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K2
K2
What have you been doing today?
- Thread starter Shelton
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And I have more...! (As any trainspotter should!).
K2
K2
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Organize, re-organize. It gets a little better each time, hopefully. I like the labels on the organizers. Gotta have those if your memory is anything like mine.
Years ago I was visiting a younger friend and he had a big bucket of bolts and screws that he had "inherited" from his dad." He was getting a shed set up and asked how in the heck can I start to organize all of this, pointing to the bucket. I told him him, put them in 2 piles; one with points, and one without. It was a start.
3MW generator project is taking up all my time.
Not my photo, but the same unit, but with walk-in enclosure, 6,300 volt.
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Not my photo, but the same unit, but with walk-in enclosure, 6,300 volt.
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Hi Green Twin,
I heard a lecture - to an institute membership - about Caterpillar Gen Sets being used for various alternative fuels, by companies who had large amounts of waste fuel material and no easy way to dispose of the fuel stock.
He described how various fuels were successful - or less so - because of acids formed from the fuel stock during combustion causing early life destruction of exhaust valves, etc. He explained that from gas from Sewage, dust from saw mills, flour sized dust from mills of food-stuff, old vegetable oils, etc. almost any hydrocarbon can be burned, as long as the particle size is small enough. But some items were so quickly eroded, the maintenance costs were very significant, and warranties for engines using "controlled fuels" such as regular oils - are not appropriate when using alternative fuels. But the repayment from selling/using the electricity usually made it profitable anyway. Even if exhaust valves or other parts needed to be changed at as little as 1/6th of normal life. The plant capital costs and running costs including maintenance were still a good investment according to the accountants. But the first few installations cost Caterpillar a fortune in warranties, until appropriate "lifetimes" could be considered in the initial contracts. His customers usually needed anything from a half-dozen to more than 20 sets to consume their "free" feedstock. e.g. sewage farms, grain/flour mills where the husks could be ground and used as dust form, wood (sawdust making processes), etc.
Most fascinating!
Do tell us more about your job?
K2
I heard a lecture - to an institute membership - about Caterpillar Gen Sets being used for various alternative fuels, by companies who had large amounts of waste fuel material and no easy way to dispose of the fuel stock.
He described how various fuels were successful - or less so - because of acids formed from the fuel stock during combustion causing early life destruction of exhaust valves, etc. He explained that from gas from Sewage, dust from saw mills, flour sized dust from mills of food-stuff, old vegetable oils, etc. almost any hydrocarbon can be burned, as long as the particle size is small enough. But some items were so quickly eroded, the maintenance costs were very significant, and warranties for engines using "controlled fuels" such as regular oils - are not appropriate when using alternative fuels. But the repayment from selling/using the electricity usually made it profitable anyway. Even if exhaust valves or other parts needed to be changed at as little as 1/6th of normal life. The plant capital costs and running costs including maintenance were still a good investment according to the accountants. But the first few installations cost Caterpillar a fortune in warranties, until appropriate "lifetimes" could be considered in the initial contracts. His customers usually needed anything from a half-dozen to more than 20 sets to consume their "free" feedstock. e.g. sewage farms, grain/flour mills where the husks could be ground and used as dust form, wood (sawdust making processes), etc.
Most fascinating!
Do tell us more about your job?
K2
I like cat
I have rebuilt a few past .
45kw using a 3304 cat engine it smaller than you working on but just side projects. Have D8 cats
Dave
The unit I am specifying is actually just straight diesel, but it looks the same as that unit.
I work in the wastewater and stormwater renovation field, replacing medium voltage equipment and control systems.
Many large watewater/stormwater plants were built some 40 (+) years ago, and the environment is corrosive, so the equipment eventually begins to fail (so far not when I was touching it).
And unfortunately the electrical equipment in many plants was never designed to be replaced, and generally when it is replaced, the new equipment is larger.
I basically have to take a slash-and-burn approach, and remove anything/everything that is in the way of equipment; ie: walls, dirt, etc., and then figure out how to hoist out the old equipment, and hoist in the new equipment, and while keeping the facility operational.
A bit of a logistics nightmare, but it pays the bills, and it is not boring by any measure.
I often have temporary medium voltage cables strung around, and temporary unit substations, switchgear, etc.
I work on up to 23KV switchgear (did one set of 35KV outdoor substation breakers).
I actually just prepare the drawings and specifications; I don't actually work on the equipment myself.
Backup generators are a big deal these days, since this is tornado alley, and the power lines to the plant can get knocked down.
Some plants are lucky to have two feeds, each from separate utility substations, but some are not.
Some of the facilities where I am installing generators serve super critical nearby billion dollar industries, and so power reliability is extremely important.
Overflowing sewage can cause a large EPA fine, but that is the least of the problem. Overflowing the upstream industries can shut them down, and that is something that you never want to do.
