Stirling Engine

39-part assembly modelled, drawn and machined to a running engine

What I did on this

I modelled every component and produced the whole drawing package — assembly, exploded view and bill of materials — then machined 6 of the 39 parts and assembled the running engine.

parts modelled, with a full drawing package

parts machined by hand

the rest were stock or supplied

Fig. 1Exploded view, SE-P-001. Every one of the 39 items is called out and matched to the bill of materials.

The problem

Model all of the parts of the Stirling engine in solidworks and create a virtual assembly, before physically assembling the engine after personally manufacturing certain parts.

What I did

I modelled all 39 parts in SolidWorks as a full assembly — displacer and power pistons, the displacer and power cylinders, the crank web and connector link, the flywheel and its shaft, the bearing blocks, the base plate, and the burner bottle with its wick and cap.

The drawing package was the substance of the work: an assembly drawing, an exploded view with every item ballooned, and a bill of materials keyed to those balloons. Each drawing carries a title block and the same tolerance specification — ±0.1 on one decimal place, ±0.01 on two, ±0.003 on three, and ±0.5° on angles — because a drawing that does not state its tolerances is not a manufacturing document.

Then I machined 3 of the parts myself on manual equipment and assembled the engine.

How it turned out

It runs. Friction still eventually stopped the machines movement, but the flame alone continued the motion of the enginen for several minutes.

What I'd do next

Machine more of the parts to gain further experience with lathe's, mills, drill presses, and the CNC.

Skills used