My electric chain saw is such a POS that I looked for convenient ways to cut up firewood with the gas saws. The Husqvarna is really too big, loud and powerful but the small MacCulloch is civilized enough to cut rather than throw branches as long as I don't file the rakers down. Those are the protrusions between the cutting teeth that control depth of cut.
I made two folding sawbucks, X's connected by 2x4s, put the log on them and cut about 8' at a time. If the log isn't too heavy I put the sawbucks in the trailer so the cut pieces fall into the bed. The saw's idle is set low enough that the chain doesn't move when I set it down on a clear spot to move the log. The noise isn't a problem here, the neighbors are bikers and construction workers with their own chain saws.
I would guess it would run about three hours on the same amount of gas. From my experience the inverter gennies are far superior on gas mileage when running small loads. But, like you said, it doesn't make much difference once you get up around 3/4 load or more.
One thing that seems to get overlooked is that the eu2000 is rated for 2000 watts for only 20 minutes. My GG2300 is rated for 2000 watts continuous and
2300 surge but, as Neon John pointed out, the cheap generator will keep chugging along if overloaded but the Honda will shut down. If the high quality sine wave is needed then sure, go with the Honda.
Cabela's had the Yamaha EF2400is on sale for $1099, plus I had almost $200 in "Cabelas bucks" on my credit card, and they gave me a $150 gift card from a promotion they have going (good 'til the end of the year.) And I'll get $20 Cabelas bucks back.
I bought it last night. Was gonna try it out today, but the only 10w-30 oil I have handy is synthetic, and that doesn't seem like a good idea for breaking in a new engine. Will buy a quart of cheap oil tomorrow. At the first oil change I'll mix the remaining 10 ounces of cheap oil with 10 ounces of synthetic, then switch to all synthetic oil at the 2nd oil change.
The oil change schedule is longer than I expected; the first change is at 20 hours, then every 100 hours after that. I'm not sure I want to stretch it that far.
Any of you A.E.Homepower folk hook up an inverter generator to your house with a transfer switch? What do you do about grounding? (Normal generators bond the neutral, but inverters float the output and the neutral is isolated. I'm not sure if that matters) I assume you don't use an isolation transformer. Run three wires, and bond the ground and neutral at the transfer switch? I'm planning on using this with 10 ga and 12 ga extension cords and not tie into the house wiring so it won't really matter, but just thinking ahead.
Hmmm, an isolation transformer to step up 110V --> 220V with a center tap could be interesting...
If you have the generator neutral bonded you need to drive a rod and the transfer equipment also needs to switch the neutral. That will be a separately derived system. If you lift the neutral to ground bond in the generator you only switch the phase legs and you are using the grounding system in the service. That is probably the best way to do a small residential generator. You could even use one of the interlock kits that attach to your existing panel if you can get the breakers arranged right.
What I'm concerned about is the generator has no bonding strap and no provision to add one. It does have a terminal on the frame for adding a grounding electrode conductor (but it's a small one that will not accommodate a #6 wire.) Not sure if bonding -- at the generator *or* at the switch -- will hurt the inverter circuitry. The owners manual is silent about it.
What I was thinking about someday is a 30A transfer switch with 6 or 8 circuit breakers, and use it as a subpanel right next to the main panel. I could move the critical circuits and a few convenience outlets to the little subpanel.
You don't want to bond any generator connected with a transfer switch. Only place for bonding is in the main panel.
As you said, my Honda gives meaningless voltage readings UNTIL it is attached to the transferswitch. Then it has a 120v hot and a 0v neutral just like it should. I've run it for 5 days that way and it is just.
Right. But that will still pull the neutral at the generator to ground potential. I understand how to wire it right from the house's perspective, I just don't want to hurt the generator circuitry.
That's what I needed to hear. :-)
It would be really cool if my main panel has a main-breaker lock-out kit* where the first breaker can only be closed if the main is open (and vice versa.) I need to check on that. It's a GE panel, about 15 or 20 years old. That would make it really easy. I could back-feed one leg of the panel without rewiring /anything/, just install one of those recessed-male weatherproof outlets on the back of the house. The lock-out kit would provide mechanical isolation from the mains.
*Do y'all know what I'm talking about? It's a sliding piece of metal that blocks the main breaker or the first circuit breaker, so only one can be closed at a time. I could fabricate one myself and rivet it in place but doubt that that would be Kosher.
Cheap Charlie. Spend a grand on a genset and then skimp on the oil. As homer would say Doh! Buy the best oil that you can afford. First change is to get casting remnants and manufacturing dross out of engine. Why jeopardize motor for the sake a few cents?
I'm not skimping on the oil, The first oil change is to seat the rings (and the main bearings, I think.) That doesn't work as well if you use synthetic oil. It will actually cost me more to go to the store and buy a quart of SF mineral oil than the difference in price for the SJ-or-better synthetic oil I have already.
But "penny wise and pound foolish" is the sort of thing I tend to do if I'm not careful. :-)
Somewhere, sometime I recall hearing somebody who seemed to know what they were talking about saying there's no problem mixing Mobil-1 with regular oil.
