I have an 11 horse riding lawn mower engine. Looking for projects I
can do with it. I have thought that it would be handy to have a
generator around this winter to power the blower to my furnace incase
the power goes out. Any ideas on where to get a cheap generator head?
How many watts do I need?

What happened to the log splitter project?
You can build anything in this world if you put your mind to it. First
off you need to find out your anticiapated amperage load. Is your
motor a vertical or horizontal shaft. Easiiest way would be a pulley /
belt system or perhaps a flex ty0pe coupling to attach to one of those
units as sold by Surplus center. I guess you could drive a alternator
from a vehicle and alter its output somewhat. an 11 hp should have
lots of capacity to drive a decent sized generator. But a gen is gonna
run some money to buy. For what you can but a commercially made gen
set for nowadays until you figure in and make a sourcxe for constant
coltage control and other features, it would probably run you more to
build a gen set just to utilize this engine than you could buy one for
already made.

Just my opinion

On 11 Dec 2003 06:03:54 -0800, (Don) wrote:

===I have an 11 horse riding lawn mower engine. Looking for projects I
===can do with it. I have thought that it would be handy to have a
===generator around this winter to power the blower to my furnace incase
===the power goes out. Any ideas on where to get a cheap generator head?
===How many watts do I need?

Visit my website: http://www.frugalmachinist.com
Opinions expressed are those of my wifes,
I had no input whatsoever.
Remove "nospam" from email addy.

"Don" wrote in message
m...
I have an 11 horse riding lawn mower engine. Looking for projects I
can do with it. I have thought that it would be handy to have a
generator around this winter to power the blower to my furnace incase
the power goes out. Any ideas on where to get a cheap generator head?
How many watts do I need?

Nice idea but:
The mower engine has very poor speed control so will result in wide
fluctuations of frequency and voltage.
You will need wiring, fuses and ideally an earth leakage trip.
Small generators are cheaply available all wired up and ready to go.
I would question whether it's worth your time making one.
However, if you just want a project, that's another matter. You will find
that your furnace should have a makers plate which gives its electrical
power requirements. Add about 25% to this to allow for starting current and
get the next standard size up.

John

Don wrote:
I have an 11 horse riding lawn mower engine. Looking for projects I
can do with it. I have thought that it would be handy to have a
generator around this winter to power the blower to my furnace incase
the power goes out. Any ideas on where to get a cheap generator head?
How many watts do I need?
One thing I did was use a car alternator, you can use a regulater and a
battery to get your 12 volts. you can then run an inverter to get your
120 volts. Thats fine if your furnace is 120 volt some are 220. 800 watt
inverters are getting inexpensive, you won't even need to run the motor
at full rpm.

Now for the fun bypass the reg and you now can weld.
http://www.motherearthrecycling.net/...e/homemade.htm

Wayne wrote: (clip) Now for the fun bypass the reg and you now can weld.
^^^^^^^^^^^
Most portable electric hand tools run better on DC than AC, so you will be
able to "soup up" your tools. There used to be an accessory you could
install under your hood for doing this, and I wish I could find one. I
would love to run my electric chain saw this way.

I still like the idea of building one. Any my father could use it. I
was hoping to burn wood in my house. I have a wood burning fireplace
but I was told that they are not very efficient and are mostly for
looks. I called around about putting in a stove and everyone said it
would be majorily difficult and I would have to replace the entire
chiney of pipe.

I just hate building and spending money on something I will not be
able to use.

I wish I would have put a stove in when the house was built but that
was the last thing on my mind at the time.

http://theepicenter.com/tow02077.html

Don wrote:

I have an 11 horse riding lawn mower engine. Looking for projects I
can do with it. I have thought that it would be handy to have a
generator around this winter to power the blower to my furnace incase
the power goes out. Any ideas on where to get a cheap generator head?
How many watts do I need?

I have an 11 horse riding lawn mower engine. Looking for projects I
can do with it. I have thought that it would be handy to have a
generator around this winter to power the blower to my furnace incase
the power goes out. Any ideas on where to get a cheap generator head?

Have you already seen the site http://www.otherpower.com/ ?
Somewhere on the site is a project for building a battery charger from
an old gas engine. Also a lot of other interesting stuff!
Enjoy!
Reto

On 11 Dec 2003 06:03:54 -0800, (Don) wrote:

I have an 11 horse riding lawn mower engine. Looking for projects I
can do with it. I have thought that it would be handy to have a
generator around this winter to power the blower to my furnace incase
the power goes out. Any ideas on where to get a cheap generator head?
How many watts do I need?

My neighbor had a motor and a generator and he asked me to make a
portable generator unit out of it. It worked, but lacked many
features taken for granted in a manufactured unit; such as, voltage
regulation and frequency regulation.

The engine had a governor, but it still slowed down, some, when load
was applied. Worst of all, the voltage sagged considerably under
heavy load. I wired in a manual voltage control, so it worked, after
a fashion.

The neighbor didn't figure the project would cost anything, but his
generator didn't have a permanent magnet field. It didn't have any
residula magnetism to start generating, so he had to pay for a battery
to get the excitation started.

Your project is do-able, but you'd be much better off with a
factory-built unit.

Orrin

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