It's a good running engine and probably still a good working generator. I saw in another video it was single phase? If that were the case, you could pad mount the thing and power your house with it if the power goes out. Have someone put a fused disconnect on the utility side, then an automatic transfer switch and finally your house's main after that. Kind of hope it can be saved and live a long life as your standby generator.
Having worked in a facility with high voltage transformers and switchgear we were always geared up to expect the worse when doing any switching, high amperage arc flash is no joke, good to see your okay.
Hockey gear won't save you if you playing with voltage, the gear just keeps your body part contained and covers the boss like he did something to protect you
Glad you’re ok! When I worked for a commercial electrician in high school we used to switch on large breakers with a broom handle or tie a rope to them for this reason haha. Now I work for the power company and have a choice between a 12’ insulated extension or a 30’ insulated extension stick
with this arc flash thing being so dangerous, why haven't they invented a much safer way of doing things like using a robot or much more simple and reliable remote mechanical switch where the technician can engage it in relative safety.
@@NicholasLatipi because you are supposed to wear equipment that is generally sufficient to protect against these risks, and also because all the protective metal parts are supposed to be connected to the ground and therefore avoid passing through a body.
I also work on generators for a living and have had that happen to me as well. It wasn't that bad, but I will never turn one of those phase selector switches again while the unit is running. I would rather take my chances manually reading the phase voltage with a meter. I'm glad you're ok, quick thinking!
Yep, switching voltage selector while a unit is running will instantly kill any generator. It's a mistake someone only makes once (and honestly if they do make that mistake, whoever trained them has failed... badly)
@Ol2Stroker lol I'll take your word for it I've never seen a unit like that. I don't know why that would be an option if an avr is on it. But thats before my time, don't see stuff like in the field these days. It's a shame cause the old stuff will run forever with care. Engineers like to over complicate everything these days. Did you figure out what shorted? Btw can't wait to see that race truck 100%!
The adrenaline kicks in immediately when something like this happens, you maintained the presence of mind to make the situation safe before moving yourself to safety. Good job. I had a dc arc in an isolator which caused a fire, I used a full CO2 extinguisher on it but it kept re-igniting. The dc power was coming from a commercial scale PV array so I got my insulated cutters and cut through all the PV cables supplying the isolator. Then I got another CO2 extinguisher and it went out first time. It took me all afternoon to calm down.
Damn do I feel your pain. It’s always something, after countless hours of hard work! Glad you are safe! Now comes the hours of brainstorming a solution!
Wayne my brother glad all your eyebrows are still intact! Sometimes, when we work on old junk, it turns out it really is junk....but that judgement is yet to be called.
Love the series, can't wait to see the post mortem and maybe a repair? Would be great to have a good still image of the control panel and a description of the controls.
Man I feel you. Very calm "that's not gone well". I've been diagnosing, tracing and testing 3 phase in my shop while installing a Bridgeport and big lathe. I've been very care full to not have that boom. The meth-magicians that were in my building before me apparently dead shorted the 3 phase , I would have love to see the reaction to that one, I'm sure it made the bad buzz and threw sparks. I can see the marks where they got something in there on the thumb size cable lugs, killed the black leg and proceeded to jumper black and blue to restore power to the whole panel rather than doing a little sluth work and replacing a 200 amp fuse in the main switch panel. Psyched to have 3 phase back too. I was going to run a phase converter for them.
My dad, the electrocution king, got out of the pool to show a buddy a new piece of equipment. As my dad stood in a puddle of pool water, he completed the circuit on his 3 phase. Luckily the buddy was able to shut off all the power to the garage and call 911. My dad was released from the ER a couple hours later. Not surprisingly, this was not the first, nor the last, electrocution he experienced. 🤦
Been working on industrial generators for a little over ten years now. Experienced technicians will never move the voltage/current display multi position switch, especially on older units. This is why. Unfortunately you had to learn the hard way! Glad to see you are ok and you handled the shut down extremely well under the circumstances
Why would switching a display that is measuring voltage cause a problem? Looks like this generator is old and hasn't been serviced in years. There is a reason why a company sends these old units to auction because they can't service them anymore.
That was quite a light show! One of the adjustment controls must have shorted placing a direct phase to phase short in the stator. Hopefully the smoke wasn’t totally from the gen head but it looked like it was. That’s definitely a bummer 😢. Hopefully you can find a suitable replacement and carry on with the project. So glad the arc wasn’t severe enough to injure you! Gensets can be replaced but we sure can’t replace you
You're almost 100% correct. From what I can decipher the switch i hit was for auto voltage control which malfunctioned as evidenced by the huge voltage spike on the gauge (pegged over 300) and the first flashes on left side of the cabinet coming from the voltage regulator. Not sure what max voltage was but it was enough to melt the 2 hot sense wires coming off the gen legs which in turn shorted the stator phase to phase.
@@Ol2Stroker yeh. I don't know if he has a RU-vid account. Buy he rewinds custom and high output motors. I've even seen him rewind a rotary phase converter.
I worked with some 100Kw CAT gensets before and that has always been a fear of mine, especially when doing a load bank test on them after a repair. Man... that was horrifying to watch, glad you are alright
Shiitttt, Glad you're OK buddy!! Pretty damn impressive to instinctively go into shut everything down and pull the cables mode rather than running away!!!
it's crazy how dangerous that situation was, but all my brain can think about is the fact that the motor stumbles, then just goes "alright that happened" and keeps going. idk why but it's funny to me. glad to see you made it out without all your nerve's coatings melting off!
