Unemployment And Too Much Time

[mbauer]

Hi Everyone,

Put the frame together and mounted the Turbine to it today. Basic part fit and make sure that it has clearence when mounted.

Frame is made from 1" sq aluminum tubing. Cost including bearings and misc. items =$104.00. Frame materials can be purchased on line for quite abit cheaper. (i.e., bearings can be bought for $6.99 each vs., $15.76 each, I spent).

Basic hand tools used to make the frame include the following:
-Hacksaw
-Benchtop Drill Press (hand drill could work too)
-Wrenches
-Tape measure

Heading into town to buy a car alternator, once I have that, the next step is to mount it to the frame.

Final step will be to get a flanged bearing to mount on the bottom of the frame so that the whole turbine can rotate to face the wind. Might have to make a windvane to make sure it rotates properly, testing will show the need for this step.

By mounting it to the flanged bearing means it can be mounted to a pole, which can be made to telescope inside of a larger tube. This makes it easy to mount to a motorhome and then extend it above the roofline.

Will be posting results of tests once the alternator is mounted.

Total weight is 8lbs.

Mike Bauer

[mbauer]

Originally Posted by Zathros

There are more efficient blade designs than what you are using, and are far simpler to design. I would investigate the "Darrieus" windmill concept. Also omnidirectional, less mass, which is most important in getting a windmill to start. You could also go all the way and use a five magnet rotating hub that induces a magnetic field into a coil and there will be no brushes or commutator and the Windmill's only friction will be the bearings it turns on and the resistance from the magnetic field it is generating.

Hi Zathros,

Darrieus wind turbineThese are the "eggbeater" turbines. They have good efficiency, but produce large torque ripple and cyclic stress on the tower, which contributes to poor reliability. Also, they generally require some external power source, or an additional Savonius rotor, to start turning, because the starting torque is very low. The torque ripple is reduced by using 3 or more blades. This design of wind turbine was patented by Georges Jean Marie Darrieus, a French aeronautical engineer, in 1927. Unlike the more common type of generator which uses a propeller, the Darrieus generator rotates around the vertical axis rather than the horizontal one, and is thus referred to as a Vertical Axis Wind Turbine or VAWT. The vertical arrangement has several advantages, notably the generator can be placed at the ground for easy servicing, and the main supporting tower can be much lighter as much of the force on the tower is transmitted to the bottom. The Darrieus type is theoretically just as efficient as the propeller type, but in practice this efficiency is rarely realised due to the physical stresses and limitations imposed by a practical design. In addition, propeller based designs have a wider operating speed range and are self-starting.

Another design I'm looking at will be the tornado eggbeater turbine.

For now this simple 3-blade turbine ( present build) is my main goal.

It is very interesting to try and design things that cardstock can do, besides just printing or model building. A very usefull product that has yet to see all of the uses!

The more I try to do with it the more possibilities that show up! Research has led down some very interesting places on the web.

Mike Bauer