Half Way Mark                                                               

Finished vessel and piston

The stirling engine vessel/piston unit is finished and relatively air tight. When I push down severely on the piston it moves ever so slowly downward. I have painted the whole outside of the wooden box with epoxy resin and I hear no air escaping from the weather stripping seal under the lid or through the regenerator rod seals in the lid. Wherever the leaks are, they are pretty small and I am hoping that they do not sap too much power from the engine.

Regenerator rod and seal

I did a preliminary engine test by heating up the upper chamber to about 70C and watched as the piston slowly moved about ¾ of an inch outward. I then manually moved the regenerator upwards and the piston sucked back in. Letting the regenerator slip back to the bottom of the vessel caused the piston to move outwards again. This thing just might work!

I am at the project's half way mark. Next I will build a frame to hold the vessel, flywheel and linkages. I hope to have the engine running by mid spring and then take a break to go camping in late March.