coffee cup Stirling

No reason why a wooden tube could not be used, except for the obvious movement with temp. changes and water absorption. There are plans for one with a thick walled plastic tube. I would use the wood to stiffen up the bench, mine has an ex doorframe made in teak.

There are a number of things you can make the tubular part of the displacer chamber from, my one is a piece of plastic water pipe , about 150 mm bore and 5 mm wall thickness. If you are any good at glass cutting, a section from a suitable sized bottle would be excellent. Perspex is good, either a tube, or a strip wrapped to a tube, and glued. A thick walled cardboard tube should work quite well, as would your suggestion of using wood.

Ian S C

Gordon and Ian thanks for these suggestions they are appreciated. Have been out skip hunting over the last couple of days found several different diameters of plastic pipe of the approx. diameters a piece of delrin 4'' dia x7'm length,also aquired some large motor brushes 16x30x32 mm hopefuly I,ll be able to make the bearings and bushes from these when I get back in the shed

regards Tom b.         ( should read 7'' not 7'm )

Edited By tom bates on 26/01/2016 20:32:39

The advantage (?) of glass, or Perspex is that you can see what's going on inside, more important other people can see, they'll still be none the wiser but they will see the displacer going up and down.

Ian S C

sorry i have not made an update but had an accident at work wednesday,had a fall and injured my shoulder, several hours later in A&E eventually found out it was not broken🤕 but injured enough to be in a sling for at least 10 days,so have plenty of time off but can not work on the stirling !!!😟

regards. tom b

Hi

I built one of these a few years ago. I'll dig it out and take a photo when i get a chance. I used a piece of 4" black plastic tube for the displacer cylinder, the studs holding the plates together I made of stainless to reduce heat transfer.

I didn't like the way the crankshaft was all overhanging one side, so I altered it and put the power cylinder on the flywheel end.

good luck with you build.

made a bit of progress on the stirling engine over the last couple of days(hard with one arm in a sling)🤕.more to follow

regards tom b

trev67

just seen your post. sounds like a good idea but am too far into the build to make alterations to the design,maybe when I learn a bit more about stirling'sI,ll be able to alter things in the designs,would also like to see a photo of your stirling engine regards tom b