John G wrote:

Michael A. Terrell was thinking very hard :
" wrote:

On Jul 21, 5:57 pm, Dave__67 wrote:
++
I was able to run my table saw or my band saw, but they just
didn't sound right. I pulled out my old Radio Shack meter flipped it to
frequency mode and checked it. Yep 400 hz. This meter very reliabley
shows household 110 at 59-60 so I know its not out in left field.


It could be it is still 60Hz, but an extremely crappy or dirty
waveform is tricking the meter. That might change the diagnosis/
troubleshooting procedure.

Dave
The fact that you could run your table saw and band saw, make it
unlikely that it was really 400 hz. The saws would be running at
about 7 times their normal speed if it were really 400 hz.


They may have universal motors. If not, they would definitely run
fast, if at all. The fridge has a starting capacitor, and needs
something very close to 60 HZ to start and run. He needs to put a
resistive load on the generator and recheck the frequency. Also, it
should tell the frequency on the name plate.

Would not a scope do a much better job of giving the real answer? :-Z


As long as he knows how to use it, and doesn't try to power it from
that generator.


--
It's easy to think outside the box, when you have a cutting torch.