Physical Model of Stirling Engine Generator Small Engine External Combustion Engine steam Engine

Works great, Love It!

Very surprised by the quality for the price. Makes for a nice display. When you consider the number of parts, the machine work and the assembly, really a good deal even for made in China. You have to remember that this is a low torque engine. Any misalignment of shafts, containments in cylinders, or lack of lubrication, will greatly affect the operation of the engine. Out of the box, mine worked fair. Would not handle the load of the generator. Suggest you break a new engine in without the generator connected. 5 or 10 minutes should do it. Give you a chance to make sure all is aligned. Added a little 3 in 1 oil to each joint. A very little does the trick. Appears engine is shipped un lubed. Use a toothpick and a single drop will do it. Be careful not to drop any in the power piston or on glass tubes. With this speed increased and the generator worked great with bright LED. Use no less than 90% alcohol, higher is better. Lower has less heat and more water vapor which may drop on hot glass and break it. I found the best is to use HEAT FUEL TREATMENT. Much hotter clear flame. Increased speed and torque. This is a common trick used for alcohol stoves. Hope you enjoy as much as I have,

I have been shopping around for over two years to buy a Sterling Engine, but never pulled the trigger until now. Come On... this model sells for almost $100 and I picked it up for $39. It came in a Foam Box, and bubble wrapped, fully assembled, bright and shiny polished and the only assembly was putting the LED light on the generator. I had a 50/50 chance of connecting the LED with the right polarity... worked first time and to my surprise, the LED changes colors as it flashes.But here is some past experience things to know about the glass elements of this model that get very hot... you already know to never touch a Halogen bulb with your fingers as it will crack, so don't touch any of these glass parts on this model, don't take any chances.I used some machine oil for my 3D printer to lube all the beam and piston linkages.I use 91% rubbing alcohol for the burner, they suggested 95%, 100% Vodka would work too, but after the initial flywheel pump that you do to get it started, pay attention to the sound of the piston and beam, and when suddenly it sounds like it just doubled in speed, .... important... blow out the flame and just watch it continue to run for a lot longer than you would ever expect.After playing around with this for several days, I'm going to donate it to a school science teacher. This was a cool Amazon purchase. 5 STARS

The price of this mini engine was less than 50% of what other sellers asked for it. So I gave it a try. When I opened the box I noticed two things: a) it comes preassembled, and b) it is well protected with bubble wrap and styrofoam. In fact it is enclosed in a styrofoam container inside the paper box. Some web sites and videos showed that assembly was required, but this was not the case for the engine I received.So why is it cheaper? Because the craftsmanship is not up to the same level as the more expensive engines of this same model. In other words, not all of its parts are as shiny as they appear to be in the pictures. And not all of its parts work as expected. The two plates are not shiny at all. The posts, flywheel and pulleys are very shiny.It is all made of metal, mostly aluminum. Unfortunately there were blemishes on the bottom big plate of my engine. I took it apart and tried to polish them out. It did not work, even though the polishing paste was made for aluminum. So I put it back together, filled the little bottle with 91% alcohol, allowed it to warm for about a minute and gave it a spin or two. It started to work and within a minute it stopped. The top joint of the vertical moving bracket came apart. I used a pair of pliers to put the joint back in its place and pushed the tiny locking pin all the way in.I lit up the wick again, waited a little and then gave it a spin. It started to work but the speed was not as high as before and eventually it stopped. I removed the flaming bottle and started to feel the moving parts for indications of friction. I felt some unusual friction coming from the top piston. So, I partially disconnected the moving brackets and removed the top glass cylinder. I noticed traces of a faint substance on the walls. I used kitchen towel paper to remove those traces and wiped the inner walls clean. Then I installed two thin plastic washers at the point where the vertical and horizontal brackets connect to the flywheel. The first washer was between the moving brackets, the second between the vertical bracket and the flywheel.I started the engine again. It kept going for at least 15 minutes before I stopped it. This time I had no problems. Measurements of the voltage under no load (open circuit) showed values that started around 6.45V and eventually reached 7.00V after the engine warmed up. I connected (in series) two green 5mm LEDs to the DC motor that functions as a generator. The LEDs were not super bright. The motor's voltage was down to 4.25V.The top plate gets relatively hot to the touch after 15 minutes of operation. The flame is too close to the heat exchanger and that forces the entire engine to warm up pretty fast. Not an issue but it may be an issue for a child playing with this item.Overall a good buy if you can live with the issues I mentioned above.

The media could not be loaded. It arrives fully assembledand carefully packed. The machine work is beautiful. Works great. It's connected to a generator. You'll have to solder the led yourself. The joke is the alcohol flame is brighter than the led.It's fun to watch.

The media could not be loaded. I expected some assembly, but was ready right out of the package. Added some alcohol and it was off and running! The only complaint is the pulleys aren't aligned perfectly for the belt. It works, though. Surprising home much "load" the LED places on the generator. My kid loves it. He's learned a couple lessons from it..

The media could not be loaded. Update:The glass piece in the back (above the flame) broke. The replacement is larger than the original, significantly slowing down the motor. In addition there’s no rubber band seal replacement provided for this glass piece. Good thing I found a small round band in my tool box.Amazing gadget with simple assembly. The rubber band is sticky and cheap lasting a few trials before it snapped. It comes with spare glass and rubber bands. I used rubbing alcohol for the ignition fluid. It’s really cool to watch and toy with. Really heavy duty metal. I would have preferred to assemble it myself rather than having it ready made.

Very nice