[OneAndy]

Bit too close for comfort Andy, but thanks for posting, as it's got another part of the brain working again.



I've got as far as re-building my first cnc, which is meant to be the workhorse and first step to the ultimate goal of generating our own power.
My plan has been(is) cnc/solar mirror/hot water/hotter working fluid(oil?)/generator.
So you can see I've a long way to go, never mind the domestic life that slows us all down.

But now the sun has started to shine again in this neck of the woods, I feel encouraged to change up a gear.
Any information you can bring in, Andy, would be most welcome, and help to keep my brain going
Regards
John

Thanks. My plan is similar, tho I'm skipping some steps and going a slightly different route.

CNC (nearly done). It's a moving gantry style for hardwood cutting to ramp up my main money making business with gun grips, stocks, signs, engraving, etc...

Even though it's primarily for wood, I've taken great pains to make it very stable against load in alignment of leadscrews to bearings and nuts, spindle to table, and flex in parts. This baby ain't going nowhere.

And I beefed up my travel. 50x36. Yep, I'm going to get into METAL CASTING using the lost foam process! I figure any adventure in making engines from scratch will be greatly aided by the ability to cast somewhat precision parts. Precision cut-foam for investment casting seemed alot easier and precise for metal work than the traditional green sand casting method.

So while waiting for my flanged bearing upgrades for the CNC to come in from MSC, I went ahead and poured a heavy(ish) duty foundry in an old air bottle I had a welding buddy of mine cut the top off of. Inswool and 2.5 inches of satanite refractory morter! I'll be able to stick a 5x7 crucible made of 3/8 well pipe in there. Satanite is rated for 3,000 degrees F, so I should be able to cast something like Brass, once I've cut my teeth on Aluminum.

The overall objective here is complete energy self sufficiency. While I am totally intrigued by Stirling technology, it just doesn't seem to be developed to the point of real feasibility, yet. I've not given up and will be happy to brainstorm and experiment, but I need/want to become self-sufficient as quickly as possible.

So I hit upon extremely low rpm Lister Diesels. They're ridiculously long-lived, easy to maintain, extreme fuel sippers, and will probably run on at least some used motor oil (not to mention veggie oil), plus road diesel has been coming down in price pretty fast recently($1.95 at the closet station). The only problem is, yeah you guessed it... new EPA regs came out. I don't think they can be imported here any longer. I just love our Federal overlords. :tired:

I'm stuck either trying to find an old one or building a new one from scratch. Which, I'll have the means, if not the ability right off the bat, to do with a CNC, Foundry, Metal lathe w/ milling attachment setup.

Tomorrow I'll know whether or not I've won a decent Atlas lathe from the wonderful world of government auction. If so, I have the dubious honor of making a 1500 mile round trip to go get it. Whee!

So I suppose my setup process so far is:

CNC, Foundry/casting, metal lathe, Lister Diesel restoration OR Lister Diesel fabrication OR maybe an old Bamford or similar.

Simultaneous effort on Stirling research and design. One big roadblock I've come up against in THAT tho, has been finding books by the big names in the field that are actually still in print!

I tried to find a copy of James Rizzo's two volume set "Stirling Engine Manual"... and could only find Volume I. Volume II is where most of the meat is at, I think.

Nor was I able to locate Andy Ross's book "Making Stirling Engines." It appears to be in revision.

I may eventually buy "The Regenerator and the Stirling Engine" but I haven't bought a $200+ book since college and I'm sure I don't know enough about the Stirling Engine field for this book to be worth the outlay, yet.

[OneAndy]

Oh, I also had another idea:

I wonder if it would be worthwhile to have two engines working on the same alternator or generator head?

For example, build a super duper alternator. Build a wind turbine. Then build a Solar Stirling and have both the shaft of the Stirling and the turbine spinning the same alternator. This would save you having to build or buy a second alternator.

And if you could place the Stirling in such a position that the wind turbine is helping the Stirling achieve a greater temperature differential by increased air cooling... well then all the better.

Big problem I foresee, tho, is the engineering requirements of putting your Stirling up there on the tower with the wind turbine. You could avoid this by placing the Stirling on the ground underneath the turbine and link it to the alternator with gears and such, but then you lose the theoretical temperature differential advantage plus mechanical inefficiency in the linkage to the alternator.