My liability insurance is very high.
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Yes, the labels on the boxes make narrowing a search down. However, I learned something after I did the initial organization (during the Shutdown) – in addition to a label on the front with the contents, I made "maps" of the contents of each box; a great concept, but things changed:
This was a minor change, some of the maps had cross-outs, arrows and notes everywhere. With more boxes available, I have limited the range of contents in each so don't need a map (plus, I have other things to do now and don't want to take time updating (and continually revising) the maps.
Is the next step to split the bucket with pointy items into "point-on-the-left" and "point-on-the right?"
Richard Hed
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Cats are best when fried, but baked is good too particularly with baked potatoes. and vegetables..
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I use to restore Catapillers for hobby. I found model size was easier , cheaper and less space need. But cat could get ground ready for potatoes
and vegetables.Dave
Chazz, yes, the changing inventory does screw things up. Years ago my wife noticed a short steel cabinet with (30) 3x9 drawers on Craigslist, and I had a perfect spot for it. I usually buy my hardware by the box from McMaster and I labeled the drawers by basic size: #2, #4, #6, #8, #10, 1/4, etc. That way I usually only have to pull out one drawer to find the size bolt or nut I need. BUT, about 20 of the drawers do have families of items in them, but I often have to open 2 or 3 drawers till I find the correct one. And I do occasionally find the drawer that is, "ah, that's where I put that stuff." I am still hoping to find the place where I put the brand new Dremel tool. Grrr.
Lloyd
Lloyd
These big caterpillars are pretty good sauteed quick in olive oil with spinach and Parmesan. With the spinach, you never know when you are going to bite into one. Its better that way. I think they are more a vegetable than a meat.
I like my meat red... Just something I don't take to. My "salad" walking away...
But Caterpillars are green plant stuff converted to fat and protein, so very nutritious... But I don't think I am going to taste them anyway.
Or am I wrong: "Caterpillars are green plant stuff converted to fat and protein" => "Caterpillars are yellow plant stuff driven by big guys who eat lots of fat and protein"...?
OK, I'll crawl back in my cupboard...
K2
But Caterpillars are green plant stuff converted to fat and protein, so very nutritious... But I don't think I am going to taste them anyway.
Or am I wrong: "Caterpillars are green plant stuff converted to fat and protein" => "Caterpillars are yellow plant stuff driven by big guys who eat lots of fat and protein"...?
OK, I'll crawl back in my cupboard...
K2
Meat-eaters don't taste as good as herbivores like deer and cattle, but you often can mask their heavy taste by marinating strong and long.
Since we are away from machining stuff I thought of something I did with my kids when they were little. I grew tomatoes and horn worms were a real pest. I found they enjoyed shooting them with a BB gun with no BBs. The air blast alone was effective
Power reliability is a very serious thing in this city.
I can't name all the critical industries in this city, but suffice it to say, they don't like to lose power, since it costs them many millions per hour.
One facility here has on-site generation consisting of 20 1.25 MW units, and they have outgrown that capacity, and so are getting ready to build a new on-site generating facility, with perhaps 20 of the 3MW units.
When a storm is approaching, they start their gensets, and do a closed-transition transfer of the entire facility (millions of sq. ft.) to generator, to preemt any power outages. After the storm passes, they do a closed-transistion back to normal power.
During these closed transitions, they are operating in parallel with the local utility company, and so they have to sychronize to the utility grid prior to the transfers.
I don't have the project for the 20 units at 3MW, but I did add three 1.25 MW units to their existing facility.
It is quite a racket when all 20 units start up.
They use air starts, and those make a rather interesting sound by themselves.
Power generation is BIG business in this town.
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I can't name all the critical industries in this city, but suffice it to say, they don't like to lose power, since it costs them many millions per hour.
One facility here has on-site generation consisting of 20 1.25 MW units, and they have outgrown that capacity, and so are getting ready to build a new on-site generating facility, with perhaps 20 of the 3MW units.
When a storm is approaching, they start their gensets, and do a closed-transition transfer of the entire facility (millions of sq. ft.) to generator, to preemt any power outages. After the storm passes, they do a closed-transistion back to normal power.
During these closed transitions, they are operating in parallel with the local utility company, and so they have to sychronize to the utility grid prior to the transfers.
I don't have the project for the 20 units at 3MW, but I did add three 1.25 MW units to their existing facility.
It is quite a racket when all 20 units start up.
They use air starts, and those make a rather interesting sound by themselves.
Power generation is BIG business in this town.
.
No pics of the process: finally decided to change the blade on my DeWalt PortaBand (still had the original blade from 2018! I don't use it a lot) as I saw some chipped teeth. Trying a Lennox Wolf-Band 10/14.
