diy aquaponics australia | Stirling Engines My first Stirling engine build

diy aquaponics australia

In spite of my video camera running out of battery during filming, I managed to get the first (and only) moments of my first Stirling engine running.

Tis a funny kind of beast running so slowly and deliberately.

I officially like Stirling engines. Mine looked like this...

It ran for a total of about a minute before the displacer fell to bits. It was sealed airtight, and as it got hot it just popped. It turns out there isnt really any need to make it air tight.

I think.

My displacer started life as a soft drink can.

I marked out a straight line to cut it down to size.

I took a guess as to what size it should be.

I scratched a series of arcs with a bent piece of sharp wire, each at different points, to find the centre, then punctured it with a drawing pin. 

I marked out another can, but this time much shorter.

Then squashed the big one over the little one after turning the little one upside down.

This gave me a sealed can again.

I glued it with super glue.

The gluing was what killed my brand new Stirling  engine after only 60 seconds. As the heat increased, so did the pressure inside the sealed displacer, and eventually it popped open.

I poked a straight length of fencing wire through both holes, then bent and super glued one end to stop it slipping through.

My wire originally had a slight loop at the other end, but I had to cut it off to remake the thing after I glued myself to it.

Dont do that.

And if you want to be really scared, use super glue, then adjust the dials and buttons on your new camera with the same fingers.

Anyway, the main thing is stick some wire through the displacer.

Next I took a tin can and smacked a hole in it with my familys trusty meat mallet.

This meat mallet used to be my mothers (it probably still is), and was used as the household hammer for as long as I can remember.

Here we see the entire family history of hammering.

Actually thats half the family history of hammering. The other half is of course, on the other side.







So then, I took the length of wire sticking out of the displacer (soft drink can thing), and threaded it through the bottom of the tin can.











Like this.

Its a bit difficult to see, but thats the soft drink can displacer thinggy under the tin can.









Next, I took another tin can and drilled a big hole in the side.










And sanded down a small plastic bottle so that its contour matched the tin cans.










Then cut a really big hole in the side of the small plastic bottle.

Something like a pill bottle would work.

All this, so I could glue the small plastic bottle on the side of the tin can with a big hole in the side. 

Next, I stretched a balloon over the entire little plastic bottle, and pulled the slack so that it was tight everywhere but the top.

I also glued a length of wire to the centre of the slack bit.

This, believe it or not, is something called a "power piston".

Ill explain what all this stuff does later.


Next I bent a crank shaft, and some mounting points for the wires coming from the displacer (through the bottom of the tin can), and the wire glued to the balloon (power piston)

The crankshaft has one offset bit (offset by around 8mm) to attach the displacers wire, and another to attach the power piston wire to.

The two offset, (bent out) bits, are at 90 degrees to each other.

So from the left...

straight, then down, then straight, then back up to the original.

That makes the first cranky bit.

Then continuing straight, then back, then straight, then forward back to the original plane.

That makes the next cranky bit.

If you look at the crankshaft end on, if one crank was at 12 oclock, the other would be at 3 oclock (or 9)

I found this almost impossible to get on camera (or to explain), but it looks like this.

Its probably best seen on the video.

The crankshaft is lightly held in place with two inverted U shaped bits of wire taped to the sides. (just visible near the top, left rim of the device)

I stuck a cardboard disk about the size of a CD onto the end of the shaft to act as a flywheel, and then added nuts and bolts with blu-tac until the thing was balanced.

To get them in the right spot, I put the disk in a random place, and if it rolled back to a different position, Id stick on a weight so it wouldnt.

I should have been able to do this with just one weight of the correct size, but for some reason it was beyond me.

So...

• The displacer is the soft drink can thing inside the bottom can. 
• The bottom can is sealed ([buy - EDIT  - note from the future-  Who makes errors like this?] by the top tin can) except for the small hole in its top that has the displacers wire poking through.
• The displacer travels up and down inside the bottom tin can with a total travel of around 1cm.
• The displacer gets very close to the top and bottom of its tin can container, but never actually touches.
• The displacers wire is connected to the crankshaft (between pink beads)
• The power piston (pink balloon) is floopy, and connects to the crankshaft 90 degrees offset from the displacers crank.
• The top tin can is there to hold up all the other kit, and as the top seal for the chamber holding the displacer (soft drink can thing)
• When the air inside the bottom tin can heats up it expands, forcing the power piston up. This turns the crank and gives the device its power.
• As the device rotates, and the displacer moves down, forcing the air up and away from the heat, so it cools and contracts. 
• When it contracts, the power piston is sucked down.

Thats pretty much it. Repeat as desired, or until something breaks. 

