Gallery

Bob Verhaeghe, Merritt, NC gramngramps@cconnect.net

03/03/03 The Fan is complete.

"The Super Stirling Fan Engine was made from Jerry Howell's drawings. The engine has a .600" dia. bore with a 1.00" stroke. The fan is 9.00" dia. His detailed drawings were easy to follow and the parts all fit at assemebly. Date started was 01/09/03 and date finished was 03/03/03, and this was without rushing and was truly a fun project.

The finished engine was set-up and the lamp was lit. After about a minute the blades were given a gentle push and the engine started to run. Testing shows 500 RPM with a flame about 5/16" high and produces a nice

soft breeze. I intend to use this fan on our boat this summer while sailing on the Sounds of North Carolina. (My wife thinks it's one cool fan)

Now the big problem is what will be the next project?

Bob Verhaeghe

Work In progress Pictures and text for this engine.

1/9/2003 This is my project for the new year. The engine is the Jerry Howell design for a Stirling Cycle Fan Engine. I got the drawing last summer when I paid Jerry a visit. I have been collecting the materials needed and now the time is right to start building. In the future I will add some pictures of the set-ups I used for the machining of a few of the details that could be of interest to fellow builders.

2/15/2003 " I did IT !! Making the curve on the fan blades as per the dwg's. had me wondering how to make them all the same. Turned out to be quite simple. I made a simple wood form and then pressed the fan blade blanks into it using a piece of PVC tubing as a punch. The mill vise was the press. The curve came out a little smaller than dwg's. but is OK anyway. All four blades are the same. The finished fan now looks good and will soon be pushing cool air this summer. Now all that needs to be done is to make the "hot cap" !! and a few assembly adjustments. "

2/19/2003

I was determined to engrave the engine base as Jerry Howell had done on his engine. Not having a dividing head or rotary table for my mill, I had to figure out a different way to accomplish the job. A wooden fixture (see attached pictures) was made to hold the base assembly in the mill vise while rotating the part, by hand, under a 3/32 dia. ball nose cutter. Two passes at .015 deep each with a .005 finish cut made a nice groove for the red paint. The wood stop was used to index the end of the cut for each section. --- After cutting the O.D. of the base, the fixture was clamped flat on the mill table to cut the grooves on the top face. I'm very pleased with the results but thinking seriously about getting a rotary table for future works.

3/3/2003 Making the "Fan Hub"

" The slots had to be at a 30 deg's. pitch angle and 90 deg's, from each other. Once again without a dividing head, how was this going to be done? The hub started out as a lathe turning and still had a stub attached. The 30 deg's was simple but the 90 deg's was another thing until I thought of cutting a square on that stub end. Milling equal flats on the stub and using the solid jaw of the vise to make sure of being square solved that problem. Now all that had to done was to lean the part against 30 deg. angle stop and saw the four slots across the hub using the square stub to index the slots at 90 deg's. Voila, the hub was nearly done, all that was now needed to be completed was part-off the stub and round off the nose in the lathe.

Another part that had to be made was the "Power Rod End". This is a small part that was easy for me to make on my trusty old die filer. First, was to lay-out the part on a blank piece of stock. The hole for the ball bearing was bored out , then the part filed down to the lay-out lines. It was then drilled out for the 1/16 dia. rod before cutting off the part from the remaining stock that helped me in holding the part while filing."