large low speed generators
Hi Folks:
I just spent two hours going over your forum and it is awesome. I am not a full time scrapper, but I have a considerable amount of scrap in the back yard. I'm always collecting stuff and I bought a couple of old hydro generators for $1,500 and spent another $2,500 moving them about 8 years back. I have read through most of the forum pages on motors and scrapping and it does seem that the general opinion is that it is marginally economical to go through and disassemble them for scrapping. I have three GE horizontal, synchronous (have slip rings and separate rotor coils), 600 rpm, 300 hp generators that are not worth repairing. They sat outside for 20 years and the insulation is crap so I want to scrap them. Also, I have two 500 hp vertical, induction (no slip rings), generators that are 180 rpm and they also sat outside too long and are ruined.
The lower the speed of the generator (or motor), the more copper is contained in it. So are the majority of the motors being scrapped by you guys high speed (1800-3600 rpm) or is a mixed lot of high speed and low speed? The 180 rpm generators look like they have significantly more copper than the 600 rpm units.
The 300 hp generators weigh approximately 8,000# each according to GE and the book weight for the 500 hp units are 22,000 # each. Unfortunately, the manufacturers did not break it down into copper versus iron. These are low speed generators so will I get more than 10% weight as copper?
Also, what metal grade are large casting put into? A friend told me the 300 hp units are "original run" cast iron and was worth more, although I think he is full of it.
This is a big project for myself and any advice or insight would be very much appreciated. Thanks
Will