Some light oil can be added to any surfaces that have friction. (where the displacer wire moves up and down into the bottom tin is a high friction area)

==============>>> IMPORTANT!!! Note from the future - It turns out you probably shouldnt add oil to the point where the wire slides through the can. Theres a chance of explosion as the oil is heated to a gas. <<<================

120 things in 20 years - I made a Stirling engine!

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diy aquaponics garden | D His first posts to a blog

diy aquaponics garden

Im so proud of him he did an awesome job of testing and posting the results....:)

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diy aquaponics system australia | Balcony garden Makeover

diy aquaponics system australia

Balcony Garden Makeover
Its that time of year! spring is in the air and time to get the balcony pots ready for my summer veggies.

this is my 4th growing season so I wanted to get the soil back to a good quality state to make sure I get the most production.
First I  took all the mulch from the top and placed in bag for latter use, then emptied all the pots into a pile and spread over floor, I sorted threw and got rid of all the roots and plant matter.

I then added 2 new bags of good potting mix, 2 buckets of soil mixed with chicken manure from my chooks when they were here, soil from my warm farm, I added a bag of Blood and Bone, some slow release fertilizer pellets and wetting agent, then gave it all a really good mix before refilling all the containers

Replaced my drip irrigation system connected to my 100ltr barrel which makes daily watering easier and waste less and gets the water where its needed down in the roots.

I will replace the Wood chip mulch once the seeds have made their way threw.

Again one of my problems is trying to grow everything and over planting so this year I was a lot more selective and went with what I use the most and best yields, so i duplicated each pot with 1 Cherry tomato, 1 Basil, 1 Bell pepper and 2 x coriander in each pot, I will keep the bell pepper and Basil pruned to a controllable size as they grow.

I also had one pot with Zucchini and 1 pot with my blackberry bush, 2 small containers were used for 1 full of marigolds for pest control and 1 with spring onions and radishes and 2 buckets i planted with Lavendar.

Now i ready for a bumper harvest in the summer just add water!

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diy aquaponics blueprints | First Eggs

diy aquaponics blueprints

Just when I had given up on ever getting an egg my hen lays 2.
she had been acting weird last couple of days and making a lot more noise than usual, I thought she was just missing the other hen, guess it was getting that egg out the system for first time.
dropped them in the pan for some fried egg on toast, tasted great bit on the small side but very nice, well done Chook.

Regular Chook egg and a Silkie Egg Ready to eat.

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diy aquarium aquaponics system | Stirling engines My first Stirling engine

diy aquarium aquaponics system

Sometimes I struggle a bit with certain aspects of construction, but in this case I wasnt even certain of what I was attempting to construct.

Most of the problems trend around a certain frantic waste of pace and failure to pay attention to detail.

This time was no different.

A Stirling engines basic list of components include a cylinder, a displacer, and a crankshaft.

They also include a hot bit, and a cold bit.

Its the difference between the hot bit and the cold bit that makes a Stirling engine an engine.

Theres also another really important bit, called the power piston. The power piston is connected to the same crank shaft, but on another crank. This crank is offset from the displacers crank by 90 degrees.

Im not really sure how it does what it does, but this is my first attempt at making a Stirling engine.

The power piston is the bit thats missing, because I didnt get that far.


Some of the other missing bits include the rest of the components that make up a Stirling engine.



120 Things in 20 years - On a scale of one to ten, where one is a total fail, and ten is a total success, I wouldnt bother rating my first attempt at making a Stirling engine.

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diy aquaponics controller | Credit Card Multi tool

diy aquaponics controller

I see this on ebay Credit Card Multi tool 11 in 1 and priced at under $2 with free postage I couldnt resist getting one.
Amazingly it came from China well packaged in about 1 week and is actually really kind cool!
It will make a handy addition to my BOB (bug out bag)
although it says 11 in 1 that is kind of stretching it! and the instruction card is in Chinese so hard to make out what all of them are for, but as follows
1. Can Opener
2. Knife / plane
3. Screw Driver
4. Ruler
5. Bottle Opener
6. hexagon wrench 4 sizes
7. No Idea?
8. Saw
9. No Idea ( some kind of direction indicator)
10. small hexagon wrench 2 sizes
11. key Chain Hole ? how that makes a tool not sure!

but as you can see its very small compact stainless steel tool with leather pouch and all for $2
worth it just to have in car at home or in bag
take a look at it on ebay click here! Credit Card Multi tool 11 in 1

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cheap diy aquaponics system | My First Balcony Garden

cheap diy aquaponics system

I Moved to Australia in late 2007, Once I got my apartment I started my small balcony garden.
I had no prior gardening skills or experience and blindly went about creating my growing pots. In hind sight I think the biggest mistakes I made was trying to grow too much too soon. But they say the best way to learn is by your mistakes.

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