Home made Pringle Tube Stirling Engine 'Tall Boy'

This is my own innovation which uses the fact that Pringle tubes have a metal base and strong cardboard body. By placing two tubes end to end you have a ready made hot plate and cold plate separated by a low heat conduction cardboard body. Also it's a lot easier to work with cardboard than tin cans. I chose to use a gravity driven displacer for simplicity in this prototype model. I used cotton sewing thread to suspend the displacer because I didn't have anything better to hand. The whole thing is put together with bog standard UHU glue. She clocks about 100rpm and I'm pretty pleased with the performance for such a basic design and quick build.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Home
• made
• DIY
• Pringle
• Sterling
• Engine
• hot
• air

[specallez]

Did you use any kind of rubber seal around the displacer wire ? I made one using nylon fishing line, I used a piece of balloon around it to seal the hole but I've got too much friction... I got it to run about one or two cycles. Did you just pierce a really small hole in the base of the Pringles can for the displacer wire?

[MarekSHayward]

@specallez I just made the smallest pin-prick hole possible in the metal and ran the cotton through it. This can be done by tapping a needle or pin until it penetrates. There doesn't need to be a perfect seal. In fact, I wonder if your problem is that the seal is too good - perhaps the engine can't equalize it's average pressure with the outside? If you have trouble making a small enough hole in the metal I suggest sticking a piece of cardboard over it and making a tiny hole through that.

[specallez]

doh, it says in the video about the displacer :p I was too mesmerised by the engine to notice....

[MarekSHayward]

@specallez Thanks! I'm currently working on a Sterling traction engine based closely on the Pringle Stirling and I'm taking photos as I go along so that I can put together a 'how to' video (If it works that is!) In the meantime please go right ahead and reverse engineer it on your site, I'm sure you can make some improvements.

[jaytank31]

do you have any plans for it

[PandaStreak]

wtf does it do :D

[specallez]

I got it working using a sewing needle to pierce the hole. Thanks for the help! Posted a video response here :)

[specallez]

@MarekSHayward Thanks. Just have to consume a few tubs of Pringles now, shouldn't be hard :D

[specallez]

Do you have plans ? This is awesome! If you're not planning on writing some plans, I think I'll write some for my site. What material did you use for the displacer ?

Cheers!