The Craftmans Shop > New from Old
Puma / Dorman 6LE / MacFarlane B46B / 110 kVA Generator Resurrection
John Rudd:
Its pretty nasty stuff..., :scratch: Cyclohexane.....
We used that a lot at ICI......
I like the bit in Section3 ' Acrylate polymer......CAS Nbr.....trade secret...lol...
awemawson:
Significant progress today :thumbup:
Firstly I re-attached the exhaust / silencer assembly so that I could start the engine. Then, temporarily wiring a fuel solenoid switch and dabbing a wire to drive the starter solenoid I started the engine and let it run for a minute or so just to make sure all was well - it was, and no water leaks after introducing antifreeze.
Then I terminated both ends of the seven way cableform that I pulled through from the relay box to the control cabinet. Moving on to the current transformers I identified all their connections, replaced the eyelets at the transformer end as the originals were rather corroded, and wired them to the Gathering DIN rail terminals.
Then I made up cable forms for the voltage measuring side and current measuring side of the Meter Panel, wired them to the Gathering DIN rail terminals and installed said panel.
Moving my temporary fuel solenoid switch and 'dabbing wire' onto the Gathering terminals I then started the engine from within the control cabinet and was able to prove out the wiring for the phase to phase voltage measuring. and frequency meters - all seems to work OK :thumbup:
At this point I can't prove the current measuring side as I can't yet put a load on the generator.
I have yet to wire the oil pressure and engine over heat switch back to the relay box, and similarly the wiring for the charging alternator and ammeter need wiring back to the relay box. Wires for these functions already go from the relay box to the gathering DIN rail. Then of course the big step is then to wire in the Deep Sea Control to do away with my fuel solenoid switch and 'dabbing wire' !
In all quite a long day but a satisfying result.
JerryNotts:
John,
That's because we used to make it! (Cyclohexane).
Warning Potentially OFF TOPIC!
If you can stop yourself falling asleep in the process it's possible to see why the chemical industry objected strongly when the Commision were persuaded by the Swedish commissioner at the time to take on the regulation of chemicals. Bear in mind the size of the various national chemical industries across the EU at the time. Germany which also objected was/is the biggest.
A 37 page safety data sheet is pointless. It probably takes longer to read, look up all the references and understand than to realise that almost nobody has the facilities to implement the precautions. As Andrew could conceivably be ranked as a 'Professional' user, but certainly not an 'Industrial' user under current REACH Regulations he would have been provided with a current Safety Data Sheet at the time of receipt of the goods, at the latest. There are three types of users under REACH, the third being ' Consumer' i.e. the man in the street, under the old UK terminology.
You may wonder why it is important for Industrial and Professional users to read an SDS. The moment you realise this potential deficiency is when an accident occurs in which you are involved in any way: as soon as an HSE inspector asks to see the container of the product which will(?) carry the safety label. This will tell her/him that you should have an SDS thus you carried out a risk assessment and are working in the prescribed manner. All very well in theory but at what cost.
And to complete this lecture: it is possible to see that despite the manufacturers claims the document is actually a re-hash of a US MSDS ( Material Safety Data Sheet) The NJTS Reg No (New Jersey Toxic Substance Number) strictly should not be used but perhaps regulators working in the field have learnt to be tolerant of such things, even if they have seen it. There are also a Americanisms which help give the game away, including one of my personal pet hates 'odor'.
Sorry to be a bore, just re-living old habits.
Jerry :loco:
awemawson:
A day of contrasting highs and lows today.
I started off on a concentrated effort to pull all the cables through that interconnect the Alternator, it's Regulator, the Ammeter, the Over Temperature Switch, and the Oil Pressure Gauge. I'd not been looking forward to this as some cables have to start off in one conduit then swap to another to avoid joins - examples being the 10 mm csa heavy ammeter cables, and the bundles were pretty much on the limit of what you can pull through the flexible conduit, and especially the reduced diameter of their terminations.
All went reasonably well - I decided to wire the CAV 440 regulator on it's 'Low' setting for the moment - apparently this sets the regulated voltage to the low end of the spectrum.
Now in the final implementation the 'W/L' (warning light) connection is sourced from the Deep Sea Control, but for testing I wired in a bulb. This is supposed to be about 2.5 watts at 24 volts, and the only low wattage 24 volt bulbs that I had to hand were telecoms 'wedge bulbs' drawing all of 20 mA - but I tried it anyway. The W/L input is intended to give an initial current flow through the field winding to start the alternator generating, and when it does the light goes off as now both ends are at the same voltage.
So - the moment of truth - start the engine having noted what the battery voltage was to begin with and watch what happens. Initially nothing - the light stayed on, the battery voltage was unchanged, and nothing showing on the ammeter. Then after perhaps 45 seconds the light went out, the battery volts started to rise, and the ammeter showed a ten amp charging rate. Every subsequent starting has resulted in normal charging activity.
My conclusion is that the alternator rotor had little residual magnetism, as I've dismantled it and anyway it's sat unused for many years on the auto-electricians shelf as the bearings were bad. The 20 mA was not really enough, but gradually the alternator 'bootstrapped' itself - I've no doubt that the correct 2.5 watt bulb, which would be drawing about 100 mA would have got it going pretty well instantly.
So, on a high I decided to wire in the Deep Sea Controller. Firstly I wired up a cable form to make connection easier, fixed the panel in, and found that I'd made the cable form about 12" too short to lay nicely in the trunking :bang: I decided to connect it up anyway 'as the crow flies' fashion just to prove that it worked, and then I made a BIG mistake. Friends arrived and rather than downing tools, I rushed to finish the connections and must have got something wrong :bang:
Connecting the battery the starter solenoid instantly pulled in, then the display went blank - no life - a dead controller :bugeye:
Now I have subsequently powered it up on the bench, and it is starting up normally, but it's 'switch outputs' are sitting at 8 volts (it runs off 24) so something is sick. I will investigate further, but also I've sourced a replacement - at least if the original heals itself I'll have a spare :thumbup:
John Rudd:
Jeeez...! Where did you dig up that old Fluke dvm from? :lol:
Shame about the controller going south... :zap: :bang:
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