cfellows (Nov 30, 2011)

Contratulations, Ironhorse! Yours is the very first example of that type engine I've seen running. Nice looking engine. 

Chuck


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