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This is the first engine I ever built. I was in junior high and
had seen a picture in a book about steam engines so I decided to make one of my own. I went to the
local hobby shop and bought some brass tubing and rod and made some crude plugs for the ends,
filed some ports in the sides, soldered up a crank arangement and then tried mounting the whole
arrangement on a wooden board. At the time, my carpentry skills weren't accurate enough and I didn't have a
decently balanced fly wheel so I couldn't
quite get it to run. Years later, when my machining skills were a little better,
I dug out the original piston and valve assembly, then made an
aluminum base and fly wheel which seemed to do the trick. It runs like a charm!
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I'd read an article on low temperature Stirling cycle engines and thought it
might be fun to try and make one. I build this around 1995. It chugs along at around 60 rpm using
only the heat of one's hand as the energy source. It's absolutely fascinating to watch!
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This is another type of Stirling cycle engine that has no solid
moving parts. The piston is liquid water, and as heat is applied, the water column begins to
oscillate. This oscillating column can then be coupled to a valve system which will act as a water
pump. This model is merely for demonstration purposes and was built in 1997. You can also click on the image
to view a PDF file that has more detailed information about it's operation.
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