Material for a flame eater cylinder

[DaveRC]

Hi,

Apart from building the Upshur I am wanting to build a simple unusual engine as a gift for my dad, I downloaded some plans for a Jan Ridder Stirling, after looking at these plans for a while I came across more plans from Jan, a flame eater with internal head valve...

Now this looks like a very simple engine to build and should not take to much of my time to complete, so I am thinking one of these will do the job. Had a good rummage in the bits bin and apart from the flywheel I have all the materials needed, or so I thought. The internal valve and piston are to be made of cast iron, no problem I have some that will do the job. But it the cylinder I am having problems with. On the plans it says "Steel", no problem I have a length of bright mild steel (EN1A big enough to make this. But then I came across Jan's web site, in the text, he says he used cast iron or he says you can use rust free steel (assuming he means stainless) all to do with low temperature expansion coefficient.

Do you think the Mild Steel will work, or am I going to run into problems..?

I have emailed Jan, but no response yet.

Dave

 

[Omnimill]

Must say I'm not sure on that one Dave. Most of us (on here) that have built Jans internal valve eater have used cast for both the cylinder and piston/valve. Later models of Jans eaters use stainless steel as you say. I think rust would be the biggest problem using Mild Steel but I guess it will work ok?

Vic.

 

[DaveRC]

Thanks for the response Vic, does cast iron not rust then...? Are these engines prone to rust, not sure if a lot of moisture is produced...

I may try and find a bit of cast if this is going to be a problem, I just want it to look nice an polished and not very comfortable machining stainless, not with the fins anyway...

Dave

 

[Gedeon Spilett]

hi,
rust is a real concern with these engines, since a lot of moisture is produced, the final products of combustion are mainly carbone dioxide and water, no way out. at the start, it is easy to see water droplets condensing in the cold cylinder.
However, I have built three vacuum engine with steel cylinder and cast iron piston (videos are visible in another thread here) that work nicely, but require a careful cleaning at the end of every run.
for me, rustless materials are certainly much better, but not mandatory.
Zephyrin