What's your shop project?

[Larry Caldwell]

I'm an old retired codger with a shop, and like to tinker. A while back I ran across an antique generator powered by a 10 hp Briggs (24 CI) running a 4000 watt Dayton/Winco generator. 2x17 amp 115 volt, 1x37 amp 115 volt, 1x17 amp 230 volt, 1x10 amp 12 volt. It even has electric start!

The guy wanted $50 for it, and it looked good. It hasn't had enough hours to burn all the paint off the muffler, and it has the original factory paint on the cooling vanes. The fuel tank was dry and clean. He said it didn't run, but I don't think he had even tried in the last 10 years.

There was no spark. The points are mounted on the outside of the block. I unscrewed the cover, which still had the original factory sealant. The points were not opening and closing, but everything looked brand new. There is a plunger that goes through the side of the block that connects the cam to the points. The plunger was stuck with the points open. I poked the plunger, and shazam, the plunger worked and there was spark.

The fuel line was rotten, and I broke the sediment bowl trying to clean it. A replacement sediment bowl cost me $17. Ouch.

There was also a mystery small gauge wire wrapped around the fuel line with the end broken off. A little sleuthing taught me the wire was to run flicker points, which was the 1957 version of a voltage regulator. On the power stroke, the flicker points close, which connects the field exciter to a 1.5 ohm resistor, dropping the field voltage, which is conveniently a nominal 12 volts. There is also a 10 amp 12 volt outlet for charging a battery. When the load drops the RPM during the exhaust stroke, the flicker points open, boosting the field voltage, stabilizing the output voltage, but not the frequency. The mystery wire was just a busted spade connector. I suspect the other end goes to the magneto, but don't know for sure. There is a switch that disables the wire to disable the flicker points for full generator output.

10 hp. should be good for 6000 watts, so it should start a motor without bogging. The brushes and flicker points should create enough noise to nix any AM radio reception, but it should run a well pump just fine. In a pinch, I have a couple APC UPS units that would clean up the power for electronics.

I haven't fired it up yet, so don't know what shape the carb is in. The fuel tank is so clean I suspect the carb is too. If it needs cleaned, that's easy on those old carbs. If necessary, I can cut a gasket out of gasket material. I connected a jumper box to the battery terminals and the electric start turned it over just fine. The engine has plenty of compression. The vibration isolators on the cart have come apart, but they are standard 1/4" - 20 rubber mounts that are going to set me back another $16. The cart has 4" casters, which are not practical for country living, but I have a couple of junk 8" hard rubber wheels that will handle gravel and dirt. I'll weld wheel mounts on one end of the cart and handles on the other, which should make it manageable. The whole genset weighs a bunch - they didn't spare the copper in those days. I had to unload it with the tractor bucket.

This thing was top of the line 60 years ago. I think it was worth $85 and a little tinkering. I'm in a wildfire area, and if there is a fire the power company will kill the lines. I have an old 2.5 hp irrigation pump that should run a 2" line until the swimming pool is empty. All it needs is repaird.

 

[ponytug]

Fun! I saw one of those for sale a while back and thought about buying it because it looked so interesting.

I'd never heard of flicker points before. Great to learn something new!

All the best, Peter

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Fun! I saw one of those for sale a while back and thought about buying it because it looked so interesting.

I'd never heard of flicker points before. Great to learn something new!

All the best, Peter

I think they are only relevant at near full generator output. At low power, the engine and rotor inertia should stabilize the voltage. If I use it for pump starting, I will shut them off, on the idea that anything the generator will generate is a Good Thing.

Another shop project I am working on is refurbishing a 1920s 10" by 5' lathe. The ways are in pretty good shape, the pot metal sheaves are messed up. One of the adjustment cranks is broken off, but everything seems tight. Lubrication is by grease cups. It was free for the hauling, and came with 3-jaw and 4-jaw chucks that look good except for a little surface rust. Sadly, only one set of gears, so no thread cutting.

 

[otlski]

I am currently converting a wood cutting band saw into a metal cutting one. Motor and controller to VFD is done. I am messing with belt/pulleys and the motor mount now. I still have to mount the controller.

I am 95% done with doing the same sort of conversion on a floor standing drill press. I have yet to rig an easy to access E-stop.

I did an Atlas lathe redo six months ago. New three jaw and four jaw. Rewired. Quick change tool post. Machined new crank handles to replace broken ones. Etc. No VFD on that - even used 3 phase motors are expensive.

Milling machine revamp might be next. Or... maybe I will start using all the equipment for things other than rebuilding the equipment!

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

Rebuilding a 2009 Buell 1125R

 

[HawkinsHollow]

Right now we are stripping and refinishing 3 existing doors in our house. They are the original doors from 1955 and look like heart pine, the wood is gorgeous! They had maybe shellac on them My wife is doing the chemical stripping and the initial sanding with 80 grit. I am doing the final sand with 120 and 220 grit and spraying with water-based poly. They are looking really good!

I am sick of buying overpriced crap to finish this house remodel. Why replace these doors with some crappy, poorly made, overpriced doors, so we refinished.

 

[JasperFrank]

Sometime this summer, I want to take every thing out. Seal the concrete floor and repaint the walls. And then put all the stuff back were it should be in an organized manner, which should be good for two years .

