Zach Asks: Is your generator ready for winter?

Zach Says, Our Standby Generator is AOK, it ran for 50 hours last year, and now with my Sister Ava, it’s nice to know we can make a few KW to run the fan in the gas furnace, run the lights an more if we need to.

 
Zach-AOK
Zach-AOK

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Zach’s house has a small diesel gen set that sits outside in it’s own dog house. The fuel tank is topped off so the tank can’t breathe and condense water into the fuel, the lube oil level has been checked, the start battery is fully charged, and Dad or Mom only need visit the remote start panel next to the transfer switch to make the lights come on.

As I think about preparedness, that call from rancher and friend in Montana this week  rings in my head.  Now is the time to think of what can go wrong and be prepared. Keith has an 85kw KatoLite PTO generator that is not making the right voltage, it dips far below ANSI standards for Voltage.

There are no non DIYer Ranchers, or at least I’ve never met one, and I never met a Rancher that woke up even one morning exclaiming he was bored or didn’t have something to do. With most Ranchers, it’s normally a list of things to do far longer than he has time to accomplish, and there are times he thinks he may have messed up on his priority list.. it’s the norm!

Keith has a Katolite 85KW PTO generator that has given him good service for a dozen years. but now, here we are at a time of year where it can get cold and dangerous in the back country of Montana, and we have this little problem.

Calling a generator man in Billings (a LONG drive) he doesn’t have a tractor there to test drive the Gen set, so Keith is considering putting the tractor and PTO on a trailer and heading off to Billings, we note, if the Gen man isn’t able to fix it pretty much on the spot, Keith may be best off spending the night there, or making a second trip with trailer to pick it up when it’s ready, and risking no coverage back at the ranch.. The cost of hours away, fuel, and inconvenience adds up.

The majority of Generator troubles look easy to fix once you find them! Learning how simple a rotating machine is, and how it works is key in fixing it in the field, and most of the time you can. Here’s some advice.

There’s generally no banging and clanging, no smoke, no smell of burnt components or plastic, and you don’t need much advice when these things happen. What frustrates a man is a problem like this one where it almost works.

What every rancher should know is how to measure the excitation power from where it’s made, where it’s rectified, and how it’s delivered to that rotating field normally found in your generator. A cheap multimeter is NEVER a good investment, you need something you trust when you have a problem. Especially when you’re measuring field resistance, and that cheap meter can’t make up it’s mind.

My advice is this, the time to negotiate for a service manual, is at the time of sale, and simply letting the salesman know that you need that in your operation, and want it to be part of the sale is a good move.

But now, there’s that one other step that so few of us take, and later we might wish we did.  Go through that manual, and learn where those parts are that fail, that simple and normally inexpensive rectifier, they do fail, and you could stock a spare on site.  You can learn to measure what is supposed to be on the AC side, and what it looks like on the DC side. When all is working, you get to see what the reading looks like when it is working 🙂 

If it’s a brushless design, you can know about that little access door found in a lot of machines where you can check a diode, and know how to do it.

Make a decision as to what spares you will stock on site.  It’s a lot harder to fix something when the lights are out, your wife is cold and impatient, and the kids are watching the snow drift across the road, erasing it’s every sign.

Ninety Five percent of what stops a generator looks like an easy and fast repair when you know your machine well and have the part to fix it. Consider learning about the field excitation, and stocking the cheaper parts involved as a first step in being prepared. It may save you a lot of time, and make you look like a hero when your family sees the lights back on so quickly..

Zach’s Sister Ava wakes from a nightmare.. the generator didn’t work!

 

Zach’s sister Ava

Thank Goodness it was only a bad dream 🙂

GB

 

 

 

 Zach Shares how to wire a home Transfer switch: https://www.utterpower.com/installing-a-generator-transfer-switch-at-zachs-house-21211/

 

 

Posted in Buyer Beware, Critical Thinking, DIYer Generator, DIYer Skills, Generator Realities, Generators, How Tos, Off Grid Power, Survival Skills, UtterPower Articles | Tagged , , | 9 Comments

Open Test Thread: options test/edit test

Doug Bradford performing test

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Protected: The value of the Wayback machine!

