Need help bring a Sterling M-10 back into service.

[MVFD823]

Hi all, I'm Will, a volunteer with Marshall VFD in North Carolina. The department has recently taken an interest in acquiring the city's old civil defense siren, and restoring it for use with the fire department. Our plans are to tie the siren in with the countys pager system to be set off with our tones, and possibly be used as a flood warning device as the city sits by the French Broad River. I'm looking for advice how to safety test a siren that's probably not been ran in the last 25+ years, and what equipment we need to tie it into the countys 911 system. From what we can tell by Googling pictures for comparison, the siren is either a Sterling M10, or M5. The county will be picking it off its rotten perch atop the former jail this Saturday, and we'll hopefully begin restoring it the following week. Any advice, or specifications you can tell us will be greatly appreciated.

[Bryan]

You will need to have the motor checked and see if its capable of running. Not to rain on the parade but the number of Sterlings I've seen usually are not salvageable without spending a huge amount of money. Its a great idea to see if the siren can be rebuilt though if not let me know and I can help point you to some outlets for a newer siren or another refurbished siren. You will need some sort of radio and decoder to activate a motor starter to run the siren. Once you get it down share some pictures.

From my experiences Sterlings can be extremely stubborn to get apart and maybe in a pretty corroded state. Hopefully Jeb (aka Holler) and Ian (Murrfarms) will chime in they'll have some more info that will be useful

[Rheems1]

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=marshall ... 6,,1,-9.09

At least a cover was fashioned over it so it might not be as bad as Mixer was proposing, it is hard to tell from the streetview but it could also be a Federal Fire Siren.. the end bells are sort of a cross between what I would expect to see on a Sterling and the end bells on the Federal Fire Siren. If it is indeed a Sterling, keep in mind they have oil cups on the one side of the motor.. I never had to oil one so I don't know what is involved in re-oiling but it would seem like an important step and thing to do.

[landmobile]

I have restored an few sirens, including a Sterling M5.

The main problem with older Sterlings is that the motors were not designed to hold up to weather without a good cover, and as the sheet metal in the covers rusted away over the years the motor windings and bearings become damaged. Some older bearings also required periodic lubrication which was not always done.

The first step is to get the siren into a workshop and evaluate the condition of the bearings and motor windings. The bearings will most probably need to be lubricated, repaired or replaced and the motor shaft might need machining. The motor winding resistance will need to be checked, and the insulation resistance will need to be evaulated with a meg-ohmmeter. If the motor doesn't pass these electrical tests it will need to be rewound.

Once the motor is in good shape, the rotors will need to be installed and the motor and rotors balanced as an assembly. After this, the stators can be re-installed and the siren can be painted and fitted with a new weatherproof sheet metal cover.

[MVFD823]

Here are the pictures I took with my phone the day I looked at it. I will get in contact with the fire chief, he climbed up on the roof of the jail and took some up close pictures with his phone. Hopefully the cover has helped to keep it out of the weather enough to be salvageable. We are working out the details with the county right now, and should have in the station for evaluation Saturday evening. I don't have the testing equipment personally, but I have a electrical contractor as friend that might be able to help me out with that. I will try to get some more pictures from the chief Wednesday. We will more than likely go the restoration route, the siren has a lot of historical value with the city, and several officials are itching to hear it run once again.

[Stormsetter4]

Wow, that cover seems to have kept the weather out pretty well. Looks to be in much better shape than I had thought.

[Hacksaw]

This bring back bad memories of the old SD-10 in Mableton GA. It used have a problem with lightning setting it off, so, it was disconnected for some months. Then, when they tried to get it functional again, rust had ruined it. North Carolina would have the same high humidity problems as Georgia. But, maybe you will get lucky.

[holler]

Oh boy a sterling. They are kind of a pain in the butt, mainly because removing the rotors on them really sucks.

Pretty much what everybody else said. Get it down and get the motor checked out by a motor shop. I've found that when motors are that old the insulation on them has deteriorated to the point where they are almost a short waiting to happen. Sometime in the 50's and 60's they changed to a different type of insulating material and things got a lot better. At this point a good motor shop is your best friend.

If possible, follow the conduit down and remove any controls that might be remaining.

[ECwindsor]

Wow, that cover seems to have kept the weather out pretty well. Looks to be in much better shape than I had thought.

We will have to see what the whole siren looks like once they take it down along with the cover. Hopefully it is in a good condition.

[holler]

Under that cover is probably 10 pounds of bird crap.