I fired up the generator for the new shop this past weekend. Whew, that one had me worried! Even though it only had 307 hours on it, it had sat out in the open at either my farm or the Generator Service Company for over 2 years after it was removed from it's original installation, and it's been stored in my shop for another year.
Some gremlins cropped up that had to be isolated and addressed. Namely a frozen alternator (corrosion between the rotor and stator - that cost me a couple of fan belts :thumbs_do), and a myriad of electrical gremlins in the 24VDC operating system (primarily corrosion related - no surprise since the generator came from Myrtle Beach). The new radiator that I assembled works fine, and no oil or antifreeze leaks have been observed. I had to replace a burned out resistor on the alarm board (many thanks to Don Patterson who advised me of an acceptable replacement and then located one for me).
And does it pull some air... even with three windows open it will jerk the shop door right out of your hand if you open it while running. I need to build a large roof portal in the generator room for fresh air for it.
I still have a couple of electical issues; probably related to a bad sender on the oil pressure switch (I plumbed in an additional mechanical guage just to be sure that I had good pressure). If thats not it, I'll need to trace down the circuit that provides power to the governor, and that should be the last "gremlin". Also need to complete installing the rubber gasket between the radiator and the external wall, and build a door to cover up the opening when it's not running, and also to put some sound deadening board on the interior surfaces of the door to the generator room.
The Cummins "Big Cam 400" starts right up, purrs like a kitten, with no visible smoke coming out of the exhaust.
Two hundred and twenty five thousand watts of power and 480 volts! Yee haw! :icon_cheers
Thanks to some help from North Carolina Woodworker member Doug Wilberg, I also got the big dust collection system blower set in place a couple of weeks ago. I need to fabricate a mount for the electric motor; I can't wait to spin that thing up once the generator is completed.
NCTurner and Doug came out a couple of weekends back and helped me to layout the dust collection system in the back pasture. Now I need to start cutting and welding on the parts to get them to fit together. Fortunately it looks like I have just about everything that I need for the ducting on it though.
Here is a photo of the generator. I could not fit the entire thing into the camera lens... To put things into perspective, it is 6' from the floor to the top of the radiator (on the left side of the photo).
Some gremlins cropped up that had to be isolated and addressed. Namely a frozen alternator (corrosion between the rotor and stator - that cost me a couple of fan belts :thumbs_do), and a myriad of electrical gremlins in the 24VDC operating system (primarily corrosion related - no surprise since the generator came from Myrtle Beach). The new radiator that I assembled works fine, and no oil or antifreeze leaks have been observed. I had to replace a burned out resistor on the alarm board (many thanks to Don Patterson who advised me of an acceptable replacement and then located one for me).
And does it pull some air... even with three windows open it will jerk the shop door right out of your hand if you open it while running. I need to build a large roof portal in the generator room for fresh air for it.
I still have a couple of electical issues; probably related to a bad sender on the oil pressure switch (I plumbed in an additional mechanical guage just to be sure that I had good pressure). If thats not it, I'll need to trace down the circuit that provides power to the governor, and that should be the last "gremlin". Also need to complete installing the rubber gasket between the radiator and the external wall, and build a door to cover up the opening when it's not running, and also to put some sound deadening board on the interior surfaces of the door to the generator room.
The Cummins "Big Cam 400" starts right up, purrs like a kitten, with no visible smoke coming out of the exhaust.
Two hundred and twenty five thousand watts of power and 480 volts! Yee haw! :icon_cheers
Thanks to some help from North Carolina Woodworker member Doug Wilberg, I also got the big dust collection system blower set in place a couple of weeks ago. I need to fabricate a mount for the electric motor; I can't wait to spin that thing up once the generator is completed.
NCTurner and Doug came out a couple of weekends back and helped me to layout the dust collection system in the back pasture. Now I need to start cutting and welding on the parts to get them to fit together. Fortunately it looks like I have just about everything that I need for the ducting on it though.
Here is a photo of the generator. I could not fit the entire thing into the camera lens... To put things into perspective, it is 6' from the floor to the top of the radiator (on the left side of the photo).
Last edited:
.
