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Kelly Troyer wrote:
Todd and Ernest,
Anything to report on your Permanent Magnet Alternator installations ??...............
I spent last Saturday trying to cast an aluminum mount for my rotor. I'm really not happy with the sheet metal mount I built. I've been practicing casting, and I've made several parts, including a couple of crank angle sensor mounts (1/4" of aluminum makes for a really stiff mount).
It turns out that the difficulty of metal casting is proportional to the cube of the parts size. Right now, I have a chunk of aluminum the size of a one-gallon paint can stuck in my furnace. I ran out of fuel just as the last ingot was starting to melt, and after that disaster I discovered a small hole had formed in my crucible and was slowly filling the bottom of the furnace.
That's when I decided that I would just order a 12"x12"x2" 6061-T3 aluminum plate and machine it. I started down the path of a casting before I bought my 12" lathe, but the machining makes more sense anyway.
This is the last major part I need before moving on to an engine start, so the delay kinda sucks, but at least I have a new skill. I'm going to apply it to making tap handles for the kegs that we use at work during our Friday Beer Bash.
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