ST 5 Arrives

[Doug]

MDS truck pulled up about 45 minuts ago and we carried my ST 5 in.

Gross weight 187 pounds, about 4 pounds lighter than I expected.

Uncrated no damage.

Its blue.

Dog house is a little a skew, not bent just sits there kind of crooked.

Castings, hmm.....

I'll know more when I get it aprt.

I bought this from Altropro, for what I payed its a toss up

[Andre Blanchard]

The dog house, not much good I can say about the one on the head I got.  Well the red light works.

If the pass thurs for the electrical connections are like on mine you are not going to like them.  Almost impossible to get the connections on the outside and in inside tight at the same time.  I need to get rid of that thing and get it all mounted in a big box on the wall.

[Doug]

Heart braking....

The rear end bell has been hit, the crate looked fine no damage so all I can assume is this happened at the factory...

http://www.putfile.com/pic.php?img=5151786

http://www.putfile.com/pic.php?img=5151785

I hope Altopro will help me out here.....
I can't win, engine was a cluster ----- and now I have a damaged alternator.

Must be a sign, should have bought cheap a one from Canadian tire....

Side note:

Looks like they use air dry varnish thats brushed on....

Doug

[Andre Blanchard]

Anything functional damaged, maybe they can just send you a new end bell?
And you can hope you get one that fits.

The real test comes when you spin it up.
Had to put almost 1/2 pound on the armature to get my 25Kw smoothed out, enough to where I was looking up shear strength on a 1/4-20 bolt and deciding if a 2X safety factor was enough.

[Doug]

Believe it or not but we just used an epoxy putty to add weight to armatures. I can't remeber exactly what it was but you just stuck on what you needed and varnished over it.....

I never did armature work ( this was almost a lost at at the point where I got into the trade ), it requires a higher skill level than I had to make coils, lace and do it well enough that the thing will run smoothly without adding a lot of weight to ballance.

No word from Pat at Altopro inc yet. Hopefuly he has parts. The welders at work tell me they think they can weld it but it won't be very strong.....

Aw well, nothing in life is easy....

Doug

[lev-l-lok]

Hi Doug,
    When I reviewed your photos it appeared that the damage runs from the right side of the 12 o'clock support strut to the upper side of the 3 o'clock support. If the semi circle does not iintersect the bearing boss diameter, it may be better to just silver solder the broken piece together (lower temp repair less distortion), and call it done. It seems this area of the end bell is only to support the strap closure for the brushes, and if this is true, you may be better off staying with the current bell for concentricity reasons. If the crack does indeed intrude upon the bearing boss, all bets are off. hope you and Pat can come to a resolution of this problem.
   Please note the above thoughts and opinions are heavely influenced by to much coffee and as such could be complete hogwash!

Regards, Paul

[Doug]

Well I just fired off more pictures to Pat at Altopro Inc.....

Still not sure what will happen, but the cracks go right down into the corner of the suport struts. I don't see any more cracks but my gut feeling is If I try and take this a part I may brake the struts.

I have no idea about things like silver solder, braze or stick welding. I asked the welders I worked with if they thougt they could fix this and based in the pictures and thinness of the castings they feel odds aren't too good.

We never talked about silver solder or braze, they have some special rods for cast but it all comes back to the thickness of the iron....

I think another end bell might be OK. Back in the day I used to mix and match from different motors of the same brand and frame size and never had any issues so I can;t see why this sould be any different.

Doug

[Andre Blanchard]

A while back someone posted a link to a description of fixing a gearbox casting for a lathe.  It was on some site selling brass wire for use in a wirefeed welder.

[Doug]

Yes I remeber that, but I don't weld...

Truth is I may end up scrapping this if I can't get an end bell.

About 15 years ago a machinist named Joel at ( French guy for you yanks Its Joe- el lol ) at Unapco Automotive and industrial machine made a new end bell for a oil feed pump for me. It was a Zinc casting I mistook for Aluminum and turned into a pudle in the burn out oven. He modified a Standard 56C motor shaft and fabricated an end bell. Sadly that kind of work is worth more than the ST ......

Doug 

[TerryM]

Doug, I'm not (much of) a welder either, but I think MIG welding or MIG brazing might be a solution.  Check this out:

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/cast-iron.htm


Good Luck

Terry

[Doug]

Yes but thats basicaly what the welders said to me.....

If the heat it and braze it it will disort.....

If they flame weld it, it may crack.

If they stcik weld it with the cast iron rods they have, again it may crack and it will be weak.

I even thought about just leaving it and running it too failure. The cracks extend all the way into the corners of the gussets so Its only a matter of time.

This cost me a significant amount of coin and its probably junk. I need to strip it and clean it before use and I can't because I will probably destroy the end bell trying to remove it.

I'm realy tired of wasting my money on this stuff. No reply from Pat since I sent him the extra pictures I have no idea what his plan is but I regrete buying this thing and the Petteroid.

Doug

[rcavictim]

Doug,

You just don`t seem to be having a lot of luck with this particular genset project at all.

If that were mine I`d try to repair itmyself  by grinding a V-groove along the crack and cast iron stick welding it in place (tiny bit at a time and peaning, keeping the heat flow to the rest of the piece at a comfortable minimum), or by removing the end,  grinding a V-groove along the crack and flame brazing it.

 Let me know if you decide to scrap it.

[mobile_bob]

Doug:

this coming from a guy that has repair welded many cast parts, from cylinder heads and blocks, to aluminum piston crowns and oil pans, winch cases and gear cases

that crack if it does not intrude into the brg bore will not weaken the end housing one bit, if the crack is making its way to the brg bore, simply grind out
the crack and drill a hole at the terminus of the crack to keep it from proceeding thru to the bore.

i would not weld it or braze it,, the casting is too thin and likely will cause more problems than you will fix in trying to repair it.

however, if you want to repair it i would resort to another method

clean it well, remove all paint, vee groove it well and bond it back together using a polymer castiron mix
and then poor in more of the mix on the inside to add additional strength to the whole end housing if you like.

this is a very fixable problem that will have no effect on the lifespan or usefulness of the genhead.

if you want to, send it to me and i will fix it for the return shipping.

we gotta get you up and running,, and besides i want to see you rewind the thing with all poles exiting so you can configure them to get
a variety of uses out of it.

bob g

[Andre Blanchard]

however, if you want to repair it i would resort to another method

clean it well, remove all paint, vee groove it well and bond it back together using a polymer castiron mix
and then poor in more of the mix on the inside to add additional strength to the whole end housing if you like.

For just a bit more you could drill pairs of holes along the crack, chamfer them and twist tie with some soft steel wire.  Cut the twist off and bend down into the V groove.  Then cover with the mix.

[Doug]

I was all ready to tool up and try an epoxy fix when Pat from Altopro said he would cover the damaged part himself. I'll try and remove the end bell and keep it intact for return and he will replace it with a good one....

Just the same when the new one arrives I will fill all the Gussets with expoxy to try and beef up the casting.

Doug