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91
Wind Power Machines / Re: I finally finished my Toshiba motor conversion!
Last post by bigrockcandymountain -
The more time that goes by and the more I see and learn, the more I think i got really lucky with my motor conversion.  It's never been opened up since 2018 or whenever i put it up.  I grease bearings once a year, and work on the blades from time to time, but otherwise it is great. 

I know i thought about a drain/weep hole when i put it up, but I don't even know if I left one open or not.  We haven't had hardly any rain since 2018, so that helps i guess.

So what did you do to decog?  Did you get it back up and running?  I see I'm pretty late on this thread? 
93
Soil and Growing / Re: 2026 garden season, what are you growing?
Last post by MaryB -
I hear you on weird weather... it was 95f in my part of MN yesterday!

Checked raised bed soil temps at 4" deep... still a touch to cold to plant. Another week will do it. Smaller beds were 55f, big 12x4' bed 49f.
94
Wind Power Machines / Re: I finally finished my Toshiba motor conversion!
Last post by MaryB -
I see pics of ham radio operators opening sealed boxes to find an electronics swimming pool... one guy ruined a $400 preamp...

And it is worse in cold climates with temp cycling day to night... cooling at night causes a vacuum in the box, damper night air gets sucked in with no easy way out after the water condenses
95
Wind Power Machines / Re: I finally finished my Toshiba motor conversion!
Last post by SparWeb -
You've hit on the root-cause already!
The case of this motor is TEFC, totally enclosed fan cooled, and it doesn't have any vents or openings.
As I was looking for evidence of water, I noticed that the case was drilled for a lifting lug, but I hadn't installed the lug.  Peering down into that hole, I can see the stator!
Furthermore, the case does have a weeping hole, but only one the rear end of the stator, not the front end. 
So - a definite point of entry and not enough ways to exit. 
96
Soil and Growing / Re: 2026 garden season, what are you growing?
Last post by Bruce S -
Didn't get much done lately.
A nice short vacation to KC that met us with a tornado , then another down in Belton, MO.
Weather that had all kinds of warnings going off headed into StL once again causing our tomato stakes to end up outside of the yard.
Luckily they're still to short to stake up.
Squash and Cucumbers all have pretty flowers on them so we had to quickly erect rabbit barriers.
Still no room in the freezers for more rabbits  8) .
Here's hoping the weather gets back to normal soon!!

Cheers!!
97
Soil and Growing / Re: 2026 garden season, what are you growing?
Last post by MaryB -
Nice 80 degree day yesterday(I am NOT used to heat LOL ) so I cleared all the winter debris out of my raised bed, dug up crab grass roots as much as possible(impossible to get them all). One bed is a mess, need to turn all the soil over and sift out roots. Just half a 55 gallon barrel so won't be to much of a back killer...
98
Wind Power Machines / Re: I finally finished my Toshiba motor conversion!
Last post by MaryB -
Water is an insidious enemy and even on a sealed motor moisture WILL get in!

I have electronics at the tops of my ham radio towers... So many seal the box which is a mistake. A weep hole for condensation to find a way out is a must!

On a motor conversion I would add a weep hole in the lowest point of the case... doesn't have to be big, I use a 1/16 inch drill bit to add it... water will accumulate and as the motor heats it will expand the air in the case pushing the water out.
99
Wind Power Machines / I finally finished my Toshiba motor conversion!
Last post by SparWeb -
I'm not kidding.  I never finished it.  I've been using it in my wind turbine for years, but it wasn't done.  I knew it, but I didn't do anything about it.  Until now.

Here's how its rotor looked in 2008 when I stopped working on it:

DSCN7108 - Copy - Copy.JPG

The magnets have slight offsets, but are lined up on the axis of the shaft and secured with screws only.  No skew, no sealant. Then I moved on to do other wind turbine projects, built more motor-conversions, and used those for a long time.  The Toshiba conversion sat on a shelf.  Waiting.

Then in 2021, I did something stupid. While putting the blades on the shaft of the genny I was using at the time (a Baldor motor conversion) I neglected thread locking.  Less than a year later, the blades wiggled themselves off the shaft.  Surprisingly little damage, considering the blades flew free and fell 70 feet down (I was very lucky it wasn't a write-off).  However, the Baldor genny was unusable.  But I did have the spare Toshiba gen...

So the Toshiba was put to service at last, 13 years later.  It's been running for years like this, with 10-foot cedar blades on it, working rather well.  No - the real problem, which I have finally fixed, is that I never FINISHED the Toshiba conversion.  On motor conversions that I finished after the Toshiba, I carefully bonded the magnets in place, and fastened them with screws.  I didn't do that with the Toshiba conversion, probably intending to try various changes (I can't remember now).

Last month the Toshiba started making little grinding noises.  Subtle at first, but impossible to ignore after a week.  I shut it down, lowered the tower, took the blades off, and started inspecting.
Huh, at first I couldn't see anything wrong.  So I put the blades back on, and gave them a free spin...  grind grind grind.  I had to dismantle the wind turbine a lot more to find out.  The Toshiba was lifted off the mount, and brought into the shop.
Once I took it apart, this is what I found:

20260408_214534_Rusty_Magnet - Copy.jpg

Several of those magnets have rusted.  There are other signs that water got inside the case.  In the winter, the water, in the form of frost, infiltrated all of the gaps and spaces between the magnets and the rotor.  When corrosion started, the particles coming free stayed stuck, but CAKED in ways that lifted the magnets off of the surface of the rotor.  The worst of the magnets (shown here) has a lot of magnetic particles packed underneath it, probably from repeated cycles of ice forming, expanding, rusting, and leaving the particles to pry up the magnet for the next cycle.  Once the magnet was pried up enough, it started scraping on the stator.

So I took it all apart, cleaned it up best I could, and then bedded down the magnets with epoxy, and replaced all of the screws.  Plus a few coats of paint to keep water from seeping in.  While I did this I also DECOGGED the damn thing, too.  I've been listening to it hum for years now.

20260419_154125_Painted - Copy.jpg

With all that done, the shaft turns virtually cog-free, and it's being put back on the tower soon. Hopefully back in operation this weekend.
100
Soil and Growing / Re: 2026 garden season, what are you growing?
Last post by Bruce S -
We use OKRA in a variety of things, good in a gumbo, great as a soup thickener and if ALL HELL breaks loose it's a half decent substitute for coffee. Takes a boat load of seeds to make even a 10 cup pot, BUT when 1 plant will make pods until the freeze kills the plant  ;) .

Cheers
Bruce S