[SEL] Re: Westinghouse DC generator

[Best, George]

Thanks Peter.

This one has carbon brushes and one brush was broken but the others
looked good.  The brass tag on the generator says 1700 rpm, which I
assume is the speed needed to produce the rated voltage.  I'm guessing
that running it at a lower speed would simply produce less voltage.

Haven't decided yet what I'll power it with.  I would assume that I
should belt it to a throttle governed engine to maintain a constant
speed.  Hit&Miss might be tough on a generator and cause variations in
voltage. 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: sel-bounces at lists.stationary-engine.com 
> [mailto:sel-bounces at lists.stationary-engine.com] On Behalf Of 
> Listerdiesel
> Sent: Friday, April 22, 2005 9:27 AM
> To: The SEL email discussion list
> Subject: [SEL] Re: Westinghouse DC generator
> 
> 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
> 
> _______________________________________________
> SEL mailing list
> SEL at lists.stationary-engine.com
> http://www.stationary-engine.com/mailman/listinfo/sel
>