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Forum Index : Windmills : First-time 2hr project
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| neilcreek Newbie  Joined: 14/11/2005 Location: Posts: 1 |
Hi everyone! Nifty site you have here. Hopefully you'll be able to help me with my embryonic but growing interest in windmills! I saw a very very simple design for a vertical windmill at windstuffnow.com on their 'One hour projects' page ( http://www.windstuffnow.com/main/one_hour_projects.htm - right at the bottom), and I decided to have a bash at it myself. So over a couple of hours on the weekend from some bits and pieces I had lying around, I made this:  The 'rotor' is about 1-2kg (haven't weighed it, just guessing) and I have it only on a 1.5m pole in a suburban driveway. I don't expect much from it, except perhaps as a wind ornament or maybe one day with a few little LEDs for a spinning nighttime light show. I've noticed a couple of problems and I was hoping you might be able to offer some advice on how to tweak the design. Firstly, it seems to want to act more as a weather vein than a windmill, simply swinging with the wind direction. It will only start spinning if the wind is strong enough and causes it to change direction fast enough for its momentum to carry it a full rotation. Once it's started spinning however, it spins fairly well, and maintains its spin in much lighter winds than are needed to get it going. Also, at some wind speeds, the pole (an old broomstick mounted in a very dodgy fashion on the verandah railing as you can see) starts to bounce side to side. That's not a problem in itself but it'd put strain on the mount over time, and it's energy that's not going into the rotation. Any suggestions to improve this? Or am I better starting from scratch :) If you have any questions about the construction I'd be happy to answer. Thanks in advance! I'm looking forward to learning more here :) |
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Gizmo Admin Group  Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5078 |
Hi neilcreek, and welcome to the board. What you have there is a simple VAWT windmill, like the old 44 gal drum mills. I would add some little extensions to the wings to make it start easier....
The vibration you noticed means the windmill is out of ballance, and you will come across this problem with every windmill you make. I wouldn't worry about it for this windmill, but anything bigger you will need to ballance. When you get to making bigger 2meter diameter props, ballancing is critical and involves adding weights to the propeller tips. For your windmill I would make the mount stronger where the broom stick joints the railing. Welcome to the hobby of windmills. The fun bit is working out why they dont go as well as you expected. Glenn The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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