Here are a bunch of pictures with some comments about our recent trip to SEI's (Solar Energy International) recent 'home built wind turbine workshop' where Hugh Piggott was the instructor. Be prepared, there are a lot of pictures. On dial up this might take a while. I'll divide it into part 1 and part 2. We were honored to be invited by Hugh and Ian to involve some of the students in building our 10' diameter variation of Hugh's design. We left on Saturday (May 5) in our new (oldish) Volvo 850 Turbo wagon which we'd purchased just for the trip. The night before we left we got about 6" of snow and we barely got out of the driveway. Shortly after that the transmission started shifting a bit weird (partially because we were quite overloaded) - but we pressed on and made it no problem. The drive took about 21 hours (about 1400 miles). George, Rich and myself drove out in the volvo - DanF drove separately with another friend so they could do some fly fishing.
Well - I guess we had one minor problem. I got busted in Montana... 89mph in a 75 mph zone. The whole affair took about 5 min and cost $40 in cash and we were back on our way.
This is the ferry dock for Guemes Island in Anacortes Washington. We got into Anacortes at about 3:30 AM and had to kill time before the ferry could take us across.
Normally Guemes Island has its own little dedicated ferry boat that will haul about 20 cars across. This workshop was during the 'haul out' (maintenance on the boat) so they run a much smaller pedestrian only ferry during that time. So basically we had to unload all our stuff (guitars, mandolins, parts for a few wind turbines, one complete wind turbine, blades, lumber for blades, resin -clothes - groceries etc...). When the ferry got ready to go we frantically put all our stuff in wheel barrows and rushed it onto the boat.
There was nobody there to meet us when we got to the other side of the channel, but there was this nice truck with a note on the window and a key in the ignition for us.
The first half of the first day was 'classroom time' in the Guemes Island community center. Everyone (a bunch of volenteers and about 25 students) also took the time to introduce themselves. George got the greatest applause - he'd brought a pre-written statement to read.
After classroom time we lowered the machine we'd built in 2003 and inspected it (it's grid tied on an 80' tower). Then everyone came to the workshop and started getting organized.
Folks got right down to building molds - winding coils - laying out lumber for carving blades etc.
Ians office in the corner of the workshop. Without Ian none of this stuff would happen.
Hugh demonstrates how to use a draw knife.
Across the bay from the workshop there is some less renewable energy going on. I find it sad to see two huge refineries and all these huge tankers around this otherwise beautiful area.
Using the drill press and a hole saw to fabricate parts for the 10' machine. We didn't have good tools to hold the work to the table so we tack welded the pipe to some bar stock to make clamping possible with C clamps.
Rich did a great job of instructing folks on winding coils/making stators etc for the 10' machine. I don't think I ever got a good picture of him, but also a big thanks to Brian from Magnum Energy who is always at these events helping with stators/magnet rotors and letting us pick his brain about electronics late into the nights.
We had this huge antique band saw to use. Pictured above Kirby (I think) is cutting the blades down to the correct thickness.
George and Andy gave lots of welding lessons. Pictured above Shawn is learning some tips from George.
Stator for the 10' machine almost ready for casting.
This is the stator mold for the 6' diameter machine. It's an interesting design and something about the way the magnets are placed bothers me (they're sideways) but it did seem to work out quite well. It's 6' diameter, the magnet rotors are 9" in diameter. Only one rotor has magnets - 8 of the 1" x 2" x 1/2" blocks and they're sideways on there. It's quite a simplified and inexpensive machine to build and it seemed to work quite well when we tested it.
All the coils for the 12' machine ready to be wired up. That's it for part 1.