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Sunday, Email of the day

UgandaPMG

Uganda Multi Function Platform with Lister Prime Mover, Engineers Without Borders Effort. 

Email of the day..

—–Original Message—–
 Sent: Sunday, November 18, 2012 5:58 AM
To: george@utterpower.com
Subject: UtterPower.com Contact Form: 5 years later, Lister still running.

 Name: Mark M

 Subject: 5 years later, Lister still running.

 Message: Hi George,

I live in Ontario, Canada, a little town called Sunderland, and I bought your Lister cd back when I got my 6/1. With no experience in these machines, but with a little hands on and some mistakes, I have been able to keep this old lunker running. Its not a workhorse here, but a backup when grid power is not available. You helped me a great deal to with your CD, and I have been a fan ever since. I recall your website back then was a “roll your own” design, I am a big fan of WordPress. After reading the life changing gift that early retirement has given you, I am now more focused to do something similar, although freedom 55 still seems a bit of a stretch.

Turned 49 this month, all kinds of tools and space, but no time to enjoy the hands on experience gained by trial and error. Just wanted to say thanks for being an inspiration…

Sincerely,

Mark M

 (george replies)

Mark, don’t be in any hurry to grow older, and do make your 5 year plan..

I appreciate hearing from you and others with hands on experience, I learn more everyday. Long ago, I wrote of the story of an Ozzie who bought an old homestead in the out back. Inside an old shed he found a Lister 6/1 half buried in nut shells and other bits brought in by small animals. The Lister had sat idle for a estimated 10 years or so, but after uncovering it and an hour of tinkering it ran and ran well! As our friend David Edgington continues to research all things Lister, I thumb through his latest book and think of all before us who lived well in some cases, and made a living only because they had a Lister.

Some think these old designs are best at running, but after years of study, I suggest they are also good at waiting and standing by as compared to more modern engines. Of course we know.. properly stored diesel could stay fit far longer than the owner might.

But Mark.. the world has changed so much even since you took on your Lister Project. My pages as you know have dared to mix in politics and other topics. I discuss the difficulty and or expense of buying these engines today, and it frustrates some.  We do need note that our Well fed Lisa Jackson grows wider at the beam every day.  It seems her girth and the power of her Organization grow at similar rates. 

I feel I betray David Edgington by sharing a thing from his latest book, but I’ll risk it here and share one of the many poems he shares on page three, likely written by the hard working self made men of Australia. 

Old shearer Bill, he’s over the hill
And rouseabout’s retired to gunning
I’ve heard it said the tar boy’s dead
but the Lister keeps on Running.
 

God Bless my DIYer friends in UK and down under. And now my humble attempt to write a Lister poem of our present day…

As we drag you towards the gates of hell what a comfort is that old Lister.
Although we know it seldom runs and works so well, the waters rise in Phister.
I heard you were in the Navy but listen here Mister ya don’t need no Lister!…. now pass me that bowl of gravy.
 
                                                                                                                                        

All the best Mark M. and DIYer Friends far and wide. 

GB    

 

Posted in Alternative Energy Sources, DIYer Generator, Off Grid Power, Slow Speed Engines, Small Diesels | Tagged , , , , | 11 Comments

Email of the day 11/14/12

Today I received an email about a simple DIY washing machine I put up on you tube at channel ‘georgeutterpower’.

The washer uses a Honda Auto Wiper Motor, and borrows the bell crank and one of the rods with end fittings that drove the wiper bell crank. 

 

Here’s the email:

Name: Dean Jones

Subject: 12V 5 gal washing machine

Message: Hello, I loved the video about the 12V 5 gallon bucket washing machine. Do you have more info on this or sell plans to build this?

Did you bolt a “hub” onto the windshield wiper motor with the “arm”

hooked to it?

