I had to do it, sorry.

[Jerry]

Wish all you fewllow conversion guys lived closer. Seems like your in Canada, Ohio Newzealand or some place far away? Accept for Rob C. Rob I think your still a 10 or 12 hr drive?

Well its time to clean out the shop. Can't walk in a straight line for more than 3 ft. and its a 40X60 ft shop.

Part of the problem is all those free motors I've been collecting over the last few years.

Friday I just had enough and started halling the big ones off. I knew they were way to big and heavy for me to fly anyway. The big blue one is a 50HP GE. It must weigh 500 LBs. The rest are 3hp, 5 hp, and 10hp.

I did get $100 for them at the recycle depot though. They all worked fine. I just needed the space.

Sorry I didn't call you and have you come get a few?

               

                        JK TAS Jerry

[ghurd]

What kind of tower is needed for a 500 pound conversion?  Half-inch conduit would sink in clay like a thumb tack in balsa wood!  Probably best to go 3/4" conduit. LOL.

Maybe the 50hp would have been good for big old VAWT?

G-

[srnoth]

Jerry,

Where did you get that stuff?!?! And for free??

Now I feel jealous. I've been looking around for stuff like that. If only shipping were a bit cheaper.

Anyway, wish you luck on getting your shop cleaned. I find it very hard to throw out good stuff even though I know I will probably never use it, so I hate having to tidy up ;-).

Cheers,

Stephen.

[ghurd]

afterthought...

Holy Cow!

Don't scrap the GE ECMs!

I'm only 6-8 hours away!

G-

[Jerry]

Hey G where are you? Now I'm not tossing the smal stuff. As a matter of fact I just picked up 2 more GE ECM yesterday. So far the best conversion I've found for 12 volt use of the ECMs is to Wire it 9 phase.

I did a post a while back on that. It worked real well. A bit of a chore but its worth it. I wire each coil with its own pair of wires. Took the 2 coils acccross from each other and wired them in siries. Then I wire all 9 sets in star. I used 18 6 amp diodes on a pc board. No heat problem at all.

                      JK TAS Jerry

[Jerry]

Hi Stephen.

About 3 years ago I discovered this board. Back then Dan was doing a motor conversion.

It looked like a good idea to me so I set about gathering motors.

I checked with heating & airconditioning, plumbing, garage door and motor rewind shops. I told them what I was doing and most of them said take what you want out of the dead motor dumpster. I have over 500 motors now. As you can see some were realy big.

Funny thing about the heating guys. Lets say someone has a furnace problem so they call the heating guy he comes out and puts in a new blower motor. The following month the customer decides to replace the old furnace with a new. The heating guy pull out the old furnace and put it in the recycle pile.

I've collected some brand new lookin motors they don't seem to want to take the time to pull them out?

I don't mind at all. The lucky find are the GE ECM. They are a 3 phase perminet magnet moror. Just put a blade on them and fly em. Got to add diodes Some are 1200 watt motors.

The have ceramics so the max out around 300 watts as a wind geny. Just ask around you'll findem.

                   JK TAS Jerry

[ghurd]

N.E. Ohio!  But I have friends around Binghamton, and I get to the Thousand Islands 1-2 times a year, usually around late June.

A recent post (Deerslayer660?) said GE is going to offer the ECM 'Brain' seperate now.  That is going to reduce how many good ones are thrown away.  Rare as fish feathers around here all ready.

I came up with a half horse GE ECM.  Very lucky, as they only ever installed 2, and 1 was broken (dead brain) the day I stopped in to ask.  Problem is, it is just too big for where I have to put anything.  Sad when 300w is 'too big'.

I figured on the 3 phases, rectified seperatly, and paralleled, for 12v at a lower rpm.  I read your posts about them, and I think the 1/2HP must get higher voltage at a lower speed, but don't really have much of an accurate way to do any tests.

Didn't butcher it yet, just in case something else comes up.

G-

[finnsawyer]

The guy I work for part time tears down the motors, cooks them to get rid of the varnish and loosen the copper wire.  He then cuts and removes the wire.  I think it's worth around 60 cents a pound.  You might consider doing the same.  Beware of the dust, though.