[TheForge] Re: Generators

[Mike Spencer]

Phlip> The thing runs fine, but it generates no electricity- the story
Phlip> we have is because there is something wrong with the electric
Phlip> field- it needs to be "reflashed" or "reflushed" or something.

I have a little 1500 watt, Korean War-vintage surplus generator that I
took apart and left in a basket for ten years until I happened to find
a new valve for the Clinton engine .  Put together, it ran fine but
wouldn't generate.

At my local motor shop, a couple of guys came out to look at it on the
tailgate.  One of them pulled off the end cover, hooked up a 9V
battery to two places near the brushes, started the engine and yanked
the battery off real quick.  Thing began to generate power.  They told
me that the permanent magnet had lost its oompf and the trickle of 9V
DC was enough to prime the magnetic field.  After running under load
for a bit, it would start up on its own again.

After sitting unused for a few months, though, it once again had to be
booted with a battery.

Regrettably, I can't tell you how to identify where to connect the
battery (assuming yours has the same problem as mine.)  I just know
which 2 screw heads on mine work.

qr> take an old fashioned electric drill, no vari-speed, and plug it
qr> into the outlet with the generator running and the breaker turned
qr> on.  hold the drill trigger on and turn the drill chuck backwards.
qr> This will generate enough power to energize the field without
qr> opening the generator and having to find positive and negative,
qr> etc.

Now there's a trick I'll have to try next time I want to run the
little generator and it calls in sick.


It's possible to remagnetize the permanent magnet but my local motor
guys don't have the right gear.  I've recently been trying to figure
out how to do that for a couple of magnetos I have.  Seems like I need
some whopping big capacitors so as to deliver 50,000 ampere-turns for
a very brief moment.  I have a bunch of capicitors totalling about
100,000 micro-fd but they're only rated for 15 to 40 volts.  What
would I look in to find a bunch of 150V or 300V 30,000 mfd capacitors?



- Mike

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
                                                           /V\ 
mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^

--