The following is an easy to make Stirling engine that I built using a tomato paste can. It was made using the clear and simple instructions from Koichi Hirata's wonderful website. In fact if you're new to Stirling engines then that site is probably the best to start with.

Can stirling engine

The key point I found to get it working was to make sure there was a large enough temperature difference between the area of the balloon and the bottom of the can. I built and first tried it when it was relatively cool in my living room (air conditioner was on). It worked right away. I next played with it during the hot days during that north eastern North America 3-day power outage (no power, no air conditioner). It didn't work at all. There was not enough temperature difference between the area of the balloon and the bottom of the can. It also failed to work outside on a cool evening because the alcohol burner I'd put under it heated up more area than just the bottom of the can. So this is something to look for if it doesn't work right away.

Another "can" Stirling engine can be found at Bob Blick's website (includes a 10 second movie). Hank Kroll's is not based on Mr. Hirata's plans but does use a can. Some very cool (and hot :-)) ones are on the Idaho Stirling Engine Homepage.

This animated GIF of mine in action is short but may take a while to load (477K).

For a movie version of pretty much the same thing (except longer and with sound) click here (2.3Meg). You'll need QuickTime to view it. If you don't have QuickTime you can download it here.