Glass Cylinder

[groundhog]

I would like to build Jan Ridders' "Atkinson 4-stroke engine MK3". It uses a glass cylinder cut from a syringe.

Jan's description is as follows; "Fortuna Optima" 20ml syringe; fabricated by "Poulten & Graff GmbH" Germany. He gives some references on where to get the syringe but I am not able to find anything on the internet.

Has anyone in North America built this engine and/or know where to obtain the glass cylinder.

What I can find (dimensioned Pyrex type glass tube) is either not close to the dimensions (19.60mm +/- 0.01 ID and 23.6mm OD), or is not close in ID tolerances of +/-0.01mm.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[jwcnc1911]

You can find them on ebay... i'm keeping an eye out for a few myself.

 

[Entropy455]

Borosilicate Glass (aka Pyrex) is commonly used within business and industry for fluid level indicating sight glasses. The sight glass is strong, very resistant to temperature swings, relatively easy to cut (with a proper cutting tool), and quite inexpensive.

Here’s a place that sells gauge glass (linked below). These are “standard” sizes. However I’m sure with a bit of searching on the internet, you can find a place that sells 1” OD gauge glass.

http://www.mcmaster.com/#standard-liquid-level-indicators/=ox45tv

 

[mu38&Bg#]

The glass syringe is particularly nice for a cylinder because it's ID is ground. I have a 20CC glass syringe I bought at local science shop for 2.75USD. sciplus.com is their site I don't remember seeing it on the website before and it's not listed now, but maybe they still sell it.

Greg

 

[mu38&Bg#]

I forgot to say the mine is 20mm or so ID.

Greg

 

[portlandron]

I am building his Bouncing 2 stroke and found the syringe on ebay. I could not find any suppliers that would sell syringes to a private party. I even sent them copy of the plans and told them I did not need the plunger, still would not sell.

As Greg stated the inside tolerance is consistent and round which is what you need to fit a piston in. Before I found the syringe I tried test tubes and glass tubing both of which would not work because they were not round or consistent in size over a given length.

 

[mu38&Bg#]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Eisel-Inter...524?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2330754e74 Judging by the completed listings they show up regularly at around 5USD each.

Otherwise, try contacting the place I listed and see if they'll ship it to you. They used to have them at the Milwaukee Ave store.

Greg

 

[kvom]

Seems to me a teflon O-ring as a piston ring would seal "normal" glass tube cylinder.

 

[cncjunior]

There were 6 of us that built a Jan Ridders stirling "bas" engine that used two sizes of glass test tubes. We had problems with them as there was a slight taper on the ID of the power cylinder by a few tenth's in 1/2" length. The engine isn't quite as lively as I would like due to sizing the piston for the smallest id. I don't know about the pyrex glass is consistent thought it works great as a sight glass on the steam locomotives.

Daniel

 

[Lawijt]

You may also use reaction tubes. They are threated for the heat.
Here in Belgium I can buy that all @ a local store. They don't ask questions...Even Ether , Chloroform , sulphur , ect,........No problems too buy all that stuff.

Barry

 

[groundhog]

Thanks everyone.

I found a place that will sell me "gas tight" syringes that should work great. However, they only sell in lots of 6 @ about $20 each.

For now I think I am going to make the cylinder out of steel. If it runs good I may decide to upgrade to a glass cylinder later on.

 

[jwcnc1911]

Got these on ebay.

Spent about $18 total,