Gunner wrote:

A thread came up a day or three ago, about building some sort of motor
to run a small generator or a belt to supply power to :stuff: in
either remote locations or in the event of a long term power failure.

A serious question to the group....in your individual opinions, does
anyone have any suggestions for a simply made from common materials,
with minimal machining, steam engine?

Boilers are another issue of course..and suggestions on that would be
nice as well.


Another way to go is a Stirling engine. I have been researching this
lately. It seems if you use helium or hydrogen under pressure as the
working fluid, it produces a LOT of power from a small engine.
There are a bunch of different designs around, and some of them
could be made from lawnmower-size engines as the basic frame.
A 90 degree V-twin would make a VERY easy conversion for
one of the Stirling designs. It is almost guaranteed that you
would get more HP out of the same heat input than with a steam
system. One of the things that got me off the steam 'train'
was the feedwater pump. Obviously, not needed for the Stirling.

I have been thinking about making a solar-powered Stirling engine,
in the several Hp class.

Jon