This heat is really hurting productivity. 105 today and no end in sight. No rain either. Everything is burnt to a crisp. I heard that in southern Illinois, crops are being plowed under due to drought.
I do what I can in the morning and evening. Retreat to the basement shop mid day. That seems to work.
I think that I have solved three puzzles today. I'm letting myself feel good about that because surely another disaster is just around the corner.
First, the beam spacers. I put my main beams up on riser tubes for two reasons. One to get the unit up higher and second so I can easilly move this by forklift until it gets into a permanent location. One of those things where I knew better but went ahead anyway. When the engine was running it would flex the joint between the I beam and the riser tubes. Now with a plate and gusset welded and bolted in, that problem has gone away.


Second; Engine speed. It was necessary to replace the main governor spring to get the engine to run slower. The original is just under 4" long and has .091 wire. I found these 2" springs with .080 wire. Stacking them fit just right. I had planned for 1800 RPM on the generator head and a 250 RPM engine speed. Hit it close enough as measured by the digital tach.


Finally I had a nice call from Paul (AKA Contracreek) today. We discussed the air tank for starting the engine and where to put it. It is an ugly heavy piece that has to be somewhere close. I think I have a solution and will play around with a simple design to see how it looks. Plan is to build a "water tower" looking structure, similar to this one;

The tank will be in the bottom and the fuel tank will be on top. The heights work out just right too.
There is Doug behind that good looking guy (me) cleaning his hands. He is the friend that passed away last month. I miss my friend. Although he didn't do a lot in the shop, he was there. I assigned him to motivate me to get this stuff done. The Oblong show was a big deal to him and he really helped put our little display together.
Bob