As I related here
http://fieldlines.com/board/index.php/topic,144696.msg978597.html, three days before Christmas we had a fair old storm come across Canterbury and the 140KM/hr winds took out my 3m axial mill by precessing up the stub mast until the whole assembly came off its pivot. Who would have thought that it could lift 50kg by 300mm!!
The repairs required the following work:
* New blades (the old ones were spread up to 85m from the tower)
* new stub mast (bent where the blades hit it)
* new magnets (one set of 12 on the front rotor had lost over 70% of their magnetism - cause unknown)
* new tail metalwork (the old one was too heavy)
* powder coating on the magnet rotors (they had got very rusty under the magnets)
The new blades have the pitch going the opposite way to last time, to reverse the rotation, so if the whole furls quickly whilst going at full tilt it won't precess off the stub mast again. They are also lighter being made from western red cedar rather than old remu joists
Other work was just refurbishment:
* stripped and greased the hub bearings
* new connectors on the three phase cable dropping down the tower.
The stator and generator frame escaped unharmed so not bad for a big event after nearly 3 years in the air!
Got some pictures to process and I'll hopefully get them up in the next couple of days.
