Canvas Blades??
By Michael G, Section Homebrewed Electricity Posted on Sun Nov 2nd, 2003 at 07:32:38 AM MST
Canvas or cloth blades?

Has anyone out there ever tried cloth or canvas blades? If this could work it would seem very simple to make.

Canvas Blades?? | 10 comments (10 topical, 0 editorial)

Re: Canvas Blades?? (none / 0) (#1) by drdongle (Dr.Dongle1@juno.com) on Sun Nov 2nd, 2003 at 08:19:40 AM MST (User Info)

Simple yes, efficent no. Dr.D Carpe Vigor, Dr.D

Re: Canvas Blades?? (none / 0) (#2) by Electric Ed on Sun Nov 2nd, 2003 at 10:37:12 AM MST (User Info) http://www.electric-ed.com

I am thinking seriously about that very thing.  After all, they have worked on sailboats for centuries. There are some in use, here's one. Electric Ed

Re: Canvas Blades?? (none / 0) (#3) by signweld on Sun Nov 2nd, 2003 at 11:24:01 AM MST (User Info)

My first try at pics. I found these 30 year old pics of my first mill. 10 foot sailwing (ya, the funny looking pink things. the only cloth on hand) mounted on an old briggs & stratin engine block with 6-1 gear reduction from retired rotortiller with rotor mounted on output side to get 6-1 gearing increase. It was theh belt coupled to a car alternator. had a spring loaded "paddel" switch for the field controll. All it produced was enough to keep a light in the chicken house. It was so in-effifant that there was no chance of overcharging the battery except maybe in a hurricain. It was too far from the dome to run wires to, but fun never the less.   A thin cable ran from a welded on bar about 10" long at the root of the blades to the tip, and the "sock" was sewn to fit. the wind bellowed it out to shape. the more wind, the more curved the shape and the more in-efficent it was.  signweld

Re: Canvas Blades?? (none / 0) (#5) by signweld on Sun Nov 2nd, 2003 at 11:51:03 AM MST (User Info)

Previous pics were scanned from old photos where the mill just happen to very small in the overall view. I re-scanned at a higher (600)DPI.hope it isnt too big a file.   signweld [ Parent ]

Re: Canvas Blades?? (none / 0) (#4) by wooferhound (tim((NoSpamAt))wooferhound.com) on Sun Nov 2nd, 2003 at 11:37:28 AM MST (User Info) http://wooferhound.com

I was thinking that the old pictures of water pumping windmills in Holland were covered in canvas ? >=- W o o f -=<

Re: Canvas Blades?? (none / 0) (#6) by Norm (peppysue@suite224.net) on Sun Nov 2nd, 2003 at 09:26:48 PM MST (User Info)

well if it was painted after stretching over a tube and wire framework (doped...airplane wings) Ed (windstuffnow.com) has em listed as 1 hr projects.Norm ( :>) Norm

Re: Canvas Blades?? (none / 0) (#7) by swart on Mon Nov 3rd, 2003 at 11:21:11 AM MST (User Info)

Hi Michael, the dutch windmills do use canvas sails for lower and medium wind speeds. These sail can be reefed or taken away for high windspeeds. They are four blade rotors and quite efficient seen the load that they drive, even at low windspeeds. Your picture of an african sail windmill made me think of a simple system, a bit like a savonius rotor, which isn't all that inefficient at low windspeeds as some claim: just take a vertical axis with four brackets to hold four flat blades (with or without sails) which get hinged on a vertical line at 8/10: (see "new.gif" on this server) How's that?? Just an idea. Andrew sorry, the image doesn't seem to appear. I uploaded it as new. gif on the server.

Re: Canvas Blades?? (none / 0) (#8) by santi on Mon Nov 3rd, 2003 at 02:28:53 PM MST (User Info)

[ Parent ]

Re: Canvas Blades?? (none / 0) (#9) by Wolfie1 on Tue Nov 4th, 2003 at 06:31:15 AM MST (User Info)

Can anyone answer why the top one has a double tail or the bottom one has the extra blue sails? Martin. [ Parent ]

Re: Canvas Blades?? (none / 0) (#10) by santi on Wed Nov 5th, 2003 at 04:18:46 PM MST (User Info)

The blue sails are extensions (old jeans), it need more power and it is an easy test, now i´m trying aerodinamic canvas blades with trs=3. The two tails is only a way of make it, i needed an axis to separate blades of wind puting it in horizontal position. [ Parent ]

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