Been going on that assumption ever since by topping up my vehicle with dino oil towards the end of an oil change interval.
BTW, I was specifically referring to the Honda EU2000.
I also own a Yamaha EF1000 and hooked it up to see how it would do. It started my refrigerator without problem, and that takes 16A. I didn't test the voltage, but presume it was 120v and 0v.
This "MAY" put you out of compliance with the NEC in the USA... This is not a well understood area of NEC Compliance, and even the folks that write and update the NEC, have been disscussing the issue for the last DECADE, and the practical issues are not universally accepted around the industry. You best bet, is to consult your local Electrical Inspector, and do as "He" suggests, then if you burn your house down, at least your Homeowners Insurance WILL pay off.
I started it up, and it's really quiet -- just like it's supposed to be. I plugged a 6' heavy duty extension cord into it and tried a few power tools. Everything will start except my 1 HP (but it's old enough that it's an honest 1 HP) table saw. Will have to try it later with the 8000 BTU air conditioner since it's capacitor-start like the table saw. The other high-draw tools I tried all had universal motors.
I wonder if the saw might start up if there was an additional resistive load on the genny, like maybe a 300W incandescent light or a hair drier, to get the thing off idle before I turn on the saw? (should also help with the power factor)
I shut off the gas petcock and let it run dry, and it ran for
*several minutes* just on the gas in the carburetor bowl. After the first minute or so I was beginning to think the shutoff didn't work.
My timing belt just crapped out because of a stuck intake valve, where can I get a new belt and can you explain how to time it?
Thanks
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f0rger_at_hotmail_dot snipped-for-privacy@foo.com (Forger) wrote in news:XSTDk.34$ snipped-for-privacy@textfe.usenetserver.com:
I'll give it a shot. Here is the part
The Belt:
PRODUCT INFORMATION: Mfg Product Number: 14400-Z0D-003 Description: BELT (61YU7 G-200) for Honda Order Quantity: 1 Unit Price: $11.10 Total Cost: $11.10
Oil Splasher PRODUCT INFORMATION: Mfg Product Number: 16512-ZL8-000 Description: HOLDER for Honda Order Quantity: 3 Unit Price: $1.86 Total Cost: $5.58
Its always a good idea (thanks Ullyses) to change out the plastic oil splasher while you are in there. Its only six bucks or so. As they get older they tend to get brittle and its easy to change once you've got everything apart.
I ordered from
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Even with shipping it runs cheaper than my local honda dealer who wanted like 18 bucks for the belt. Anyway you just plug the part no in -- or shop around as you like -- either way.
You'll also need some liquid gasket gunk. I use the stuff made by honda 'Hondabond HT, but probably any quality stuff would work.
So you gotta drain the oil, pull all the plastic, pull the carb, pull the exhaust, pull the valve cover and then pull the crank case. Its kind of a pain.
Give it a good clean out etc, replace the oil splasher. This might be a good time to test the low oil sensor -- i had one go bad just after I put everything backtogether.. sucked. You just hook a test light up to it and submerge it in oil. takes a few mins
So I've found its easiest to pull the pin on the timing gear (just with a plyers or whatnot) and set the belt up with the timing gear kind of hanging lose. Then you rotate the crank till you see a little square indentation on the crank and a notch. Line that up so its virtical (i think there might be another mark you can match with).. anyway its supposed to be at the top as you look at it. The timing gear itself has a horizontal line that should match up with the case. When you see it you'll know what I'm talking about. They made it pretty easy. That should be TDC.
Then you can pull up the timing gear and slip the pin back in .. then you are good to go. Clean the case and goo it up
Just use your aluminum fingers putting those bolts back in.. they'll strip easy if you get too aggressive with them.
They say you are supposed to change all the gaskets (exaust, carb etc) when you do this but i'm too cheap and so far so good on using the old ones. Just be careful and don't break em :)
good luck.
-zachary
PS: i've had the timing a bit off before after a rebuild. Once the belt is on you can pull that gear pin and set the gear a few teeth one way or the other after you reassemble -- once the belt is on you won't have to take the crank case off or even all the plastic again if you think it needs a little adjustment after you are done. Thank gowd for that man .. the plastic etc is a pain in the ass to keep taking off all the time.
That might very well help. I sometimes have to do something similar with my RV's AC unit in very hot weather. The Generac inverter generator idles down so slow with no load that it can't handle the starting inrush. Most of the time just letting the AC's fan come up to speed is enough. If not, a momentary tweak of the microwave's timer knob does the trick. When I'm going to be in a very hot climate for awhile such as my periodic trip to Texas to visit a friend, I simply turn the idle screw up a bit so that the engine can't idle down as much.
A refrigeration-type hard start (AKA KickStarter) kit on the saw might help. Basically a capacitor and either a thermistor or relay, the kit supplies the reactive power the motor needs to get going.
Inverter generators can make you pull your hair out on occasion. Things that obviously should run sometimes don't. A little fiddling around with other load sometimes fixes it.
John
-- John De Armond See my website for my current email address
Thank you! Very clear - makes perfect sense.. thanks :)
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