What is the oddest machine you have worked on or operated

[Skeans1]

A number of years ago I worked for a John Deere dealer in central Pa. It was on the commercial equipment side and I worked with a lot of forestry equipment. One of the units was a Bell feller buncher. It was three wheeled , hydrostatic drive, and looked like the body for an old helicopter. It was made in South Africa and even with correct part numbers you were never sure what you might receive. And when it came to operating , if the linkage was out of adjustment which they always were , it was like trying to control the wildest animal you could think of. I had one parked between to new JD machines and when I went to move the Bell it almost ran into the two new machines, I was a busy somebody for a few seconds.

Did you ever get the enjoyment of working on the CTL gear?

 

[Shenandoah MF1760]

Stahl Laval (Ljungström) Steam Turbine Generator set.

The turbine consists of two opposite rotating halves with a generator on each end.

You have to sync the two generators together by flashing their fields and "locking" them together before you can put it online.

 

[gatornapper]

I'm a retired electrical engineer (both power and computers) and I'd love to know HOW you flash their fields and sync them - and how do you synch them with the online frequency?

GN

Stahl Laval (Ljungström) Steam Turbine Generator set.

The turbine consists of two opposite rotating halves with a generator on each end.

You have to sync the two generators together by flashing their fields and "locking" them together before you can put it online.
View attachment 851852

 

[jjeff]

On a much smaller scale, kind of worked on a wenkel rotary engine was in my grandfather's old Evinrude snowmobile. Quite interesting and definitely odd for me at the time.

 

[jgmo]

My boss was a "think outside the box" guy and loved repurposing heavy equipment he would buy at auction. One day I arrived at the jobsite to my new assignment....a Ray-Go mining road grader with a 24 ft. wide blade.
"Get it running"
So I did.

 

[jgmo]

My boss was a "think outside the box" guy and loved repurposing heavy equipment he would buy at auction. One day I arrived at the jobsite to my new assignment....a Ray-Go mining road grader with a 24 ft. wide blade.
"Get it running"
So I did.

This wasn't MY Ray-Go and that's not me....but a very similar scene after I had finished the "restoration"

 

[Brianczaw]

Today’s teenagers and young adults!!!!!

 

[Shenandoah MF1760]

I'm a retired electrical engineer (both power and computers) and I'd love to know HOW you flash their fields and sync them - and how do you synch them with the online frequency?

GN

It's been a long time (I'm retired now) but the rotating halves are going at the same speed, they just might not be in phase with each other. A common source was used to flash the fields and the output of the two generators fed a single breaker. You have two freewheeling AC outputs that would naturally sync up on the generator side of the breaker. There's no gearbox so the lagging side could easily come into phase, and then far as the output was concerned it was a single source. After that putting it online was the same as most gen sets, watch the synchroscope and have a sync check relay as safety backup. Although most PLCs do this automatically now, I've done it manually plenty of times.

 

[smileymtn]

A number of years ago I worked for a John Deere dealer in central Pa. It was on the commercial equipment side and I worked with a lot of forestry equipment. One of the units was a Bell feller buncher. It was three wheeled , hydrostatic drive, and looked like the body for an old helicopter. It was made in South Africa and even with correct part numbers you were never sure what you might receive. And when it came to operating , if the linkage was out of adjustment which they always were , it was like trying to control the wildest animal you could think of. I had one parked between to new JD machines and when I went to move the Bell it almost ran into the two new machines, I was a busy somebody for a few seconds.

 

[gatornapper]

Don't understand how 2 outputs are "free-wheeling". Yes, I've synched generators but always with internal synching electronics. Phase synchronizers. Does water turbine flow drive these generators?