[SEL] Re: Westinghouse DC generator

[Listerdiesel]

On 4/22/05, Best, George <George_Best at adp.com> wrote:
> On our way to Tulare last week I bought this generator from a friend.
> Supposedly it was used around Lake Tahoe.  Unfortunately, that's about
> all I know of it's history.

<snipped>

> Anyone have experience working on early generators and have some advise
> on how to go about testing/cleaning/using this?
> 
> WAIT George

Hi George:

The two biggest considerations are bearings and brushes, most other
things are nearly always surmountable with care.

The brushes will probably be non-carbon types, usually a wad of copper
wires that run on the commutator. These wear a lot quicker than
ordinary carbon/graphite brushes and need more care.

You cannot run the machine backwards or the brushes will fold back
under and damage the commutator, so make sure you have the rotation
right.

Bearings will almost always be plain types, either grease or
ring-oiled. As long as they are fairly good, I'd leave them alone, if
they are bad at the brush end then you'll accelerate brush wear.
These are also essentially relatively low-speed machines, so don't go
onto anything that is much more than 500rpm or so to start with.

There are a lot of old books on these machines on the internet,
McGraw-Hill especially did most electrical text books of the day, have
a look on ebay or on abebooks.com.

Nice to see you and have a chat at Tulare...

Peter
-- 
Peter A Forbes
Email: listerdiesel at gmail.com
Web: www.oldengine.org/members/diesel