Possible to build a generator with a spare briggs engine?

What happened to the log splitter project? You can build anything in this world if you put your mind to it. First off you need to find out your anticiapated amperage load. Is your motor a vertical or horizontal shaft. Easiiest way would be a pulley / belt system or perhaps a flex ty0pe coupling to attach to one of those units as sold by Surplus center. I guess you could drive a alternator from a vehicle and alter its output somewhat. an 11 hp should have lots of capacity to drive a decent sized generator. But a gen is gonna run some money to buy. For what you can but a commercially made gen set for nowadays until you figure in and make a sourcxe for constant coltage control and other features, it would probably run you more to build a gen set just to utilize this engine than you could buy one for already made.
Just my opinion
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Nice idea but: The mower engine has very poor speed control so will result in wide fluctuations of frequency and voltage. You will need wiring, fuses and ideally an earth leakage trip. Small generators are cheaply available all wired up and ready to go. I would question whether it's worth your time making one. However, if you just want a project, that's another matter. You will find that your furnace should have a makers plate which gives its electrical power requirements. Add about 25% to this to allow for starting current and get the next standard size up.
John

One thing I did was use a car alternator, you can use a regulater and a battery to get your 12 volts. you can then run an inverter to get your 120 volts. Thats fine if your furnace is 120 volt some are 220. 800 watt inverters are getting inexpensive, you won't even need to run the motor at full rpm.
Now for the fun bypass the reg and you now can weld.

Wayne wrote: (clip) Now for the fun bypass the reg and you now can weld. ^^^^^^^^^^^ Most portable electric hand tools run better on DC than AC, so you will be able to "soup up" your tools. There used to be an accessory you could install under your hood for doing this, and I wish I could find one. I would love to run my electric chain saw this way.

I still like the idea of building one. Any my father could use it. I was hoping to burn wood in my house. I have a wood burning fireplace but I was told that they are not very efficient and are mostly for looks. I called around about putting in a stove and everyone said it would be majorily difficult and I would have to replace the entire chiney of pipe.
I just hate building and spending money on something I will not be able to use.
I wish I would have put a stove in when the house was built but that was the last thing on my mind at the time.

Have you already seen the site ? Somewhere on the site is a project for building a battery charger from an old gas engine. Also a lot of other interesting stuff! Enjoy! Reto

My neighbor had a motor and a generator and he asked me to make a portable generator unit out of it. It worked, but lacked many features taken for granted in a manufactured unit; such as, voltage regulation and frequency regulation.
The engine had a governor, but it still slowed down, some, when load was applied. Worst of all, the voltage sagged considerably under heavy load. I wired in a manual voltage control, so it worked, after a fashion.
The neighbor didn't figure the project would cost anything, but his generator didn't have a permanent magnet field. It didn't have any residula magnetism to start generating, so he had to pay for a battery to get the excitation started.
Your project is do-able, but you'd be much better off with a factory-built unit.
Orrin
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