Quite a while ago, I bought a new 3 phase 1.5 HP MagneTek motor 120/208V for a wind turbine build. Zubbly had recommended these in his postings. I found to get any useful voltage out of it, I had to connect capacitors to each phase, and once the spinning rotor got the capacitors up to a certain voltage, the motor would cut in and produce usable voltage. Also, as the rotor spun down, if it got too low a voltage, the output cut out and had to wait for the rotor to again charge the caps and then it would cut in. Not so great for a wind turbine.
SO, I went back through Zubbly's posts and built the cage design with small magnets. I read the posts over and over and then bought magnets, to copy his design. I pulled the rotor and turned it down on my home made metal lathe. All I had for measuring was an imperial ?/metric tape and a dial caliper and normal manual calipers to check OD of things. I did the math according to Zubbly but, later found out he was building a cage/rotor for a 4HP motor. My magnets were too big in diameter, Zubbly used 1/2" X 3/8 long in a 3 wide X 7 long configuration.
Now, I can't do the 3 wide X 7 long design, so, I decided to do a 2 wide X 5 long. I managed to cut the rotor down to be able to use the 3/8" length, so the magnets would clear the stator teeth. I won't mention how I measured the stator ID, since I had no ID measurement tools. I went ahead and built the fiberglass cage and drilled the magnet holes. Then, I placed 8 magnets in the cage at top and bottom of the sets of holes. Sliding the rotor inside the stator was nothing but frustration, BUT, I found I did have the clearance correct to proceed with populating the cage. With the end caps in place, I could turn the rotor without hitting stator teeth. I could get over 9V just by twist spinning the shaft. The motor was propped up on a metal can so the tail shaft would not hit the workbench. I had glued the magnets to the cage with whiteglue so they would not jump out of the cage holes and get out of alignment inside the motor.
I wrapped a string around the shaft and spun the rotor and got varying voltages up to 17+ v. This was encouraging, so, I did the dreadful deed and managed to get all 40 magnets into the cage holes and centered the cage as best I could on the rotor. I then sealed up the back end of the rotor and poured the resin in.
Afer the resin kicked off I cleaned off the tape and extra resin from slight leakage and placed the rotor inside the motor and put the front end cap on. NOW, I can get over 47V by placing my hands on opposite sides of the shaft and spinning it up by the fire starter method, somewhat.
Question is, is this going to be impossible to use as a wind turbine trying to charge a 24V battery system ?? I do have a 90A-bridge rectifier hooked to all 3 phases and feeding my VOM. Maybe a load would be more realistic way to check voltage ? Also, what kind of amperage should I expect to get ? This is a 4-6 Amp rated motor. Will the battery load/controller regulate the voltage and allow the amperage to rise up to, say, 20-30 amps or so ? I realize there is a lot more to this, but, I want to see what I have before trying new things, just in case what I have does work
If any of y'all can follow this post, I would appreciate ALL aspects of what I have and if this thing is usable.
Thanks, Harold