[SEL] Westinghouse DC generator

[Curt]

George,
Nice find! There was one of these at Coolsprings last year that I lusted 
after all weekend.
Do you know if these were stand alone DC gens for lighting, etc. or were 
they an exciter motor for part of a much larger gen set?
Curt Holland
Gastonia, NC
P.S. You gotten great mechanical advice in several posts. For electrical 
checks use your analog meter and check for wet windings by using the 
highest megohm scale. Just choose one side of each of the 4 pole 
windings to the frame. Only touch one of the meter leads or you will be 
reading you bodies resistance. There should be infinite resistance if 
all is dry. If not a baking in the wife's oven at about 200°F for a few 
days should dry it all out.  :-) Do the same with the armature. On both 
the arm and fields you'll need to disconnect them all electrically.
Now switch the meter to the R1 setting and measure the resistance of 
each filed winding. They should all be about the same. Very low resistance.
You can check the arm/comm but it is a lot more work! If it passed the 
above tests I'd venture a guess it is OK.



Best, George 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.
>
>I've loaded some pictures on my Epson album:
>
>http://albums.photo.epson.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=4019318&a=31730100&f=0
>
>While this isn't an engine, it is related in that it has a flat belt
>pulley for being powered by a gas engine.  I would like to hook it up
>some time, but I've already got too many unfinished projects to start
>another one.  So I'll most likely clean it up a little and let it sit
>for awhile.
>
>Based on the patent dates on this generator, and the patent dates on the
>generator at Mt Wilson (Larry Evans sent me some pictures), I'm saying
>this generator was built some time between 1892 and 1896.
>
>Anyone have experience working on early generators and have some advise
>on how to go about testing/cleaning/using this?
>
>WAIT George
>
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