im starting to learn how to weld so i thought id do something thats simple and non life threatening as i trust my welding ability about as much as i trust my ability to climb a mountain using only my little toes and little fingers

but anyway, i have one of these collecting dust in the garage


and thought i could make a frame for the engine (22.5cc) and weld a roller/pulley onto the end of it and have a car alternator along side it with a belt over them both.. then the alternator connected to a car battery... just incase i decide i want to go camping in the middle of nowhere and want 12v of power

would i be able to wire the alternator straight to the battery, or will i need any other things like relay thingys or i dunno, anything else?

[Edited on 21/11/05 by daz]

Not worth the hassle/danger/weight, if you want a generator sell the bike on ebay and nip down to Aldi next time they are selling generators.

well thats the thing, i dont need a generator, i dont need the scooter, but since im learning to weld i might aswell make something, alternators are only £15 so not like im spending much money, i have everything else

Them scooters are far too much fun to break up. Sell the scooter to a chav, Get a lawn mower engine and make a go kart. Ideal thing to make when your learning to weld.

WHY ?

Make somthing of use for your build.

I made a work bench and a welding trolly ect just to practice welding 16 guage 25 mm rhs.

Wish id made a trolly to put the chassis on , its a bitch getting on your knees at funny angles to weld it up

Just my 2p worth .Why hack the scoot up you may be able to use it to get somthing you do want for your car.

could do but since they are illegal on the road it cant be used really.. not that its stopped me before, 6ft4 chap on a scooter at 10pm gets some odd lucks i can tell thee
but anyway, im sticking with my idea as its simple and just a straight forward thing to do, as i say im learning to arc weld... and since im crap theres n point making something usefull as it will have crap welds and be dangerous, ive stuck that welding rod to metal more times than ive had sunday dinners!

[Edited on 21/11/05 by daz]

and the little engine wont be ruined, im gonna weld the new pulley thingy on so it can still be used with the scooter, its not the same scooter as in the pic, its a cheaper one, cost me £30

[Edited on 21/11/05 by daz]

[Edited on 21/11/05 by daz]

NO NO NO !

Sell the chav-ped and buy a mig.

I told you it would come in use.

I had one ..Have done silly speeds on real bikes but falling of that .Over the bars in front of a transit hurt like buggery..I soon got rid

[Edited on 21/11/05 by big_wasa]

im buying a mig for chrsitmas anyway... i just wanted something to make while i wait till pay day

Methinks you've been watching too much Scrapheap Challenge! Or may be the sad one where people wreck their houses to build stupid machines just to get their mugs on the telly!

May be you should convince the other half that steel frame furniture is really cool and much better than Ikea flat pack, then you can start on the coffee table, but don't start the bed until you are well practiced as it is likely to be subject to potentially fatigue creating repetitive movement
Caber

quote:

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Originally posted by caber
Methinks you've been watching too much Scrapheap Challenge! Or may be the sad one where people wreck their houses to build stupid machines just to get their mugs on the telly!

May be you should convince the other half that steel frame furniture is really cool and much better than Ikea flat pack, then you can start on the coffee table, but don't start the bed until you are well practiced as it is likely to be subject to potentially fatigue creating repetitive movement
Caber

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A switch?
I think you'll need to be able to disconnect the alternator from the battery, otherwise when you try to start the engine you'll be pulling against the alternator load which is trying to charge the battery. Once the engine is running you can energise the alternator.
Oh! and a charging light just for completeness.

Save it and take it to Le Mans next year....police over there are rather more tolerant of them.....

This is esential (in one form or another) and will keep you out of mischief.
Rescued attachment trolley_05.jpg

Daz, your generator won't work properly. In a car the engine power is so much greater than the power taken by the alternator there is little effect on engine speed by varying the load on the alternator. With your set up you will need an engine governor that will increase engine output as load rises keeping the revs roughly the same otherwise there is a significant risk of the engine stallng as soon as you apply yload to the alterrnator. You also need to compare engine output with potential load on the generator, convert it all to Watts it will be easier to see what you can get.

The engine you have is more suited to a hand throttle device , say a chainsaw, food mixer, convertion of an electric flymo or some other such device where you can manually control engine speed.

If you don't fancy furniture them try Rorty's idea, he probably has full CAD plans for it somewhere :-) otherwise you could base it on a shopping trolley, freely available at the bottom of your local canal:-)

Regards

Caber

My donor is a pick up truck and I havea brand new bench seats that reclines....all I need is a proper subframe to bolt them together for a reclining couch for my garage.

I would sit it next to my refrigerator in the garage and hide from my wife.

Depend on what parts you have about the yard to what project you may want to build.

[Edited on 22/11/05 by dl_peabody]

well the little engine is capeable of taking me (14stone) 30mph, and it has a throttle, surey this will be ampleenough power to keep an alternator rotating, say off an old vw polo once ive cleaned off the oil ofcourse

liking rortys idea, was just thinking yesterday as i transported my arc welder how heavy the damn thing was, maybe a petrol driven one is an option (not literally!)

Hey dude why the heck not? It's all a learning curve. You might want to think about including a voltage regulator and a circuit breaker of some some into the circuit on you might end up building a battery boiler. A basic book on electric circuitry from the library would help. If you want to get really flash about generating some usable lectrickery there are whole websites out there devoted to turning motors from smartdrive washing machines into generators. Don't forget when out camping though that lead acid batterys do give off hydrogen when charging, don't wnat you hindenburging your tent... ;-)

yes it can be done. you will need to select the pulley size to spin the alternator at the right speeds for the current you require. You;ll need bractery that is adjustable to set the belt tension.

Also you will need to fit the ignition lamp (or resistor) since this provides self-excitation for the field coils.

Finally you must never run the alternator without a battery connected or you'll damage it.

hmm after all this its just dawned on me, the alternator will interfere with the radio/cd player... so any kind of audio setup with this is out of the window maybe a petrol powered fan would do the trick, tho im pretty sure the engine spins the wrong way for the blade i have.... still it will blow air onto the engine and cool it i suppose

[Edited on 22/11/05 by daz]

Daz - Makro have 240 generators for £40 + VAT from tomorrow, buy one of those. How much do you want for the scooter?

i dunno really, its an old tatty thing bright yellow called a miniscoot

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=75213&item=7179252700

thats the beast

[Edited on 22/11/05 by daz]

I was wondering about getting my Dad one so he doesn't have to walk so much if we go to Le Mans next year - got to be cheap though as it is a Christmas present for him and I might be buying Le Mans tickets!

well the engine cut off switch works when it wants to, guessing its not got a good connection to the fame, i just pull the spark plug cap off, much easier, tho the cut off sitch did work all the time when it was positioned off the handlebars and near to the engine, if your eve driving down derby way you can come and pick it up for £10