flather dynamo

Gents, After 12 months of pestering, a customer of mine has finally decided to sell me his large dynamo and control board. Its made by Flather & Co LTD, Park Electrical Works, Leeds, England. Its 100-140 volts at 1150RPM 28 AMPS, an seems in good condition, the brushes are good, but theres a little wear in the bearings that hopefully should'nt take much sorting out. The control panel, i am led to believe is original to the dynamo, but unfortunatly theres a bit of slate chipped of at the top corner. The voltage guage has been replaced at some point as it does'nt match the other, theres a space where another guage should be, but having no knowlege of generating plant im not sure what that one would be for. Any ideas? i could also use any advice or a diagram on wireing up the control panel for use on the rally field as i want it to be as safe as poss. also Is there any way of dateing the dynamo? my guess from the style it dates from around

1910 but i'm open to correction. I'll make a trolly for it as its very heavy and if all goes well i will have it belted up to my Lister N or Q at astle next year. Photos at
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Regards Gary M
Reply to
gary millward
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I think you might be right about the date, although this kind of board was in use for many years both before and after. I'd stand to be corrected of course, but this looks to me like a heavily modified example, hence the none matching meters. Are there many spare holes?

Here's a photo of the one I bought to go with the Crossley 1075 & its dynamo. Fine until you spot the missing fuses!

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If you scroll around it, you'll find some pics of WW2 WD Paxoline boards & a very early wooden one which was taken out of service in 1917!

I can't be much use with the electrical side, but as to chipping of the slate .............

Get an old piece of Melamine faced board - a bit of old kitchen worktop will do fine. Cut to appropriate size & clamp into place on the panel to act as "Shuttering" around the damaged area. The idea is to obtain a first class repair without having to refinish it or blend it in which will always show afterwards.

Get hold of a roofing slate the same colour, break some off and grind up into a fine powder. Mix 75/25% Araldite/slate & cast up a couple of blobs before you start on the panel to check the final colour. Don't use the crappy fast setting stuff - only the slow setting hard stuff is any good in this context.

When your happy with the colour (you can easily darken it with dry black poster paint), fix up a ordinary household 60 watt bulb so it is close to the Melamine faced shuttering. Turn on & leave for several hours. This will get the whole thing hot - certainly around 100oC or so.

Now mix up measured quantities of slate dust & Araldite, dripping it into the space a bit at a time. Don't rush it! The heated mixture will get quite runny & with a fair wind, the air bubbles will rise to the surface & disperse. Keep adding the mixture until the board is repaired. Leave the lamp on and the Araldite will set within the hour even though it says eight on the pack. Turn off the lamp & leave for several hours to cool & stabilise.

Remove the shuttering & if you are lucky, the chipped board will be good to go. Fill in holes in the board in the same way.

Regards,

J. Kim Siddorn,

Reply to
Kim Siddorn

Very tasty :-) Flather dynamos are common on Showman's and were also used by Pelapone at least. They did not seem to change stylistically so dating will be difficult. However I'd agree the one remaining original instrument looks c1910s. My best guess: The board logically splits in half vertically with one half (probably the RH) being for charging i.e the dynamo and the other for the load (lamps or batteries). There seem to be some holes and label ghosts below the missing centre meter and I suggest this was a voltmeter with a switch between charge and discharge. The rotary switches in centre are for switching battery end-cells (nominal

2vdc) in and out. The large handwheel controls the rheostat which is usually (assuming the dynamo to be shuntwound) connected between D- and D+ although part of the connection may be inside the board. The dynamo is near 4KW so the original engine might have been around 10hp and given the small pulley (if its original) probably fairly slow. hth Roland

Reply to
Roland Craven

Oops. Part of a thought went astray. Correction below:

Reply to
Roland Craven

Just a thought - if you intend stripping the board for restoration, you will take copious photos & drawings of the BACK of the board, won't you? Such a fallible thing, memory ;o))

Regards,

J. Kim Siddorn,

Reply to
Kim Siddorn

Theres lots of spare holes and stains on the slate where other controls have been in the past, so i'me sure its been modifyed or modernised at some point. I hope to find a matching volt meter for it, it looks like a dog with one ear at the moment, i'll be takeing photos as i strip the board down its quite a complex affair and my memorys not the best ;-). Thanks for the advice gents, i'm glad the slate can be repaired i thought it was un repairable,i'll keep you posted.

Gary M

Reply to
gary millward

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