Generator re- power

[coal miner]

Moved this project to the proper part of the index , I hope . Was given a 2200 watt Sears gen that had the engine trashed . Had a HF 6.5hp engine setting around as a spare for what ever , couldn't pass up the price . So thought I'd see about mating the two . Finally got to do some work on it. The end play on the gen was controlled by a taper fit on the crankshaft so made a bearing cartridge and new shaft . Two bearings on the motor end and lock collars on the outside bearing . It is held by a shoulder in the cartridge and cover plate . Am using a Lovejoy coupling and have to build a stand .Will put wheels on one end so it can be moved easier . The old gen has copper windings and weighs twice as much as the motor .





set up on the welding table to see how it would look .





Sure glad I didn't need this because of the storm we had. 50 miles south it got worse , friends we had down around Paducah got 2" of ice !!

[coal miner]

Finished up the gen . project . Adjusted the rpms to 3600 and it holds120v +or- 1v . Plugged in the chop saw 15amp. draw , the engine didn't even slow down .





Now the next thing is to strip down the bar stool racer to get it ready for the SIL to paint

[Russ Hanscom]

Nice, both projects.

[steamin10]

Nice save on the genset, It looks a little clunky, but now is a universal.

I always wanted to toy with a little racer. Nicely dine, is it feelance or to some drawings and spec for a club, etc?

[coal miner]

Russ thanks for the compliment .
Steaming10 , Yea , it is clunky looking , no factory package . Adding the bearing cartridge and coupling made it lose its compactness , but only have money in bearings and couplings plus time . the engine was a spare I bought some time ago and who counts time when you're retired . Keeps me out of Mommas hair . I get restless , she says " go to shop and make something " .Good women !
The bar stool racer was produced from some basic plans with mods . Lengthened the frame 4" , shortened the stool 6 ", different mounting of the engine .There is a forum on the building of these little toys . Some of the guys are really hard core and sink lotsa $$ in them and come up w/ some cool designs . Had the spare tubing from a smoker project in the way so put it to use . A fun project ! It will pull the front wheels off the ground and run almost 40 mph , But NOT with this ole man on board ! ! Thanks for the kudos .

[Gerald C]

Coal Miner, here is an other tip for you. set your no load engine speed at 3650 to 3700 rpm . this will let the gov droop so when at full load you should be at 59 cycles. your engine gov is probley only 10% regulated. so if you set it at 3600 (60cycles). then when loaded you would be way low in cycles and your saws motors etc. would be running way to slow. reg light s you can't see but fluorescent would start to ficker!

Gerald C

[coal miner]

Gerald C , maybe I don't have a clue here . What I did to set the rpms was to check voltage w/ a multimeter and adjust the rpms until it reached 120v on the money . Should I buy , borrow a tach and use it to adjust my rpms ? Had an instantaneous 2 1/2 -3 v drop at the time I turned the saw on, but it came back up to 120v in heartbeat. Had to watch the meter very closely to see the drop . Good Fluke digital meter. No actual tach setting , am I doing something wrong here, in my assumption that 120v equaled 3600 rpm . Did some research on your earlier comment to this project and decided to see it thru . Also w/ the rpms up to 3700 won't that make the the voltage higher , probably around 125v{ a guess} . I do know most line voltage from the power company will vary , so this should not be a problem .Thanks for the tips and appreciate the advice .

[Gerald C]

Coal Miner , most gens. will get to 120v before they are at true 60cycles, If your fluke is like mine it has a freq. meter builted into it, outher wise go to raido shack and see if they have a cheep freq. mt. some times a tac. is more than a freq. meter. depending on the type of voltage regulation a gen could be at 60 cycles any where from 110v to 125v that is where the old saying I got 110 or 220 volts where true power coming to your house is 120 or 240 volts!
PS I was born in a coal town, my grand dad and dad both retired as coal miners.
Gerald C

[coal miner]

Gerald C , will get a freq meter and possibly an optical tach that I can use on the mill and the lathe . The 14" x 40" has the rpms all set out w / the feeds etc. ,same w/ the mill so no problem them , but I also have an old Craftsman 12" x 36" that it would come handy for. Also I'm tool junky , can't have enough of them .
Coal mining has been good to me and my family .My grand dad started the coal mine my dad worked there for 33 yrs and I retired from there after 42 yrs . It was a surface mine aka strip mine , the company was putting the reclaimed areas back in to production back in the 50's . It was a good place to work .
As I said " missing something here" . It's nice to come here and get professional advice from the people on this board . A good bunch of people . Thanks again ! I'll get the equip. and let you know what I found out .

[Walt Lindsay]

I golly Coal Miner you really do neat work ! ! ! !


Walt

[steamin10]

You have probably already figured out, that all you will get is a ball park figure. Since low volts and low cycles will cause motor heating, it is better to 'overspeed' alittle to allow for starting sag. Runnig sag, when you load up, is the real killer though, and should be gaurded against. I used to build Yard Barns, in the summer, with a 5000 Watt generator on the van. It was nice not to have to reset the House breakers that would blow all the time from the air compressor, and saw.

The Idle down feature was broken, coil burnt up. and I never fixed it until the gen threw a rod. sold it to a motor shop for 175, and they rehabbed the motor and got gold for the rather dicey looking unit. It was paint ugly when I got it.