What kind of turntable did you use– a lazy susan?

Also, inside of the bucket, it looks like there is some kind of board hooked to the side of the bucket…is that a baffle or similar?

If you sell plans for this with a detailed view of the turntable/motor I’d sure like to buy them.

Thank you!

Dean Jones

(george) Thanks Dean, as with about anything I build, I always know that the second one would be far different. One improvement would be the turn table itself, it should be made like a spoked wheel having four spokes and ends turned up to hold a standard 5 gallon bucket. Cutting a platter as I did out of sheet steel is a waste of time, effort and material.

The turn table hub is no more than a piece of round stock with a hole bored to fit the post on which it sets, one can simply lift it free to grease it, or add a grease fitting if you see your use will be high. Yes, it is best to have the hub and spokes welded, and a mig welder could be a handy tool in building yours. This is a great washer for shop rags, and even small parts cleaning. Off grid, it runs well directly off a solar panel, or plug it into the cigarette DC outlet in a car or truck, and clean your clothes and more..  

Picture the arm from the motor attached to a rod, that rod simply attached at a point you choose under the turn table (a spoke) at a point that will move the bucket back and forth. Closer in creates more travel, less torque.

We should all note the ‘hits’ this simple idea got on youtube compared to others at georgeutterpower.

As for the bucket itself, you need add some agitators inside, plastic wood or aluminum angle bolted inside work, and your imagination might cause you to cut up another bucket and allow just enough heat to ‘slump’ pieces of a second bucket into an angle shape you might pop rivet (alum or stainless) to the inside of your wash bucket.

And now the question, what would a kit sell for? I figure those people who would make the effort to pull a wiper motor from a wrecked vehicle would have the skills and tools to do the rest. So a kit offer would need the hub manufactured, AND a wiper motor and other parts as part of the kit. Dean, I hope you will comment here, and offer your opinion, you need not share who or where you are.. but then again, if you have a business and care to mention it here, go ahead!   

 

Posted in DIYer Skills, How Tos, Projects, Questions & Answers, Survival Skills | Tagged , , | 9 Comments

Email of the day….11/12/12

From an older guy who’s done a lot of living already..

Hi George

 I read your November 8th post again.  I looked up Evan Sayett and watched his “Understanding How Modern Liberals Think” video—well worth 48 minutes of my time. I even passed the link on to several friends. You nailed it; “no one says it better.”

Doug Giles’ amigo Irwin must have read it too before he penned his article to the Republican Congress in which he said “As a conservative Republican I am begging you to give president Obama and those who voted for him everything they want.”

 He then proceeded with a very long list that started out with higher taxes all around, higher energy prices, trillions of dollars to fight global warming, larger government, legalizing all kinds of drugs, socialist cronyism and so on nearly forever.

Giles says, “Give it to them; all of it! Yes, I join with my friend Irwin and say that we give it to them and find out once and for all who is right.”

I will confess I have had thoughts along that line but I have never been convinced to the point of actually saying it. I have said that one possible “up side” to an Obama win would be that there would not be another Progressive Democrat President for at least fifty years. I’m starting to doubt that.  Conventional wisdom usually says Dictatorship is next in line after what we have now. Do you think Obama will seek a third term and a ………..  ? ?

 Read the Giles article at: http://townhall.com/columnists/douggiles/2012/11/11/dear_republican_congress_give_obama_and_his_boys_everything_they_want

 (George) H. There’s only one problem with the plan of giving it to them… they take it from us in order to give it to them, but no one has a clue how much they will take, and whether we ever get it back for generations to follow.  We know that the promise of Obamacare need NOT be fulfilled, the promise of jobs wasn’t, and no one cared.. People really don’t care if the healthcare promise is kept either..  only that the promise was made, and by the time they complain, all of what we had will lay in ruin.. that is the real plan, and it will prove to be..   

Time tells all..   remember when Americans couldn’t own Gold? What is it you won’t legally own  shortly?

