End of a long day!! Celeste and Will using the bed frame of Woronoco Hydro's, two megawatt, GE Generator for a couch. We had just finished commissioning the No. 2 generator.

Will is cutting the 36 inch main support beam for the new stoplog structure at Woronoco Hydro. Here he is 11 years old and this is an enormous I-beam! A second beam is leaning on the back of the truck.

This is just before I told Josh that it was a real bad idea to have the rope wrapped around his hand. I was just a wee bit concerned that me, the crane, the I-beam and Josh were going to be pulled down the rabbit hole!!! This is an enormous beam for the little cherry picker to manipulate. On these jobs, I run the crane. Note the yellow beam clamp, on the center of the beam above the hood of the truck. You can see the crane hook is attached to the beam clamp. The little crane has the entire weight of the beam hanging off it. Davis is inside hooking up a chainfall to transfer the load to.

Here, my best friend and business partner, Davis Hobbs, has control of the business end of the beam, with a three ton aluminium body chainfall. You can see, way down below, that we have already lowered one of these beasts into place. The upper end of the beam is still attached to the crane hook. This is a deep forebay. The invert is 34 feet below the gate house floor.

Here is a rare picture of me welding the giant bridge beams in the forebay at Woronoco Hydro's intake. When we purchased the plant we found the wooden support members were totally rotten. We chose to replace them in steel. We ripped the entire structure out. I found some scrap, 36" deep, bridge beams. Here I am welding the  upper beam to its 2" diameter bed pins. We cut the beams to fit the 48 foot width of the intake. In order to support the beams we drilled into the concrete, three foot deep, by 2 1/2 inch diameter, holes with my trustee Thor Rock Drill. The holes were drilled in the location of the four corners of the beam. We used a sledge hammer and drove in the two inch diameter, solid steel, pins in the holes. We then lowered the beams down onto the pins and welded them in place. We installed three beams. One at 1/3 the distance from the bottom, one at 2/3 the distance from the bottom and one at the top. The left over pieces we cut to fit between the backside of the main beams and the concrete wall. I am standing on one of the short sections. Note the one pin you can see sticking out of the wall to the right of where I am working. I know this was over kill, but I have learned that big, is better, in the hydro industry!!!

Another picture of me in my winter beard. I am lighting off one of the big Victor wrecking torches. Things get really cold on the Westfield River in December. One day we went out to work. It was dead calm and the temperature was 31 degrees Fahrenheit below zero. Our breath was coming out of our mouths and a little cloud would form and turn into miniature snowflakes!

Celesty in action!! Here, Celeste is lifting up the recently, rebuilt, No. 2, rear, gatecase at Woronoco Hydro. Notice all the guys watching Celeste run the chainfall. That's my little girl always in the thick of any heavy rigging!!

Celesty and Will removing the pinch bolts on the No. 2 Unit's flywheel. This station was originally a stand alone for the paper mill. As such, the units were governed to produce 60 cycle power. The flywheel was used to produce rotational inertia. This smoothed out the speed changes from any minor load additions or rejections and gave the governor time to react.

Who would know I have advanced engineering degrees from Lehigh University and WPI!!

June 10th, 2009, added:

Design of the runner of a Kaplan turbine for small hydroelectric power plants by Timo Flaspöhler

and

Kaplan Design by Marko Kogovsek

One Hydrolec H11-H about to go out the powerhouse door

Will makes the rigging job look easy!! The machine weighs about 8500 pounds. This is the ragged limit for this little cherry picker.

We have swung it onto the truck and are about to load it onto the trailer.

Ready to go down the road!

Please see:

June 7th, 2009, What I do on the weekends?:

RemovingTanneryPondHydrolecTurbine-authkey=Gv1sRgCLH2x-T9z_ujVw#5344664439560937842 <<<<click on this hyperlink to find out!!!

May 31st, 2009. Added Trump Turbine Catalouge.

Celesty in action!! She is removing the slate switchgear from the No.4 powerhouse at Lower Thorndike.

French River Land's Tannery Pond Site in Winchendon, MA, Will working on governor controls and new disc brake.

French River's Mission

French River Land Company (FRL) develops small and micro hydro resources.  As hydro developer, French River provides the unique experience, engineering and craftsmanship to build and operate hydro projects in the Northeast. 

