My latest, long term project has been getting a genset put together. It has been a little tough because the plan is to take a barn-find Perkins Reefer Engine made in 1978, and has not been run since at least 1988, and team it up with a 20 KW PTO generator. The idea is cogeneration, an idea I got when I was without grid power, and realized how much heat was being wasted by my Kubota Tractor while making power. My idea was, if I can get a separate diesel engine, power a generator, and then take the engine heat and pump it into my radiant floor heating system so I can make both electricity, and heat for my home.
The engine itself has been a challenge. It only has 2607 hours on it, on an engine designed to run 30,000 hours plus, so it is well worth getting running. But I had to tear into it far more than I thought, but in the end I will have a 55 hp diesel engine that I can make plenty of power and heat with.
There is no huge amount of welding on this project. Most fabrication work has consisted of dismantling its reefer frame, adding engine mounts, and finally extending the frame to hold the PTO generator. That is what is next however, so I am looking forward to doing that.
My home welding set up is very basic, an AC stick welder and a grinder, but I am a minimalist at heart, so I like to show that nice things can be made without a lot of fancy tools. But this is what I am starting with in any case: The Perkins Engine barn-find as I found it.
The engine itself has been a challenge. It only has 2607 hours on it, on an engine designed to run 30,000 hours plus, so it is well worth getting running. But I had to tear into it far more than I thought, but in the end I will have a 55 hp diesel engine that I can make plenty of power and heat with.
There is no huge amount of welding on this project. Most fabrication work has consisted of dismantling its reefer frame, adding engine mounts, and finally extending the frame to hold the PTO generator. That is what is next however, so I am looking forward to doing that.
My home welding set up is very basic, an AC stick welder and a grinder, but I am a minimalist at heart, so I like to show that nice things can be made without a lot of fancy tools. But this is what I am starting with in any case: The Perkins Engine barn-find as I found it.