Building Low Temperature Differential Stirling Engine kit, otona no kagaku vol 10. I found this kit a while ago while at a Japanese bookstore. The kit comes in monthly science magazine. Each month they have some kit you build and test. I have built 3 of these kits already to use a testing.
The kits is a nice design, the parts are mostly plastic and easy to assemble. Assembly time takes around 5 to 10 min depending on your skill level and if you can read the Japanese or just look at the pictures.
After build a few of these, there is some things that would make these a better kit:
Use of bearings on the friction points.
if you use a candle to power the engine the clear plastic displacer cylinder warps and melts.
A better way to attach the upper and lower plates than with screws. With some tweaking I was able to have a engine run for 2 hours and 12 minutes on a cup of boiling water. I used one of these kits on a parabolic dish that used sunlight to power it. After a few minutes of running the cylinder melted down.
The kits is a nice design, the parts are mostly plastic and easy to assemble. Assembly time takes around 5 to 10 min depending on your skill level and if you can read the Japanese or just look at the pictures.
After build a few of these, there is some things that would make these a better kit:Use of bearings on the friction points.
if you use a candle to power the engine the clear plastic displacer cylinder warps and melts.
A better way to attach the upper and lower plates than with screws. With some tweaking I was able to have a engine run for 2 hours and 12 minutes on a cup of boiling water. I used one of these kits on a parabolic dish that used sunlight to power it. After a few minutes of running the cylinder melted down.