FRL was incorporated on February 10, 1992. Since 1992, French River has owned the dormant South Village hydro project. In 1995 it purchased  Building 9 in the Ware Mill Complex. In June of 1997 FRL purchased the Tannery Pond Hydro Project in Winchendon, MA. It went on line in June of 1999 to satisfy FERC license requirements. Due to contract negotiation problems, with Templeton Power & Light, it did not commence commercial operations until May of 2004. At that time, Will & Celeste negotiated a new power sales contract, with with the Massachusetts Electric Company. They received their first check from the Massachusetts Electric Company in June of 2004! This was the first cash flow the site had earned in over 50 years!!(see the Tannery Pond sidebar) In December of 2003, Celeste and Will Fay purchased the entire stock of FRL. In March of 2004, FRL purchased Golden Pond Hydro in Ashland, N.H. This site was last operated in June of 2002 when it was badly damaged by a lightening strike. On January 3rd of 2008, Golden Pond Hydro began commercial operations with a signed contract with the Ashland Electric Light Department. It took almost four years, of weekends, to rebuild the badly damaged and thoroughly worn out tube turbine (see the Hydrolec disassembly, Hydrolec Rebuild and Golden Pond Hydro sidebars).

Please see the attached Picasa album of the destruction and the ongoing repairs:

http://picasaweb.google.com/frenchriverland/GoldenPondDamDamage?authkey=nUCJGifjYLw#  <<< click on this link

Old Sturbridge Village Plant

 Will Fay inspecting High Voltage Conduits

William K. Fay P.E., FRL's Chief Engineer and General Manager, is a licensed hydro engineer who has inspected 80 dams for the Massachusetts Dam Safety Division and is authorized by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to perform Part 12 inspections of licensed hydropower facilities.  He and his children, Celeste and Will, have rebuilt many small hydro plants located throughout New England.

April 119th, 2009, started scanning "Feasibility Studies for Small Scale Hydropower Additions, A Guide Manual, US Army CORPS of Engineers.

April 17th, 2009, finished Gubin. Reduced price on Montana Generators.

April 16th, 2009, scanned more pages into Gubin and added Snow's Improved Water Wheel Governor, 1845.

April 14th, 2009, did taxes, wished my Mom Happy 91st Birthday. Partially scanned and added Draft Tubes of Hydro Electric Stations, M. F. Gubin. Need to look at Pepperell saddles and band installation.

Celesty Fay constructing her first dam at Mill Road. She is two years old here!!! Note the giant baloney curl looped over her left shoulder.

Will and the four supervisor dogs, taking a hydro break, on the Swift River, in Bondsville, MA. Tsar is flanking Will. King Tut is following. He is boxed in between Queen Cleo and Miss Zoey!

I had been searching for a 60 inch Bullard for several years. I could afford neither the $60,000 price tag, that they were going for, nor the $10,000 trucking charge. Finally I found this one, on e-bay, two towns over from the shop for $3500 that included the flag and digital read out!!! Here Will, Celesty and Ronnie have jacked it up and placed it onto caterpillar machinery rollers in order to ship it back to the shop. We were looking for a service manual. The folks who are supplying parts for Bullards told us to look on the cross slide for a 5 digit serial number that would help them select what manual to send to us. I looked and found only a three digit number. We told the number to the factory rep. He called back and told us our Bullard had left the factory in August of 1902!!! It was the oldest Bullard that he knew of that was still being used in a commercial operation. I was very pleased to get it. Will did put on his steel toed boots after this photo was taken.

April 11th, 2009, added scanned textbook, Hydraulic Motors by M. Bresse as translated by F. A. Mahan, July 1869. Also added links to Part I and Part II of the 1880 US Census, Water Powers of the United States. Got up at 5:00 AM cleaned both sides of River Road of all trash from bridge to abandoned house. Got Collin's trash rake and swept beer bottles and trash from sun turtle's little pond.

April 2nd, 2009, added scanned textbook, Hydraulic Turbines by Victor Gelpke and A. H. Van Cleve

March 29th, 2009, added scanned text book, Theory of Turbines by De Volson Wood, Graphics of Water Wheels by William Fox and Standard for Hydraulic Turbine and Generator Shaft Couplings and Shaft Runout Tolerances.

March 23rd, 2009, added Characteristics of Modern Turbines- Chester Larner.

Celesty in action!!!! She is at the bottom of the Chinese gate case at Brockway Mills. She is moving one of the 75 ton porta-power cylinders. You can see the remains of the Chinese volute case, that needed to be cut out, in order to install the 500 KW, Ossberger Turbine in place. Chris gave me the Dong Fang for cash and a promise to assist him with the concrete removal. The only place to insert the rectangular draft tube was to hammer out a 10 foot wide by 12 foot long by 15 foot deep hole in front of the volute case and breaking out into the roof of the elbow draft tube. We used 30 pound rivet busters to remove the yardage. It took 6 weeks of back breaking work. This plant is currently for sale. Chris has purchased property in Montseratt. He wants to drill obliquely towards the volcano and install several megawatts of vulcan-thermal, steam cycle power!! This is a beautiful plant and has been running superbly!!! He is asking $ 850,000 for the plant. I think it is a steal. If you have a serious interest, please call Chris at: 1-603-499-2350.

