A new British Iron Project

[Quinnf]

Bob, it looks good enough to eat.  Wonderful restoration.

Not to sound a contrary note, but please do tell us how much flicker you get.  At 370 rpm I'm interested whether there is enough mass in the flywheels to moderate the pulses better than what we see on our Listeroids.  Sure would like to score a set of SOM flywheels someday.

Quinn

[rleonard]

Bruce, Thank you!.  Two of us worked half of a day to mask for painting the stripe!

Quinnf, a valid concern.  The generator has a 200lb flywheel added for extra inertia.  Further working against me is that I have slowed the engine down to 253 rpm and sized the pulleys to spin the generator at 1800 rpm at that speed.

When I get some additional hookups done, I'll shoot a video clip.  The halogen lights show slight flicker.  It remains to be seen what the effect is on the shop metal halide and florescent lights.

Bob

[OKFarmer]

Semi-permanent home? You're gonna put her to work? That is awesome. What a beauty! And a worker!

[rleonard]

I've run into a problem with my electrical connection.  It has to do with hooking into my single phase / 3 phase system. 

The normal connection is single phase (utility feed) goes into the main distribution panel.  There, lighting, outlets, and all normal connections (circuit breakers) are made.  I also feed the RPC (rotary phase converter).  That feeds a 240 3 phase distribution panel, a transformer, then into a 480 3 ph panel.

The generator is 208 3ph, so the logical connection is directly into the 3 ph panel.  Then, how do I back feed the single phase panel to power lighting?  I could switch the generator back to single phase and feed the main panel, but the losses would be excessive.  The generator has 2/3rds capacity when wired this way, then it gets turned back into 3 ph. 
 

Will get it sorted out, sooner or later.

Bob

[dieselgman]

Definitely rewire your panel feeds and use 3-phase directly from your generator into your 3-phase panel. Eliminate the phase converter or switch it out of the distribution during generator operations (may require more than one transfer switch to accomplish). KISS may dictate splitting up the system a bit.

dieselgman

[rleonard]

I visited this thread after a long time.  There have been a couple of developments.  I did get it tied into the shop but it was not pretty.  The flicker in the lighting and the motors were all trying to follow the "lumpy" power.  It just did not work well.  I have not given up on a mechanical solution and part will be to restore the original operating speed of the engine.  To do that I need to make a new generator pulley to slow it down. 

The other effort has to incorporate a 25HP VFD.  The input to the VFD is the lumpy power and the output is perfect 60 hz, I switched the alternator to 480 output to match the input of the VFD.  Now I need another transformer.

Another factor was that I had serious back issues develop.  This resulted in surgery that has taken me out of the shop for nearly a year.  Fortunately the procedure was a success and I'm on the mend.  I'm up to a 20 lb wight limit that has me back moving but I have to be ever so careful about what I do. 

Lastly the governor on the RH is acting up.  I have to overhaul it to see what is causing the erratic behavior. 

Bob

[38ac]

Bob , glad to read that your back up and around some even though at partial capacity. 

[jetmax]

Very nice engine !
I will have in future (in next 50 year )

Could you explain please How can I put photos to my topic ..

Cheers

 Mesut

[rleonard]

After quite some time a neighbor offered up a large 3ph motor to use as a test mule, and I found a used transformer.  I wired it all up and tested today.  THe VFD takes all the ripple out of the power.  Very encouraging.  Youtube link:

https://youtu.be/i6iHRKoQkfc

[mikenash]

That's a thing of beauty

[rleonard]

The discovery for me is that using a VFD as a frequency stabilizer might be a improvement to any generator that is run by a slow speed diesel engine.