Incredillion, how deep a discharge do you routinely shoot for?

I read an article a few years ago which favored deep discharge from an economic strategy and kind of changed my thinking about lead acid batts.

I used to live off and on for 10 years on a houseboat I built and had batts and inverters. Never could afford a system like you have now (still can't) but even on a smaller scale, the economic efficiency is a consideration for a periodic charge system.

Thanks deeiche we do the best we can, and certainly I cleaned my lathe tools, but mice are a fact of life around here -- hay fields and 67 acres of woods breeds millions. We set traps, but it is more temporary control than total elimination.

Something will get me in the end, anyway. I'm too old by now to die young.

xyzer -- Thanks, good point. I do have a quart coolant recovery bottle above the top of the radiator cap. It isn't shown in the photos because they were taken a couple years ago while I was still putting it all together.

Definitely will be adding hardware cloth to the gen head opening on the bottom below the pulley where it wasn't screened. Didn't notice that one.

More photos in case they are useful to somebody.



Turning adapters to go from engine's heater hose to larger diameter automotive radiator hose -- 1-1/4" pipe nipples chucked and turned.



Finished pipe nipples from 3/4" and 1-1/4" pipe. Automotive radiator hose for size comparison.



Assembled adapters using 3/4" to 1-1/4" pipe reducers.

Thanks Dieselgman, and 38ac. Dog food seizure! that's funny   Better than the real kind I guess, so a happy ending.

The worst part about the mice and metal is the corrosion they cause. They built a nest in a drawer with my lathe chucks and other accessories when I hadn't used the lathe for a couple months. The 4 jaw chuck, angle blocks, 123 blocks, Jacobs chucks and a bunch of other stuff were covered in used mouse bedding, and everything rusted and corroded where they were.

They also chewed the spigot off of two plastic gasoline cans in the barn last winter, and chewed up the plastic pistol grip on the garden hose. They seem to like some kinds of plastic. They love to make swiss cheese out of a nicely folded tarp, and they build nests in the air cleaners of our cars -- even though we use them regularly.

They get inside the instrument panel of my '51 John Deere Model M tractor if it sits a week anywhere, once ate the insulation off the ignition switch wires, and have been known to jump out of the cast iron panel and run across my lap when I start it. Gotta remember to stay calm when that happens and not pop the clutch and abandon ship! I'm not afraid of mice, but it's startling when you don't expect it and pull the starter knob and something furry comes out of the engine right at you. Little boogers!

Back to cooling. I figured the angled radiator would move both the air and the hot water by siphoning and convection. While making it vertical or horizontal would only do one or the other.It seems to work well -- at least for wintercooling/heating. It isn't clear in the picture probably, but the radiator also angles in it's own plane so that the radiator cap is at the highest point. And i have a coolant recovery bottle that you don't see in the photos.

I also insulated the upward going hot water hose from the engine to the radiator, but left the return uninsulated. The photo of the engine above shows the pipe fitting thermostat on the right, but the hose connections hadn't been made yet. The spots on the paint were from a little concrete water when I poured the retaining wall in front of the engine (spots cleaned off later) that holds the gravel and railroad ties the engine bearer is bolted to. All of that stuff is on top of a horse stable pad, and that in turn is on top of a concrete slab. Maybe that is confusing. It goes like this: Concrete slab, horse pad, sand gravel mix. And embedded in the gravel are railroad ties.

Incredillion, were those used or new units?

Great to see the pictures of the engine stripping process.

It also brought back a very early memory -- I was 6 at the time -- my mother and father boiled some wooden house shutters in a barrel with lye and water in it to remove the paint. And yes it was a wood fire underneath. They made me stay at a distance and explained what lye could do.  Just funny to think that it was a more common practice back then by everyday people, before canned paint strippers were available. I remember the lye can with a big red skull and crossbones on it. I definitely kept my distance.

Anyway, interesting to see it isn't ancient history to do this at home.

And a further update. After a couple years, no leaks. JB Weld works fine for this application. Thermostat still working great, and auto-siphoning to an automotive radiator with no water pump.

Thanks, I do already understand how a mechanical governor works. Utterpower says I can do better than 5hz via mods, so I plan to try.

In other news, I've ordered my 4PDT "100A" switch (really rated 25A per contact). I'll let the forum know how it looks when it gets here.