Celesty is inspecting the No. One turbine runner for damage at Pepperell Hydro. Note the chunk of missing runner blade she has discovered. She is holding her hand over the missing piece.

Celesty and Will in the ruins of Appleton Mills in Lowell, MA. Will is sitting on the endbell of the horizontal pressure case. Celesty is straddling one of the cylinder gate operating shafts. Please see the following "You Tube Video" of this site when it was restored in the 1980s by Dave and Luke Wright.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efZfa8w7VNg <<< please click

March 18th, 2009, Added Operation and Maintenance of Hydro-Generators

March 11th, 2009, added brochure, Craig Ridgway, "Perfection" Water-Wheel and Shaft Couplings for Hydroelectric Units

March 10th, 2009, added brochure, Headgates by S. Morgan Smith Company

March 8th, 2009, added Christiana, Jolly, Trump and 1902 Lombard Catalouges.

March 5th 2009, added link a link to "Treatise Relative to the Testing of Water-Wheels and Machinery, with Various Other Matters Pertaining to Hydraulics" James Emerson, Holyoke Testing Flume, 1878.

March 3rd 2009, added three Lombard Catalouges, four articles on cavitation and links to the classic textbooks, Waterpower Engineering by Dan Mead and Hydraulic Turbines by Daugherty.

Celesty and I are lowering the Leffel, 39 Inch, B-2 runner into the No. 2 pressure flume. The new main shaft was created by "The Wizard",  on our 28 foot long, Poreba, roll, lathe.  Celesty and Mike had just used the 3000 ft-lb, hydraulic torque wrench to tighten the 1/2 coupling onto the top of the runner. We are standing on top of the Westinghouse generator flange that I carved from the carcass of the number two generator with the thermite bars.

Celesty, Ronnie Johnson and Chris Krueger rigging the Brockway Mills Rotor in anticipation of lowering it into the powerhouse hatch. Look at the size of the crane block compared to Chris' head!!

Here, Celesty is pushing the Brockway Mills synchronous generator stator into position. I am in the back corner operating two 5 ton chain cum-a-longs in series to take up the slack. The stator is hanging off the crane cable . The top of the boom is almost 200 feet above her and the cable is dropped down through three stories, of a concrete reinforced powerhouse.

!

A rare picture of Celesty, Will and Ronnie with the famous Mr. William Munch. Bill is a master electrician, hydro developer and owner of the Valatie Falls HEP. He learned about hydro development as a child. He worked with his father developing hydro stations in the 1930s and 1940s. I am always in awe of Bill Munch and see him as a living part of hydro history. By the way, he hates to have his photo taken!!!

Celesty and Will during the presentation of their WPI Major Qualifying Project (MQP). These gentlemen are their advisors, Professors Mingjiang Tao and Paul Mathisen. They designed a replacement dam for the Anasagunticook Lake Dam in Canton, ME. Celesty has graduated with a BS Degree in Civil Engineering. Will is graduating this Spring with a BS Degree in Civil Engineering.

Please see the following link to their paper:

Anasagunticook Lake Dam Replacement- C.Fay & W.Fay<<< click on link

Celesty torquing down the little bull gear bolts for the main driveshaft at Slater Mill Museun in Pawtucket, R.I. The Wizard is watching for movement of the blocks. This exhibit always had a severe vibration problem. This was partially caused by the replacement, main, bullgear located in the basement. When it was cast, it cooled in a slightly oblong shape.

Will operating our flood gate during the freshet of April 9th, 2005. See the photo essay of how we replaced this enormous (8 foot by 10 foot) wooden gate without the aid of a crane:

Please see the attached Picassa album (click on the box below):

  <<<< click on this interactive button

Celesty is inspecting the No. 2 Unit, at the Lee Pelton Site, in November of 2004. She and Will removed the equipment. They bought the contents of the powerhouse for $ 1000. It was offered to them at the last moment in leau of giving it to the scrappers. It was amazing seeing the two of them, running 30 pound rivet busters, to pry these units out of solid concrete! We still have the three units. Ironically the third unit never ran!. The head losses in the 7000 foot long, 42 inch diameter penstock, with all three units running produced less power than with two units running!!!

Mike is scaling the inside of a draft tube whilst Celesty holds the halogen light for him. This is a really tall tube. Mike is about 18 feet above the tailwater. The tube is about 8 feet in diameter at the high side. We had him tied on with redundant safety belts and chains.