I learned about arc flashes when I was learning welding is school. Even then, when they were controlled and coming out of a welder I was nervousfor the first year
Oh Shit!! and you were right there. I hope you are ok my friend . That sucks. You know your stuff and that happened. that is so crazy!! My thought is that the armature delaminated and started to tear apart the generator from the inside. You are so lucky something way worse did not happen and take your arm or you. God Bless Brother!!
Thanks man. Was actually an arc flash from melted sense wires when the voltage spiked. I will explain fully in an upcoming video when we will determine if this is the end of this series or not lol
That was insane man. I used to work on natural gas generators up to 500kw. Always a slightly nerve wracking experience hitting that breaker. Glad you're alright. If that gen pack is toast honestly if you can find a Stamford gen pack to put on the engine those are very very solid units.
@@Ol2Stroker oh wow. Automatic voltage regulators are a pretty common failure point to be perfectly honest. Could be that the settings were set way out of whack, something shorted, or it was just old and wore. Stamford has the best AVR units that I've personally used as well, the guidance on proper settings and how to adjust are pretty straight forward. That vintage stuff is scary
Damn, glad you are ok. I'm an electrician and generator tech. That's always a big fear... but glad you're ok. Can't say much for the genset though... an autopsy of it would be a great video though...
Not exactly the same, but reminds of the time they tested the new diesel generator for our ups system. The moment the generator had "synced" to the grid we heard a giant bang and the ground shook. Turns out the installers swapped two cables of the generator, letting it fight against the grid and causing so much torque the crankshaft snapped in half.
What kind of death facility are you working in? That gen should’ve never been able to sync to that bus being terminated incorrectly. Having the phases of the generator terminated incorrectly wouldn’t cause the generator to spin in the opposite direction either. That is typically only with electric motors. Sounds like there were other issues down stream of gens or issue with the internal Gen components.
@@Bobby_Uterus Public service. And I have NO idea how they managed to wire it up in such a way, that the electronics thought everything is fine, while it clearly wasnt.
@@Ol2Stroker Oh and it gets better: after we got a replacement unit (which surprisingly worked fine), we found another issue half a year later, in another test run. The generator wouldnt start, because the 12V starter battery was empty. Turns out that the starter battery is NOT charged by the electronics during non-use and only when the generator actually runs. The control electronics suck that battery dry in just a month and we now have an off the shelf car battery charger permamently hooked up to it...
I used to do electrical work and I had to take a safety course and they showed us a video on how dangerous Arc Flash is and we got to see a dude get vaporized into literally dust. It’s quite shocking.
They probably used Adobe Premiere Pro to add in the vaporizing effects and scare the living daylights outta you. That's what I would do if I worked in HR and had too much time on my hands. 🤫
hope youre ok bro, that sucks that happened with all the work youve done to it. My dad messes with big generators also, its one of those risk factors. Usually when he gets one thats been sitting up for a long time, he pulls it apart to check if any dirt daubers built any nest in the windings because if one lets loose, that can do something simular to that in the generator though. Looks like when you turned the contactor you got arc flash from the control panel, possible mice chewed the insulation off the wiring maybe?, Good luck on getting it straightened out. BTW, we have a big genset with a 6-71 powering it iirc the generator is a 480kw, if I was closer you may of been interested in it too
So nearest i can tell is the switch i turned swapped it from manual voltage control to auto... Then the meter spikes and at the same time the first flashes come from the voltage regulator on the left side of the cabinet. The spiked voltage melted the sense wires off the main legs and those arc flashed phase to phase
On the plus side, the flash was up top, not in the generator itself... so either a meter went paws up, or something in the field control died... Long story short, I think the generator itself is ok, just needs some new control wiring.
Good reaction to shut down all moving parts with a failure a lot of people freak out or don’t kno what to do u went straight into safety mode god bless I wish my coworkers were as smart lol
That's the problem with old generators , the coatings on the windings delaminates, or cracks then it shorts out internally, then then genset burns up, seen it several times
On the contrary, things seem to be going quite well! You survived an arc flash apparently pretty well intact, you got the thing secured fast, and it didn't light up the vapors from the open gas can at your feet! 😂
Aw, holy shit dude! That container of fuel in there... Hopefully you didn't have too much $$$$ wrapped up in it. Were you by chance connecting to the grid? If so, you have to be right at 60 Hertz per second, or when you flip that switch, the rest of the grid will regulate the generator to 60 Hertz so fast that it will break stuff in the generator itself. I'll bet you can find another generator head.
I was only testing to see if the auto voltage regulator worked. Its only a single phase unit and its not hooked to a building or anything. The voltage spike from the AVR melted the sense wires which arc flashed phase to phase. I think.
Wayne, did you notice the spike on the meter (Ammeter,!?!?) ... above the phase selector (right side) just prior to A.F? ... big short somewhere when you closed the contacts. Glad you are still in 1 oily grubby piece 😃😎👍
Yessir i did. That's what I changed was turned it from manual voltage control to auto and if u watch the flash from the left side of the cabinet as it spikes is from the auto voltage regulator. So i think that was the source of the issue. Then the voltage spike melted the 2 hot sense wires coming from the gen legs and shorted phase to phase. That's when it went full Chernobyl.
@@Ol2Stroker " ... full Chernobyl" 🤣 ... I reckon you're spot on mate. Love your channel, and your 'won't be beat' attitude. Cheers from a fellow 'junk fixer' down under Tasmania 😎👍
