Author Topic: The Dickson!  (Read 34677 times)

Offline Dave Otto

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Re: The Dickson!
« Reply #150 on: May 01, 2023, 09:39:39 PM »
Wow what an amazing amount of work!
Thanks for the update.

Dave

Online Kim

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Re: The Dickson!
« Reply #151 on: May 01, 2023, 11:48:40 PM »
Wow!  What Dave said!   :popcorn:

That's a lot of little copper wires to keep track of - hope you don't lose any of the labels!  :o

Kim

Offline jcge

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Re: The Dickson!
« Reply #152 on: May 02, 2023, 12:26:36 AM »
Very impressive work Dennis !!
John

Online crueby

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Re: The Dickson!
« Reply #153 on: May 02, 2023, 03:45:53 AM »
That is a LOT of leads to keep track of! Quite impressive work on it all.   :popcorn:

Offline Admiral_dk

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Re: The Dickson!
« Reply #154 on: May 02, 2023, 12:09:58 PM »
Very impressive work and (way too) many wires to keep track off  :praise2:   :praise2:

Per    :cheers:

Offline Roger B

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Re: The Dickson!
« Reply #155 on: May 06, 2023, 08:05:33 AM »
Splendid  :praise2:  :praise2: That's some fiddley work coming up next  ::)
Best regards

Roger

Offline Dennis

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Re: The Dickson!
« Reply #156 on: June 05, 2023, 11:15:25 PM »
A few more weeks have passed and I can say without a doubt, you were all correct!! There were a lot of wires to keep track of, some labels fell off, and they are all small and delicate. 

After making all of the connections and checking them three or four times, there are still a lot of leads but only half as many as before.  Cleaning the leads was a big chore, I purchased one of the electric enamel strippers and it worked very well even though my leads were a size smaller than the minimum size the tool is recommended for.  The magnet wire I purchased had a heavy coating of a high temp insulating material.  If I got the wire hot enough to burn off the insulation, the wire melted.  The manufacturer said the only way to get it off was to scrape it or use sandpaper.  Both suggestions worked but it was difficult.

The long leads were the easiest to deal with because I could spread them out to get to the other wires.  Next time, I plan to make all of the coils, clean the ends and make the connections as each coil is inserted.  That will at least eliminate the birds nest of loose ends to sort out after all the coils are installed.

Here is a photo of the semi tamed "wild thing".  It has been a learning experience for sure, This armature is for Maury's model so there are still two more to make for my own model.  I will let you know how the learning curve shapes up.

Offline Admiral_dk

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Re: The Dickson!
« Reply #157 on: June 06, 2023, 10:47:54 AM »
Not quite finished - but a lot of work done  :praise2:

Regarding stripping the wires - ALL Modern wires of this kind, is meant to be stripped with heat and solder as this is much simpler and easier to do + no risk of shortening it while doing so.
If you have a thermostat on the soldering Iron - set it to around 350C, heat end of wire and apply Rosin-Cored-Solder => Enamel is replaced with solder, ready for connection. Alternatively - dip ends in molten solder, and hold until wire is ready - 3-15 seconds depending on wire diameter.
So strange if your supplier only had more than 40 year old wire in stock ....  :headscratch:

Per           

Offline Dennis

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Re: The Dickson!
« Reply #158 on: June 06, 2023, 05:14:25 PM »
Thank you for the suggestions, Admiral, I have a lot to learn in the electronics area.  The wire I purchased had a polymide coating with a 240 degree C rating. (465 F)  I was concerned about scraping off the insulation as I was going to sew the wire around the core and thought it might be scrapped as I pulled it through the openings causing a short.  The polymide was recommended because it is the toughest.  When I ordered the wire, the stripping of the coil leads never entered my mind.  I purchased a solder hot pot and set it to it's highest temperature but it did not remove the coating.  I just looked at the supplier's web page and there are 3 magnet wires available with much lower service temperatures than the one I purchased.  All part of the learning process, next time I will be better prepared to make the selection.

With this project and previous projects, I have received only good advice and suggestions from readers which I appreciate very much.  My only regret is I didn't start about 50 years sooner.

Thank you all for your comments and suggestions.

Offline Admiral_dk

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Re: The Dickson!
« Reply #159 on: June 06, 2023, 10:17:50 PM »
Polymide coating is a good thing + I'm pretty sure that this only stable up to 240C (very high compared to most others) .... - the majorety are 150C or 180C ....

My Weller Soldering Irons will go to 450C - so I would expect the Iron to remove your polymide coating too  :mischief:        .... but most cheap Irons can't  :wallbang:

None the less - I would try if I was you - as it is so much simpler   :cheers:

Per

Offline Dennis

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Re: The Dickson!
« Reply #160 on: July 07, 2023, 04:25:28 PM »
The dynamo armature is finally completely assembled!!!!  Here is a photo of the finished armature showing the commutator bolted to the armature and the windings soldered to the commutator segments.  This has been a real learning experience (my first venture into power generation).  Holding the armature on a temporary shaft mounted between test centers made it more convenient to solder the armature coil leads to the commutator and secure the windings.

Many of the difficulties I encountered could have been avoided by:
1 cleaning the coil leads before inserting them into the armature core
2 leaving the leads longer and trimming them after soldering to the commutator
3 making the coil connections as the coils are inserted into the armature core
4 use magnet wire with the lower temperature coatings that can be more easily cleaned off

I hope this is helpful to anyone building a dynamo for the first time.

Online Kim

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Re: The Dickson!
« Reply #161 on: July 07, 2023, 05:24:55 PM »
Wow!  That was quite the project!  Nicely done.  Looking forward to seeing it work!   :ThumbsUp: :popcorn:

Kim

Offline Admiral_dk

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Re: The Dickson!
« Reply #162 on: July 07, 2023, 05:36:17 PM »
Great to see that you have copleted the Armature  :praise2:

Quite a big amount off work for 'Just one Piece'  ;D - bet you are very pleased that this one is behind you now  :cheers:

Per

Offline Roger B

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Re: The Dickson!
« Reply #163 on: July 10, 2023, 05:30:30 PM »
 :ThumbsUp:  :ThumbsUp:  :ThumbsUp:
Best regards

Roger

Offline Dennis

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Re: The Dickson!
« Reply #164 on: October 08, 2023, 10:52:16 PM »
Hello to the people still following this thread.  Thank you for your continued interest in this slow moving project.

I have made some more progress on the Dickson Dynamo, completing the brush holders and brush lifting assembly.  Progress has been slow over the last few months with some backtracking and redesigning, Finally there is some progress to show. 

Photo one shows the brush holders assembly.  The original dynamo was designed with two brushes on each of the 24 poles.  I believe this was to prevent system downtime in the event of one brush failing in service. 

Photo two shows the brush lifting linkages.  This assembly has a lot of little parts for fat fingers to deal with.  The lifting mechanism works the same way as the original dynamo, however, I did change the design a little to make the parts easier to produce.

Photo three is the full brush holder and brush lifting assembly.  The assembly is a little stiffer than I would like so I am hoping with a little exercise it will loosen up.  There are 130 machined parts in this assembly and 160 fastener type parts.  All of the threaded connections were assembled with lock tight to keep them from vibrating loose.  At this scale, getting to any of the many fasteners to tighten a loose nut is virtually impossible without some extensive disassembly.

Photo four is the original dynamo at Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn MI. for anyone who has not had the opportunity to see engine in person.

Next step will be installing the brushes and wiring harness, which I hope will be a lot faster the building the assembly.  There are still about 20 machined parts to make before the dynamo is completed and ready to run.


 

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