Posted: 10:50am 09 Dec 2005

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Hi everybody i finally have a couple of photos of my failed unit, have a look and dont do the same.The end pieces of the blades are shown the one on the left was 6 inches underground, note the dirt

Bob

Posted: 11:39am 09 Dec 2005

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Wow, thats impressive!

A lot of power in the wind, she must have being going pretty fast. Maybe its just as well you were away when it happened. If you were there, there is nothing you could do but watch it self destruct ahd shed a tear.

Ah well, on to the rebuild.

Glenn

Posted: 06:41pm 09 Dec 2005

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Sorry about the crash Bob.

Could you tellus what u think happened ?  I'm nearly finished a 57 foot tower, so before I go "let er loose", Id like to know all the things that maight cause disarster

Thanks

Bruce

Posted: 10:46am 10 Dec 2005

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Hi Bruce, Glenn and Chris,

The problem with the windmill was a bushing problem with the shaft. Gizmo has a bearing locked in place by 2 grub screws ( refer diy windmills kit assembly ) in an 56205 bearing holder, i opted for a slightly different setup and the actual hub floated in on the shaft and the blades struck the tower with such a crash that the unit fractured. The wind at the time was very fast, i have very high winds here in Murray Bridge. Eco Inn will tell you that the F & P will go up to 1800 revs before it gets hot and goes out of balance, i doubt very much that the unit got any where near those revs ,BUT i only used the ply prop blades  ( 2 x 18mm very light ply x 1000mm )  and this may have been a problem strength wise but if a blade hits the tower its history. The new tower and windmill went up today an F & P in star and instantly put out 14.20 volts, this one also has the prop blades but out of stronger material. Each blade is 1200mm long and seem to be working well here are a couple of photos, im playing god with this one as it is not a furling system, i have a serious storm on the way tommorow so it is currently braked by shorting the phases out.