That East Coast Jew.. Evan  Sayett… just how did he make it all so simple to understand??? God.. I love thant man.. and Dr. Ileana Paugh… she told me of the hate mail she’s received.. her last column gone viral. I also swapped an email with Lord Monckton last night..  he’s about to publish an article about some items Obama has worked so hard to keep secret.  His test scores at Columbia? I dunno..   people hate Monckton of course, but.. when a Woman like Thatcher uses a Monckton for council, it’s all I need to listen! 

At the end of the day, there’s the skeptical, and the gullible. The gullible NEVER express doubts about a compass course change as long as it promises to deliver them onto the easy road.  Having had our hands (you and me H) on so many things, we suspect it’s the HOJO generator Barrack promises!  Fact is, he doesn’t really care if it works, it’s placed him in power, and I see no reason he or his party will need give it up. Will the SCOTUS be more than a tool for one party in 2016? Time tells all, but I think the road is now clear for the party who always promises the most free stuff, and note… they never offer up any of their own gold.. it’s always yours they promise!

GB 

George

 

 

Posted in Buyer Beware, Critical Thinking, DIYer Skills, Survival Skills | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

A new direction for self sufficiency? Dr. Paugh’s post is key in understanding where we are.

As I intensely study my new direction towards being self sufficient, I continue to read Dr. Paugh’s message. She is ‘first hand informed’ beyond her years. As as a child she learned  that the promise of security in exchange for a vote has never been fulfilled. We need ask… just how many American Women are 30 years behind her in acquiring the knowledge necessary to cast an informed vote?

You can easily pass up this opportunity to read Dr. Paugh’s post, but she clearly lays out what our future holds and helps to assure we know how to prepare for what happens next. Do read the comments, a few are insane, the majority are valuable reads. I do love the one comment where she’s accused of being extreme, it’s no more than an affirmation as to how well Ileana understands the current situation!  It’s not who was running and who won as much as it was what they ran on, and what was popular with voters, consider that a focus point.   

As I attempt to sort it all out, I got an email from a man who shares my affliction, he was raised with values proven totally out of date. He exposes his Achilles heal, and displays to the world a blueprint of how easily one can raid his house and burn it!

He may become annoyed that I share what he wrote, but I take that liberty.  “Why do you tolerate Bill Knighton?” I respond… doesn’t it give us all a chance to know him? 

 Is the following a worthy comment to Dr. Paugh’s post? It may be the only recourse, do you know one better?

Worry NOT! This is a most Temporary Situation!

How many of us have looked on as we watched Government reward wrong behaviors, year after year?

Those who saved money in order to care for themselves and others in old age find themselves with an asset that earns no interest, and diminishes in value.

Pension funds, whether  they be  Corporate, Union or Private forced to fail as the managers must invest in far riskier investments than ever before!   The FED has effectively stolen prudent investments via the prime interest rate they set at an insane zero!

As we look on, our wealth is transferred to whom and why?  And if we complain, we are called extreme or racist? If you have a union pension fund, your investment is part of the transfer!

Some accuse Ileana of giving up,  and they scold her for what she writes here.  She knows that our President  does little more than read the script borrowed from the past, and executes a plan older than Homer himself!   Divide the people via race, class, wealth, and promise the impossible!  

Is there really any way out of this other than to demand equal rights? Is there really any other way ‘FORWARD’?

Are you sitting silent while others are in the streets demanding a share of your life’s hard work? Will you allow them to make you as dependent as they are?

Tomorrow, we might be in the streets demanding the same gifts the Government hands out.  We are wise enough to know that the real source of these payment are a direct transfer from our life savings, and tendered via the destruction of our currency through the printing press.  WE know the FED has no money, they only take it from us, and now they do it through the back door!

THIS IS A VERY TEMPORARY situation, but perhaps the right thing to do is help let the air out of the tent as quickly as possible and end the charade.  How many of us have gone without… never having drawn unemployment, never having taken advantage of the many programs we qualify for right now?

