Home-built Yoke-Drive Stirling Engine

I built this engine 30 years ago in the Philippines, my first working Stirling engine, and I just received it from long-term storage a week or so ago. I did some minor repairs on it and it's been fun to see it run again after all this time! I built the yoke mechanism long before I'd ever heard of Andy Ross or his patented Ross yoke mechanism. I found the idea in an old book on mechanisms and devices. It was used back then as a steam engine valve actuator. Note the very small vertical movement of the piston arms although it has a 2.25" stroke.

Things to note aside from the yoke mechanism: it uses a stack of stainless steel mesh disks instead of a displacer piston (so it is a regenerative displacer like in the old Robinson engine of 1895), cooling is by a motorcycle inner tube piece stretched over two large rubber seals on the cylinder, the power piston is from a 2" diameter foot-type bicycle pump, its cylinder is a two inch steel pipe capped and honed, the working cylinder is a SS tube with welded cap and mounting bracket, the steel flywheel was cast at a local Filipino foundry, the crank is 3/4" SS, and the frame is all wood.

This engine is not very powerful - the working volume is too small, there are air leaks at the displacer seal, it has quite a lot of friction, and it requires a LOT of heat, but I'm hopeful of upgrading it eventually, applying what I've learned over the past 30 years, and making it a useful engine.

Oh, and Happy New Year to all of my subscribers!

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