Flywheel

I fitted a 1 hp 3200 rpm motor to the 100 lb flywheel with a reduction by v belt and pulleys.Driven by the flywheel geared up from the flywheel is a 2.6 kw ac generator.Not having a variable frequency drive, I managed to get everything up to speed by allowing the v belt from the drive motor to slip, using a Lovejoy sliding motor base adjusted with a crank knob.This allowed a full motor speed turning the big flywheel and generator.Once everything was warm and stable there was a current of 13 ampres 120 ac 60hz on the motor.An effort of trying to plug the motor into the generator output caused the whole works to slow down, and come to a stop 
I then swapped out the ac motor for a 1.5hp Leeson dc motor, with a 20 amp variac and two 12 amp bridge rectifiers in parallel.With this rig, I was able to gradually take the speed of the loaded dc motor up, while monitoring the current Achieving the same speed the AC motor ran at used 9 amps.I was able to run various hand held tools, such as side grinder, without causing much change, if any, in the amperage draw.However, I did not have enough time running those tools to effect the flywheel.Now I must add that I am juryrigging the generator, powering the rotor through the slip rings with dc provided by a small 5 amp variac,  a diode bridge rectifier, and a 5300mf 150 volt capacitor , in the hope of keeping the generator energized long enough to switch from mains to self powering.It didn't work. The whole outfit slowed down, and stopped.I just didn't find any magic.Perhaps it would be more prudent to work with little toy dc motors to prove the concept, first?I saw the videos of people doing just that on youtube. Little dc motors driving other little dc motors connected by rubber bands , through a flywheel.It seemed there were many of these replications, running just fine, some lighting an led, and a tiny fan.I am next going back to my dc motor daisy chain, trying to pick up where I left it over five years ago, working on the bridge rectifier Doug Kone idea at each set of brushes, since I have the motors out.Cheers Warren
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you could also add more caps in parallel I hope the 150 volt is not for AC as the peak to peak is higher
 than 150 volts DC, plus the kick back could be high. Large 200 volts caps are costly. But getting the ESR down will help, when you do the switch over.. maybe a knife switch could work for that. They are cheap on
Ebay.