 

[ponytug]

@Larry Caldwell So, with the passage of time, I'm curious what happened with the old generator. Any update?

All the best, Peter

 

[Larry Caldwell]

@Larry Caldwell So, with the passage of time, I'm curious what happened with the old generator. Any update?

All the best, Peter

It turned out to be a top of the line generator from 60 years ago. It idles down if there is no load and picks up again as soon as a load is applied. It starts the well pump just fine from an idle. That feature can be disabled with a slide switch. With the only voltage regulation being flicker points and brushes, the power is pretty dirty.

Breakers were not common in those days, so it doesn't have any. One outlet is rated 4000w at 115v so I replaced that receptacle with a NEMA tt-30R RV plug and the 230v. outlet with a NEMA 6-20, which is what I use for all my 240v. extension cords. There are also two standard 3-prong outlets.

The engine is a 1-pull start, and the electric start works fine with a jump start battery pack. From the looks of the paint still on the muffler, I think the 10 hp engine only has a handful of light use hours. The generator is rated 4000 watts but the engine could easily do 7000.

One of the features I really like is the sediment bowl. Paper filters swell if they catch water and block the fuel supply. If the gas tank gets rained in, I can dump the sediment bowl and go right back to work.

 

[ponytug]

It turned out to be a top of the line generator from 60 years ago. It idles down if there is no load and picks up again as soon as a load is applied. It starts the well pump just fine from an idle. That feature can be disabled with a slide switch. With the only voltage regulation being flicker points and brushes, the power is pretty dirty.

Breakers were not common in those days, so it doesn't have any. One outlet is rated 4000w at 115v so I replaced that receptacle with a NEMA tt-30R RV plug and the 230v. outlet with a NEMA 6-20, which is what I use for all my 240v. extension cords. There are also two standard 3-prong outlets.

The engine is a 1-pull start, and the electric start works fine with a jump start battery pack. From the looks of the paint still on the muffler, I think the 10 hp engine only has a handful of light use hours. The generator is rated 4000 watts but the engine could easily do 7000.

One of the features I really like is the sediment bowl. Paper filters swell if they catch water and block the fuel supply. If the gas tank gets rained in, I can dump the sediment bowl and go right back to work.

That's a great find! I love the idle down feature for items that don't require great power. Thanks for sharing the story.

All the best, Peter

 

[jjeff]

Complete reorganization of my 40 deep +60 wide barn I've acquired so much junk it's no longer enjoyable going into my barn to fix or make anything. up north I'm planning to do the same on a 24x36 pole barn/ garage. Maybe build a few leanto sheds off the sides pouring concrete slabs to build off hopefully get to placing 25' long sheets of corrugated steel sheets for the new roof on a old commercial greenhouse that I use for storage maybe even get to pouring a 4" thick slab in that storage building. I'm going to be busy, of course when I start major reorganization and building projects somewhat reliable used, and cheap,abused equipment breaks down hindering my organization progress cuz I'm trying to get cheap Chinese junk running again. I'm going to stay busy this summer.

 

[Suburban Plowboy]

My shop has 12-foot ceilings, so I want to put a loft in on one side with a little elevator to move things up to it. I figure I can have the underside of the loft 7 feet up where no one will bump it, and that will give me almost 5 feet of headroom upstairs. I can then put all sorts of stuff under the loft where the rarely-needed junk used to be.

My worst shop project has been my used mower. It is incredibly hard to fix a big Kubota mower that has scalp-wheel shafts frozen to the tubes that hold them. I still need to cut one tube off, mill the crud out of it, weld it back on, paint the deck, and replace all the scalp wheel stuff that goes into it.

I also had to remove one diesel tank and clean it out. Apparently, the original owner thought it was intelligent to run it on one tank all the time, allowing the diesel in the other one to turn into black Vegemite.

In the process of removing the tank, I snapped the plastic fender that contained it because the sun had made it brittle. Putting new fenders on was no fun at all, and they were not free.

 

[Topzide]

Find a juck forklift and take the lift and mast off for a lift. Easy to get an electric pump to make it work. A cable lift could let go or the power go out. With hydraulic, a simple cable on a valve always you to get down.

 

[4570Man]

Find a juck forklift and take the lift and mast off for a lift. Easy to get an electric pump to make it work. A cable lift could let go or the power go out. With hydraulic, a simple cable on a valve always you to get down.

Or just get a working forklift for the shop. They’re relatively inexpensive and handy to have around.

 

[jjeff]

I used an old 2k atv winch to lift stuff in the attic of my 20x20 garage when I lived in the city reinforced the trusses and attic ceiling where winch was stationary mounted plus it ran off an old car battery id constantly charge crude backwoods hackery but sure beat trying to manhandle a few hundred pounds of seldom used junk up there. I'm interested in some of those lighter duty x,y rolling axis ceiling mounted trolleys with winch on it. Would definitely be nice. After reinforcement of trusses and ceiling. I currently use my 26g mini x with lifting slings to get heavier seldom used stuff to top of repurposed mezzanine. It works but sometimes not as good as I picture it. Like others said a old used forklift might be the ticket if you have the room.