Celesty checking out the Lower Bristol site in April of 2005. She and Will almost bought the upper and lower sites. This powerhouse and its equipment have since been obliterated from the face of the earth. What a shame.

February 5th, 2009 added Sparhawk Mills

Celesty supervising the pick, of the Brockway Mill's, second generator rotor. The first generator lost its bearings and destroyed its rotor and iron core. Chris purchased this generator. He dropped both rotors off at the shop. We pressed both shafts off the rotors. We turned down the old shaft and pressed it back into the new rotor. We did this so the generator shaft and coupling would match up to the existing turbine. Note the newly glyptoled salient pole pieces.

Celesty, Davis and Mike rigging in the 26,000 pound, solid steel, Dong Fang synchronous, salient pole, rotor. Notice Celesty's mitten stabilizing the rotor shaft while Davis and Mike remove the cribbing. This is typical!!! We can not work in or near the water unless it is 10 below zero!! Celesty is always in the thick of it!!! At least she was smart enough to wear her Carhart thermal coveralls. See the third to the last photo, in the machine shop sidebar, to see how large this rotor really is and to see it flying through the powerhouse!!!

A second view of Celesty and Mike picking the Dong Fang rotor. Celeste is tossing those 70 pound, southern yellow pine, timber cribs, around like they were match sticks!! Between working with us building hydroelectric plants, for the last 12 years, and graduating with a Civil Engineering Degree from WPI, she knows more about hydropower engineering then most 50 year old consultants!!

December 20th, 2008 added our adventures rebuilding the Valley Paper Company's Smith Kaplan in 1993.

December 12th, 2008 added a link to the CORPS's Water Hammer Program for penstock transients

November 26th, 2008 added Carl Weidner's Design of an Overshot Waterwheel( an exquisite paper)

November 24th, 2008 added barrel stave bearing repair webpage

November 1st, 2008 repaired Bradway page and added Golden Pond Repair Photos.

Will Fay is using a megohmeter to check the primaries for short circuits. We found out that one of the high voltage primaries had short circuited to ground inside the aluminium tube that you can see the wires passing into. This tube was designed to keep the high pressure oil inside the turbine and the water from entering the turbine. It turned out to be a complicated design. We had to destroy it in order to reverse engineer it. It was filled with epoxy. The wires were interrupted by brass cylinders that had been drilled from either end that created blind holes with brass in between. The wires were inserted from either end and silver soldered in place. They were then inserted in the aluminium cylinder and it was filled with epoxy. This elaborate scheme was to prevent the high pressure oil from wicking up the interstices of the cooper wire.

October 6th, 2008. Added Bradway Turbine webpage.

September 30, 2008: I spent a lot of time finishing up our saga about removing the turbines at Livermore Falls, NH. You may thoroughly enjoy perusing the web page:

http://frenchriverland.com/livermore_falls.htm

Celesty jacking the Golden Pond, Hydrolec, Kaplan, Hub down, with a 30 ton, hollow, core ram.

Mary Remington and Will Fay offloading one of four, Rodney Hunt, Hi Test, gatecases. These units are part of a quadraplex, dual camelback unit similar to Jim Beesha's units at Mechanicville, N.Y.

Celesty and Will getting ready to dive on the forebay at Woronoco HEP. Sand had built up in front of the west rack and the trash rake would not descend to the sill. They cleaned out the sand.

Winter on the Westfield River. Celeste and Ronnie Johnson installing stoplogs in order to drain Woronoco Hydro. Note the main beam is the same one Will is seen cutting in a following photo.

King Tut, "The Supervisor"!! This guy barks out orders like a dog!!

Co-conspirators!!! We needed to remove the old wear sleeve from the blade trunion. It was held on by LockTite. In order to remove it, we needed to heat the assembly up to 500 deg F. While Carol was teaching ballet, Celeste and Will snuck the blade into our kitchen. They put the blade in the electric stove and baked it at 500 deg F. I think they may have told Carol that they were baking brownies!!! The high temperature broke the bond and we were able to remove the sleeve.

Celesty operating the Milwaukee magnetic base drill. She is installing anchors to fix the rotating field buses to the reconditioned slip rings.

Celesty, Mike and Ian rigging the rebuilt Woronoco No.2 gate case into position. They are re-installing it into the newly grouted pressure casing. Kenny Smith is in the background supervising.

Contact Information

Telephone

1-413-244-6445

 

FAX

1-413-289-1707

 

Postal address

P.O. Box 624, Thorndike, MA. 01079

 

Electronic mail

General mail: bfay@frenchriverland.com
Webmaster:    bfay@frenchriverland.com

 

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Contact Information

Last modified: 06/23/09