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Forum Index : Windmills : My Effort At Making a Turbine

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GWatPE

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Joined: 01/09/2006
Location: Australia
Posts: 2127

Posted: 02:42am 19 Jul 2010

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paul_mac1 said ...I also got an arbor to mount the blades onto the motor shaft, fits like a glove.......The smaller shaft on the left is the side the blades go on....

Hi Paul,

these comments worry me considering you have a metal blade set.

Mount to the thickest shaft. The bearing will probably be bigger at this end as well. This looks like a brushed motor windmill conversion.

You mention hoping to go with a GTI. A battery helps to smooth the windmill peaks, so allows a smaller GTI. The motor will require diode blocking with a battery, as well as without the battery.

Gordon.

PS did the motor change colour, or are there 2?

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paul_mac1

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Joined: 17/05/2010
Location: Australia
Posts: 74

Posted: 03:05am 19 Jul 2010

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Thanks for the info guys.

Gordon, no only 1 motor, 1 pic with a flash and 1 pic without a flash.

Bruce, do you know where I can get any of the brush springs pictured at the top of the page? 1 is broken and Ive contacted Leeson USA and they have them but won't post to Australia, for some reason.

Regards,
Paul

brucedownunder2
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Joined: 14/09/2005
Location: Australia
Posts: 1548

Posted: 03:13am 19 Jul 2010

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Paul,, looks like a strip of shim copper just wound up to apply some tension ,,that shim copper can be got from the craft shops ,way back people used to make beaten copper images for a hobby ,the shim copper was soft so they could easily shape it ..

Apart from that see if one of the chaps on fieldlines forum could buy it for you in usa and send it over ,,very small and light..

Bruce

Bushboy

Bryan1

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Joined: 22/02/2006
Location: Australia
Posts: 1344

Posted: 09:59am 19 Jul 2010

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Hi Paul,
I'm sure we sell the leeson motors at work and I am in Adelaide too, if want to contact me PM me and I'll give you my mobile number and we can talk more about those brush's and retainers. The chances are we will will have them on the shelf I can get them for you on my account cheap.

Cheers Bryan

paul_mac1

Regular Member

Joined: 17/05/2010
Location: Australia
Posts: 74

Posted: 12:54pm 19 Jul 2010

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PM Sent.
Thank you.
Regards,
Paul

paul_mac1

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Joined: 17/05/2010
Location: Australia
Posts: 74

Posted: 01:27pm 19 Jul 2010

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Hi Guys,

OK, well today I took the shaft to a precision engineers and got the bigger shaft turned down so the arbor would fit on this shaft......its a great fit. here's a couple of pics; Whoops! Please ignore all the crap in the background.

The unit is now balanced evenly and I'm very happy, and it only cost a 6 pack!

So now onto designing the mount to fit on a pole and a tail fin.

Any comments or criticism welcome.

Regards,
Paul

Downwind

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Joined: 09/09/2009
Location: Australia
Posts: 2333

Posted: 02:09pm 19 Jul 2010

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Looks like you have been on the Herbs while Ironing out some generator problems there

Must say my workbench is messyier than yours with different tools to.

Its starting to come together nicely from what i see. Errrrr Youre getting it ironed out.

Pete.

Sometimes it just works

paul_mac1

Regular Member

Joined: 17/05/2010
Location: Australia
Posts: 74

Posted: 02:22pm 19 Jul 2010

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LOL Pete.

Its a makeshift workbench, the one in my workshop/garage has arcade machine parts all over it, so this "Workbench" is in our utility room, yes, where the Mrs does the ironing, and she is also propagating herbs, yes, the legal type, and the hat, well that was left on my boat all summer and has gone a funny shape.

Yes, the turbine is taking shape, slowly

Regards,
Paul

AMACK

Senior Member

Joined: 31/05/2009
Location: Australia
Posts: 184

Posted: 11:46pm 19 Jul 2010

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Hi Paul, How thick is the hub? It look a little light. I made my first F&P windmill hub a bit light and it span up to speed then flexed back to the mast, and then turned to muck. It looks nice, I like the blade disign and looks like you have spent alot of time working the setup out.

Dont work to long on the ironing table the wife may give you another job to do there.

AndrewEdited by AMACK 2010-07-21

*Note to self

1. Make it thick

2.Make it heavy.

3.Make it stronger than it should be.

4. Don't rush the first job as the second job will cost more and take mor

KarlJ

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Joined: 19/05/2008
Location: Australia
Posts: 1178

Posted: 02:07pm 20 Jul 2010

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Ditch the windy nation nuts, looks like plain nuts, replace with nylocks and loctite
i'd also be adding some decent sized washers to spread some loads.

make sure the holes in the hub and blades are SMOOTH as silk, polish them if you have to, get bolts with shanks so you have no thread in bearing. lastly assemble with some kind of sealant that remains flexible and balance VERY carefully as fatigue is going to really hurt this blade set as it has stuff all in the way of mechanical support.
I hope they are soft so the fatigue life is longer but cant help but think fracture and fail in a couple of years.

