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  1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 
Sterling Engine kit January 29, 2013
Reviewer: Samir Kashou from Porter, TX United States  
I bought this kit and assembled it during Christmas. Initially It didnt work. I found out that the piston rod disconnected from the little platsic cylinder that connected to the piston body. I guess the glue didnt hold. so I used expoxy glue and glued the little piece back. Then the steel wool displacer was not performing correctly and so I had to make another one. Initially I used rubbing alcohol for fuel and that didnt work very well. Finally I bought 95% alcohol designed for heating small lanterns. THat did the trick. The flame was much hotter. I had to do some tweeks of the four screws that held the piston assembly to get the engine to run smoothly. I put a video on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lp8u1VKJ_oc

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  0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 
Not working January 21, 2013
Reviewer: Karstyn from San Carlos, CA United States  
I'm actually very surprised there is not a user forum for MakerShed kits.

I say it's not working but I'm open the fact I may be missing something, although I have tried to very meticulous on following the directions. The alignment is off and the engine will not run even by the battery. There seems to be a lot of tension when  the to main gears have there studs that the top/bottom of the rotation, and I can't find a way to prevent it. I also had to add a couple of extra washers behind Connecting Rods to push them out father so the Displacer Rod would align with the holes and not add any resistance.

Any one get this working that can offer some advice - I would greatly appreciate it!

Also odd that there does not seem to be a way to read other reviews!

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  1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 
Fun and Engaging January 1, 2013
Reviewer: Adam from San Dimas, CA United States  
My 16-year-old put this together in 3 hours.  It runs perfectly.  Remember that when adjusting the cylinder height to align the piston while on battery power you need to have the glass off.  Once you put the glass on, the battery pack is not powerful enough to move the piston against the compressed air/vacuum.  (This is a feature, not a bug.  The engine runs partially on vacuum. You don't want a wimpy vacuum.)  Once you have it aligned and running well on battery power with the glass off, it'll run twice as well on the alcohol flame.

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  2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
 
Cool Kit but HORRIBLE Cust Serv from Makershed! October 15, 2011
Reviewer: Joseph S from St. Paul MN United States  
Cool kit but questionable quality and extremely POOR cust serv response from MakerShed.
After much tweaking and consulting with the 'troubleshooting' section of the manual and the online site we still couldn't get the unit to function on its own.  Exchanges w/ Maker Shed 'experts' via email was disappointing but suggested that it wasn’t operator error. However that is not where my disappointments ended.

The response from the Maker Sheds customer support dept was absolutely horrible!  Multiple emails and a few phone calls just to get a response from them concerning troubleshooting help.  Throughout the process of returning the $150 kit for a refund they have been just as UNresponsive as they were in the troubleshooting process.  It's been over two seeks since I shipped the kit back for a refund- multiple emails to check/confirm the return and I'm still awaiting a response.

Would I order the kit again?  No.
Would I order from the MakerShed again?  No.  (unless cost was under $10)

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  0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 
the glass cylinder January 26, 2011
Reviewer: Quentin Beaujean from Vielle-Saint-Girons, Aquitaine France  
Hello !

   I bought your product on your website  3 months ago, it worked very well until i broke the glass cylinder.
    I accidentally cool it too quickly ...
   So i'm trying to find an other glass cylinder on the web but in vain .
   So can you tell me how i could replace the glass cylinder ?
   I'm making a study in a french ingeneering school to use the stirling engine as a converter from the solar energy to the mecanical one's.

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  3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
 
Great Value and runs great. September 22, 2009
Reviewer: Kamron Kirkconnell from Houston, TX United States  
This kit requires that you carefully follow the instructions.

They tell you every detail. It takes careful construction and the Japanese text didn't help me but the pictures tell you everything you need to do.

You will not be disappointed in the quality of the parts and how well everything fits together. It gives you instructions on replacement parts and supplies an extra glass cylinder and baffle wool.

I highly recommend this kit.



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  21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
 
Stirling Engine Kit January 8, 2009
Reviewer: bruce rowe from California  
I saw this and immediately WANTED it. I couldn't justify spending the money on myself. So I bought it for my son. He is 19 years old and is very mechanical. Christmas morning, he opened it. 8 hours later, he had it running.

The kit has nice components. The instructions are complete (24 pages in Japanese). And, there are a whole bunch of tiny details to get lost in. The cylinder mount and the gears need to be carefully aligned. This is one of the trickier parts. If you have it misaligned, there will be too much friction for the engine to run. A gauge is supplied to make this step easier.

This is for anyone who likes mechanical things. Being able to actually light it off and see it run captivates people.

On the downside, this is not an easy kit. They are not kidding when they say it is for adults. You need to look at the pictures very carefully. Take your time putting it together.

It's a lovely thing when you are done.


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