Metal Work finally underway
By Boss, Section Wind Posted on Tue Feb 17, 2009 at 04:44:24 AM MST
This feels soooo good, we are finally moving along again on our ten foot wind turbine.

This feels soooo good, we are finally moving along again on our ten foot wind turbine. Our whole project get a very pleasant shot in the arm last week when after locating a drill press on Craigslist. The guy wanted $150.00 for it. I agreed, sight unseen. I sent along two images, one of our renewable energy workshop and a second, an image of Rich's wind turbine which we helped raise while we attended the Other Power workshop last year. My intention was to personalize my offer. The man responded later that day saying he thought we were doing a fine thing to help Grandfather Nature and he would donate the drill press to us. I couldn't believe our good fortune, and it got better when we saw the drill press! This is a one horsepower,12 speed,  Enco brand, floor model made of cast iron! Happy dudes! The next images were taken today, Monday the 16th of 2009. We are working on the iron work using our new totally cool drill press and 2.5 inch carbide tooth  hole saw. This is schedule 40 2 inch pipe we are using for the piece that goes between the spindle housing and the yaw bearing pipe. We cut the spindle housing out of what we had, a 3 inch (inside diameter) cast iron pipe coupling. Figuring out how to clamp the 3 inch pipe to the drill press table. We used a piece of leaf spring steel running through the pipe and bolted to the table. We used two small squares on either side of the pipe to precisely center the pilot drill bit. Above you can see how the spring steel held the 3 inch pipe to the table. This worked very nicely and we got a perfect hole cut exactly in the center. Below, we were unable to get the local blacksmith shop to cut our stator bracket because their plasma cutter was down. We used oxygen-acetylene cutting torch and made the stator bracket happen today as well.     Saweet, we are on our way. You betcha, we'll be sending this writeup to the man who donated the drill press along with a big happy thank you. There really are a lot of good people out there.

Metal Work finally underway | 8 comments (8 topical)

Re: Metal Work finally underway (3.00 / 0) (#1) by ptitchard on Tue Feb 17, 2009 at 06:29:09 AM MST

You must be over the moon with a lucky bargain like that. Just a note Drill guard and googles. Do it safely please.

Re: Metal Work finally underway (3.00 / 0) (#2) by ptitchard on Tue Feb 17, 2009 at 06:30:16 AM MST

Whoops. This internet is blowing my mind. Goggles.

Re: Metal Work finally underway (3.00 / 0) (#3) by BruceDownunder on Tue Feb 17, 2009 at 01:49:53 PM MST

Good to see you are back , Boss . Nice catch and good pic's Bruce

Re: Metal Work finally underway (3.00 / 0) (#4) by Boss on Tue Feb 17, 2009 at 04:57:25 PM MST

Thanks everyone. Yes it does feel great to be back. I updated the text to go along with the images I posted earlier. You can see it at my site: http://outfitnm.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=72&Itemid=137 I also added a couple more images. The stator bracket with the holes cut. Stator bracket sitting on top of the spindle housing, doughnut, and axle - hub assembly. I also want to thank you folks for reminding us about safety. Good stuff Brian Rodgers

Re: Metal Work finally underway (3.00 / 0) (#5) by richhagen on Wed Feb 18, 2009 at 03:29:00 PM MST

Looks good so far.  It took me a minute or two to figure out what I was looking at when I looked at the spindle housing.  At first I thought the piece cut out was some kind of eleaborate clamp piece or something from the threading on the inside showing.  Good use of what you had available.  Rich 'A Joule saved is a Joule made'

Re: Metal Work finally underway (3.00 / 0) (#6) by pmurf1 on Wed Feb 18, 2009 at 10:16:07 PM MST

Why the cast iron piece other than it was laying around? That's a lot of weight hanging off a cast to mild steel weld. If you have an experienced welder it's doable for sure, but if the preheat/cooling and right rod are off, it could be a bad thing. It would suck to lose a machine after a weld snaps off. I've seen plenty of snapped cast to mild steel welds go bad in the offroad world, and it's alway an expensive day. Just my .02.:)

Re: Metal Work finally underway (3.00 / 0) (#7) by birdhouse on Sun Feb 22, 2009 at 10:48:55 PM MST

pmurf- welding cast to mild is always a bad idea.  if that is what is happening here.  having trouble seeing what is going on via the pics.  especially if it is meant to hold a load.  you'll see it fail all the time when folks try and weld mild exhaust to cast headers. my $0.02 "let it blow, let it blow"

Re: Metal Work finally underway (3.00 / 0) (#8) by Boss on Mon Feb 23, 2009 at 04:35:21 PM MST

I don't know if the coupling is cast iron, it cut and welded really well. The piece in question is a pipe coupling. Yeah I wish I would have seen the stash of scrap pipe that my neighbor has before I cut that coupling with the hole saw, oh well what are ya gonna do? We made a lot of crazy decisions trying to get this project going, that on the next turbine we won't be doing. We feel we need to get a wind turbine in the wind and see what gives, so this is a experiment to be sure. The big question is: What will fail first? Brian Rodgers

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