Are we as guilty as Nero? Do we fiddle as we watch the American dream being transformed into dependency?  Is it a well honed plan?

Perhaps the very best way ‘FORWARD’ is to demand a share of your savings via the many Government programs?  Are you too proud to help make this period of Transformation as short as possible?  We know the Boomers are made up of many races, religions, and from rich to poor. Many of us have been raised to believe if we can go another 5 days without something, we don’t really need it. A so called ‘black’ American shared that he was taught the very same thing from an early age. Is that trait our Achilles heal?

I have thus far refused to take Social Security because…well, because of an old and perhaps outdated sense of pride, I now see it as a card to play.  I am no Titan, but  I am tired of helping to hold up the earth.  I expect a lot of Boomers of all colors to join me, ask not what you can do for your Country, it will be used against you!

I think Dr. Paugh writes this day knowing what follows this most temporary period…. She has asked Woman to use their votes wisely, we note than many of them have voted for security… having never lifted a book to discover it’s an age old promise never fulfilled.  Of course there’s plenty of blame to go around.

And the very idea that a person wedded to the State shall have a full vote?  Don’t we all know how they will vote? Did we not tolerate it all, and for how long?

Why argue the point? Who has listened thus far?  It’s best we join in and bring the tent down quickly, we might do this and spare our Grandchildren the trouble, no doubt it might take them years to understand who the Slavers really are.  Why not use the first hand knowledge we have acquired to assure they inherit the truth? It may be the only asset we can pass on to them.

Know your enemy, it may be you discover they are the ones carrying the banner you march behind! And last but no least.. don’t let those who tell you about their Godless belief fool you.. They have every right to practce their belief, we’ve given them that freedom. It is your freedom to believe as you wish they want to deny! These comments about Christians or Jews, it sadens me to see it amongst my own family and friends..  parse their language, it’s all about you accepting their version of reality, it’s a very old game, and part of tearing apart the land of the free..  google Evan Sayett, no one sayit better…

gb      

Posted in Critical Thinking, Inspirational People, Things I Hate!, Things I like, Utterpower's Friends | Tagged | 11 Comments

Stocks Surge in DIYer Skills!

If you have invested in developing your skills and tools to do the job, you need feel secure in your investment! While others have invested fully in the false promise of security, you have something than no one can take from you.. and of course that be your skills.

Why talk further when others have said it far better than myself? I encourage you to read Dr. Paugh’s post today, and I remind you… It’s hands on lessons that count. We’ve learned first hand that the people who really know the topic have had their hands on it!  Dr Paugh was there, she’s lived it, she carries the scars, she’s done all she knew how to do in order to warn us.

Do keep the course, and know the investment you make in yourself, your tools, your garden provide you far more security than any politician can deliver. Remember, Government only has the money they take from you..   

Thank you Ileana, thank you Ayn, thank you Evan Sayett. There will be no suprises in my remaining years thanks to you and others, including a world of DIYers who share how it is where they live..

GB

Posted in Buyer Beware, Critical Thinking, Gravity, In The News, Inspirational People, UtterPower Articles | Tagged | 13 Comments

John Laswell, Notes on Burning Wood

It’s that time of year, and thoughts now turn to what’s in the wood shed.  John, a retired Engineer who has experimented with wood burning over the years has made three posts here.

You can find all three of his installments by entering Laswell into the search window in the upper right, and clicking on the posts..

One of the things I find interesting is John’s understanding of moisture in wood, and how we must use the BTUs in the wood to gas out the moisture, and how we can easily calculate how much energy we lose to the process of drying the wood before we can actually produce the gases that burn.

We see a few comments from followers of  the wood gas community about how this moisture can be a value, and the water can even become part of the fuel. Does that thought embrace scientific fact? We do know it could be fuel if we have temps like those inside our Sun.

G

Posted in Alternative Energy Sources, Critical Thinking, Earth & Energy, Things I like, UtterPower Articles | Tagged | 7 Comments