Normal people think I'm weird, but who cares.  That being said, the outside of a brake drum looks a lot like a flat belt pulley to me.  Some micro v grooves could be cut into the surface pretty easy in my mind  !

Guards sound like a good idea to me.  I had a few dizzy spells last week from a new medication.  This has never happenned to me before and has gone away now.  As I get older this type of thing could get worse and guards could turn out to be cheap insurance.  I will probably make some sturdy guards that can be lifted off easily at some point in the future.  My cay seems smart on many levels but he is the one that caused the saying "curiosity killed the cat".  He investigates everything very close up and thoroughly and got trapped inside a swamp cooler last year because he stood on top of the squirrel cage blower and it rolled him down inside.  He was like a hamster on a exercise wheel when he tried to climb back out.  He couldn't run fast enough to get back over the top, maybe because there wasn't enough room for his legs to get a full stroke.  Just luck that I found him and got him out.  I wouldn't have thought of that cooler as a hazard until then  .  It's been stored there for a few years and now I've turned it so the blower opening is against the wall.  Odd things happen sometimes!  I will try to keep him out of the generator shed just to be safer but I don't think you can worry about every potential hazard in life.  Everybody has to decide what level of risk to live with and the universe seemed pretty forgiving--- until Fukashima  !

Hey Mike, if your cooling tank has a threaded bung in the top you could connect it to the bottom of a radiator and the steam could condense in the radiator and drip back into the boiling tank.  Maybe have a drip hose, or better yet a long 3/4" copper pipe on the top fitting of the car radiator to make sure and capture all the steam before it vents to the outside of the space where the generator sits.  The radiator and copper pipe would add a lot of heat to the room.  Just thinking...                     Leland

Congratulations!  When I was in high school I had a job doing construction work.  One of the first pieces of advice my boss gave me was when I asked him how do do a little framing job.  He said "the best way to do the job is the way that gets it done".  That advice still helps me get started sometimes  !               Leland

Ah, the good old days when craftsmanship meant starting with good castings that the foundry men probably took pride in making right!  Back then the guys on the shop floor probably were allowed to remelt any castings that they were not pleased with.  Maybe I'm just fantasizing about this, but I don't think so.  I think back then workers took more pride in their work than people do now.  My personal feeling is that older stuff was often better made by people who didn't feel that they were just a cog in a giant soulless machine.  While there is a lot to be said about the efficiency of modern manufacturing the photos of these old Lister's gives me a warm fuzzy feeling!  Or maybe that's the beer and the sunny afternoon ?                Leland

The lathe they used must have been a dandy as the entire cut is cone shaped.

Wow, my Listeroid is a Hemi! 

Thanks for the feedback guys.  I haven't been able to find any published info on how fast a brake drum can be safely spun.  2,000G's sounds like a nice round number for cleaning used motor oil though  !  Does anybody know of a valid rule of thumb as to what the minimum G's would be to spin water and the common crap out of WMO?  Buying a new turn key unit is not going to happen unless I hit the Lotto but if I make one out of parts I can scrounge it needs to work well enough to make it worth doing.  Hey Rom what is the diameter of the bowl and how fast does it spin?  What do you run through it and does it do a good job removing water?  I'm hoping I can build something that works well and keep the cost down to a few hundred $ at most.  Thanks again guys!                Leland

Hi Jimboz, that looks like a good way to go to me  !