johnsmachines

machines which I have made, am making, or intend to make, and some other stuff. If you find this site interesting, please leave a comment. I read every comment and respond to most. n.b. There is a list of my first 800 posts in my post of 17 June 2021, titled "800 Posts"

Category: Stirling cycle

October 18, 2018

Model Engines on Steam

It is Geelong Show time again.  It is actually titled the Royal Geelong Show, but having had more than a gutful of royal non-entities visitors being adored by unthinking cringers, flocking around Harry and Meaghan Kardashian, Windsor, and being a committed republican, I refuse to bother with the “Royal” handle.  (they are probably very nice people, I just cannot stomach the hoo-ha).

More importantly, it gives us steam junkies a chance to run our small engines on real hot steam.

For a treat, I am sharing four short clips taken today.

The first is a small beam engine, made by Swen Pettig.

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The next two engines you have probably seen before.  My beam engine, and the triple expansion engine.

The small engine to the right is a Stirling engine which is running on the heat from the exhausted steam from the beam engine.

The triple is leaking a bit more than it should, although it is running amazingly smoothly on 25-30 psi.  The valve glands need repacking.

And finally, a model IC engine, the really odd Atkinson.  A 100+ year old design.  2 stroke. Made by Rudi vanderElst

 

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July 1, 2017

Koffiekop Modification

I have been considering this modification for some time, and today I located the aluminium heat sink-radiator material which I needed, and which I knew was somewhere in my stuff.

The Koffiekop Sirling engine requires differential temperatures between the top and bottom plates.  I wondered if installing some heat shedding plates on the top plate might increase the running time on a cup of coffee.

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The heat sink material is glued to the top plate with a heat transmitting electronic silicone glue.

Afterwards I ran a test with a cup of hot water.

The engine ran for 26 minutes!  That is an improvement of about 25% on the best previous runs.  Success!

The Horizontal Mill Engine (HME) is assembled and ready for the D valve to be timed.  This is how it looks.  I wont get to it for a couple of weeks now.

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I did squirt some compressed air into the valve chest, but minimal movement.  Not surprising, considering the position of the eccentric was just a guess.  When I get it going there will be a video.  That crankshaft pin is temporary.  It is a 3mm cap screw going through a 4mm cap screw.  go figure.

 

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