Luck favours the well prepared

VK4AYQ
Guru

Joined: 02/12/2009
Location: Australia
Posts: 2539

Posted: 01:44pm 21 Jul 2010

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Hi Paul

Just to add a little to Karl's concern regarding fatigue on the blades, I would advise a strip of 6mm aluminum instead of washers, as washers still have a small area to dissipate the stresses, hole alignment is very important, and ream the holes as Karl suggested, also use AN aircraft bolt so none of the thread is in the metal of the blades and hub mounts, I would also use sikaflex in the joints to provide an added buffer and prevent the ingress of water that can cause electrolysis corrosion in the joint.

They say that they use aircraft grade aluminum but not what grade, and it could be prone to inter granular corrosion when mated to the stainless hum material.

Keep up the good work and don't get to close to that iron as it can be addictive.

All the best

Bob

Foolin Around

paul_mac1

Regular Member

Joined: 17/05/2010
Location: Australia
Posts: 74

Posted: 12:32pm 22 Jul 2010

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Hmmm,

Andrew, the hub is only thin, but Windy Nation say it is rated to withstand "Serious Stresses".

KarlJ, I thought Windy Nation would have sold decent stuff, as they have an article about materials best suited for wind generators.......failure in a couple of years, that doesn't sound like fun.

Bob, I will be replacing the nuts and bolts and get a thicker hub made, I'll post a pic of the hub and holes at the weekend when I get back from work.

This was going to be a cheap project to experiment with wind power, but I thought I'd spend a few quid on a decent set of blades, after all, this is what makes the thing work, I didn't think it would be soooooooo complicated experimenting with fatigue etc. I have found a decent engineers here in Adelaide, and will take the hub to them to get a thicker one made.

What material would be best? Stainless or Aluminium?

Regards,
Paul

GWatPE

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Joined: 01/09/2006
Location: Australia
Posts: 2127

Posted: 01:17pm 22 Jul 2010

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paul_mac1 said I will be replacing the nuts and bolts and get a thicker hub made

Hi Paul,

It is a shame that you have had the shaft turned down, now that you are considering having a new hub made.

Gordon.

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paul_mac1

Regular Member

Joined: 17/05/2010
Location: Australia
Posts: 74

Posted: 01:27pm 22 Jul 2010

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Hi Gordon,
The arbor goes on the shaft, then the hub goes onto the arbor, as the arbor has the thread on it for the nut and washer. The advert for the kit I got says the hub is rated to at least 70mph, that's over 100kmh winds, so might stay with what I have and see what happens....any thoughts?

Regards,
Paul

GWatPE

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Joined: 01/09/2006
Location: Australia
Posts: 2127

Posted: 01:35pm 22 Jul 2010

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As long as the windmill is controlled well with furling, overpowering should not be too much a problem. As a general rule, I would not turn down a shaft, especially, not close to the bearing. It looks like all the shaft was turned down in your pics.

Gordon.

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paul_mac1

Regular Member

Joined: 17/05/2010
Location: Australia
Posts: 74

Posted: 01:49pm 22 Jul 2010

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No, about 1/2 of the shaft was turned down, about 1 inch of the shaft remaining not turned down.

Paul

paul_mac1

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Joined: 17/05/2010
Location: Australia
Posts: 74

Posted: 07:15am 08 Jan 2011

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Hi Guys,

All the best for 2011 to everyone!

Right then, after an unscheduled break, I am now back on track with my effort at making a wind turbine....

I have taken the mount off the bottom and will use the original end of the shaft, not the turned down end....the arbor fits better on this end anyway, and if I put it upside down, the cable will be at the bottom. and easier to feed down the mounting tube.

So on Monday its off to the surplus metal supplies place and buy some bits to make a mount.

I have found a place in America that supplies the carbon brushes and springs for my motor.....not cheap, so don't tell my Mrs

I will go to CBC Bearings and get some decent bearings for the shaft, the original ones are a bit stiff.

I will post more pics and updates soon.

Regards,
Paul

gsw999

Newbie

Joined: 22/01/2011
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 19

Posted: 07:11pm 21 Jan 2011

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I have a video of my own wee turbine and a few experimants I did at the start , dont know if I can post links on here but if you look up gsw999 on youtube you will see my videos, I have some of those blades but the three blades worked alot better for me than the 5.

i am not interested in giving my hard earned money to corrupt "leaders" to pour down the drain.

Gizmo

Admin Group

Joined: 05/06/2004
Location: Australia
Posts: 5078

Posted: 12:21am 22 Jan 2011

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Yeah you can post links.

gsw999's videos

Glenn

The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now.
JAQ

gsw999

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Joined: 22/01/2011
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 19

Posted: 06:27pm 24 Jan 2011

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^^ Thanks man , putting some more stuff up this week as putting a Hugh Piggott turbine up plus I am putting 2 24v Motors up on one tower which will be very interesting indeed.

Peace

Gavin

i am not interested in giving my hard earned money to corrupt "leaders" to pour down the drain.

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