Micro CoGen.

I have an MEP 531A generator. It's pretty nice in many ways. But, what I don't like about it is that it's about as loud as anything I've ever heard.

I've been wondering if the Yanmar L48 engines can run at speeds that are slower than 3000-3600 rpm. I was thinking like 2k rpm or so.

The Yanmar data sheet I down loaded had a curves down to 1800 rpm or so but I've never seen it done.

It seems like it would be a fun project to try to get one and belt drive a 2500w head with it as a small generator.

I have a new project going here.

About 2 years ago I bought a Miller Pipe Pro 304 welder. I didn't know a lot about it other than it had a Kubota engine in it. It had 2500 hours, engine ran well, and the generator worked. It turned out to be an engine driven inverter welder. Not well executed at all on Miller's part. I have several Miller welders and generally like their stuff but this is a piece of garbage on many fronts. I got the welder working and it quit soon after. The generator was a 2 pole generator so would run at 3600 rpm. Additionally, the generator voltage regulator on it is somewhat intertwined with the welder so it's hard to separate the two. The engine is the only bright side of the thing. It's a Kubota D1005.

The engine didn't come with an SAE bell housing or flywheel. It had  a Miller home made adapter. I debated about how to go and decided first to just buy a flywheel and bell housing on ebay. That turned out to be a rat hole. I wound up with an SAE 5 bell housing and an SAE 6.5 flywheel. This is what I needed but the bell housing is a short one and the flywheel a long one and the two won't work together. I was able to return the flywheel. Still stuck with the bell housing for now.

I wound up ordering a bell housing/flywheel kit from Central Georgia Generator along with one of their 11kw single bearing generators. It's all here. The bell housing/flywheel kit is not on their web site so I didn't know that was an option at first. I'm having to do some carving on the welder chassis to get it all to fit. I have some bolts and vibration isolators on order from McMaster Carr and then will proceed.

One issue I hope won't be insurmountable is that the engine is two speed. It's set to 'idle' at 2400 or so and kick up to 3600 when the generator gets loaded. There is a second solenoid in there to do the speed change. I can remove this. I think the engine defaults to the lower speed. I can turn the speed down to 1800 but I'm hoping that the governor will still regulate well there. Not much on the internet on the governors on these engines.

Pictures below-

I made this skid for it soon after receiving it. Also tried to close up all the holes where varmints could get in. I've since painted it and put new decals on it. I think I will rip the Miller decals off though since it's not much miller anymore.
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New bell housing and fly wheel...
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This is my first post here.

I picked up a fixer-upper Allmand light tower that had a locked up engine. I got a replacement engine for it from a guy on Ebay (kubota d905) and have the engine/generator portion of it put back together. While I had it apart I put a new bearing in the generator and cleaned it up some. I also flashed the rotor while I had it apart since it had not been run for a long time. The generator is a 120/240v output. I have been using a 1500w space heater as a test load. What happens when I load one of the 120v legs out of the generator the voltage drops down to 100v or so and the other leg goes up to about 150v. I also used the generator some last night with a chop saw and it really bogs down. I see where some of you bought some surplus Marathon Pancake generators and wondered if you had seen this. One thing I have not done but I think I will is to replace the capacitor on the generator.