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What is your Most Spectacular Failure?
By wooferhound, Section Homebrewed Electricity Posted on Thu Feb 04, 2010 at 08:28:46 PM MST
New FrontPage Poll

I wonder if the New Forum Software will allow for Polls?
anyway I changed the FrontPage Poll to ask what your Most Biggest Failure has been.
Oh and we should discuss it here too.
I haven't had anything too memorable bad happen to me. But I see problems in the future. I recently worked on a wind turbine that I built 3 years ago. and it's not very easy work with. If anything remotely bad happens I will need to do a total rebuild of that turbine.
also right now I'm having fun with 12volt system. But I think I may have wanted to start at 24volts.

What is your Most Spectacular Failure? | 36 comments (36 topical)

Re: What is your Most Spectacular Failure? (3.00 / 0) (#1)
by bob g on Thu Feb 04, 2010 at 09:21:37 PM MST

my latest failure that was avoidable, was a misconnection
that cost me a 400 dollar controller, up in smoke

i still kick myself over that one...

the next worst was one i witness, that was the total destruction of a
300watt solar panel with integrated grid tie inverter, when my business partner
sucked it down to tight in the pickup with a ratchet strap!

talk about a lump in your stomach when you hear the glass go "bang" "crinkle" "crinkle"

bob g

Re: What is your Most Spectacular Failure? (3.00 / 0) (#2)
by Volvo farmer on Thu Feb 04, 2010 at 09:27:18 PM MST

My most spectacular failures have always been with women of the opposite sex. Lemme tell you.. I ain't never seen a wind turbine that can't be fixed somehow, and that stuff can be all repaired in private. But when a failure with a woman occurs, there always seems to be a degree of spectacle about it. Can I vote for that?

Volvo Farmer

Re: What is your Most Spectacular Failure? (3.00 / 0) (#3)
by Watt on Thu Feb 04, 2010 at 09:34:48 PM MST

" My most spectacular failures have always been with women of the opposite sex. "

Ummm... That would most defiantly be a spectacular something, woman of the SAME sex as who?

Just poking fun, I have nothing to add to the post but wanted to mark it.

Carry on.

[ Parent ]

Re: What is your Most Spectacular Failure? (3.00 / 0) (#4)
by dbcollen on Thu Feb 04, 2010 at 10:08:18 PM MST

I had to say "solar" for lack of a better choice. It wasn't actually a solar failure, it was a packaging failure. I had a full pallet of solar panels in the cardboard packaging, it got rained on, then snowed on and it collapsed and broke 6 of the panels. Procrastination can be expensive.

Dustin
Mad River Wind and Hydro

Re: What is your Most Spectacular Failure? (3.00 / 0) (#5)
by ruddycrazy on Thu Feb 04, 2010 at 11:56:03 PM MST

Not putting the guy wires high enough with a 2" water pipe tower right beside my shed. I was testing out 1/2 plywood blades when a gale came through at night. The tower was bent about 45 degrees the next morning. Made a new tower used the same blades the next storm broke the blades and 4 months later we found one blade over 400 metres away in the grass.

On the solar front wondering why the batteries we always low our AERL 900B MPPT was faulty and it took 3 weeks to get an outback FM 60 to replace it under insurance.

Cheers Bryan

Re: What is your Most Spectacular Failure? (3.00 / 0) (#6)
by TomW on Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 03:56:23 AM MST

Three Words describe mine

My First Marriage.

Tom

The Truth is the Truth, even if no one believes it; and a lie is a lie even if everyone believes it

Re: What is your Most Spectacular Failure? (3.00 / 0) (#7)
by adaml on Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 04:50:32 AM MST

Not doing a test raise of the tower - got to vertical and then straight over the other side - thankfully noone was in the "drop zone" - live and learn.

http://www.fieldlines.com/images/scimages/11306/BHBrokenBlades

Re: What is your Most Spectacular Failure? (3.00 / 0) (#8)
by jaskiainen on Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 04:59:28 AM MST

I have to say it's me, myself and i.
All things that have gone wrong are related to my own stupidity.
For example a faith is not enough to keep your solar heater standing without
it's been tied to something. Crash, boom, bang.
Best regards jaskiainen

Re: What is your Most Spectacular Failure? (3.00 / 0) (#9)
by bj on Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 05:04:46 AM MST

If there was a category, I might be tempted to vote like Tom, but I would have say a tower failure.
In the long run, I caused it by not paying enough attention to the guys, but mother nature helped with a dead steady 90kph wind out of the east that lasted all night. I tried to short it out, only to watch it keep on wailing away. About two in the morning the tone of it changed, which woke me up, and I figured something had happened, then I heard a sound like a lawnmower hitting a piece of metal.
In the morning, there it was, laying on the shop roof.
Blades, and alt survived, tower did not.

bj--- Lamont, AB. Can.

Re: What is your Most Spectacular Failure? (3.00 / 0) (#10)
by ghurd on Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 05:30:23 AM MST

Packing a 12V SLA into an 8 D FL camping lantern resulted in massive quantities of smoke, electrical noises, sparks, and panic, just as the hard-to-remove battery cover snapped firmly into place.

Sometimes, very late on a quiet night, when no one else is home, I see flashes of blue light and smell burning plastic in the kitchen, as if that $10 Chinese camping lantern holds me personally responsible for his early demise.
Ghurd.info

Re: What is your Most Spectacular Failure? (3.00 / 0) (#11)
by bob golding on Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 05:36:47 AM MST

i have several. the most spectacular was probably when the magnets flew off and jammed in the stator during a 90 mph storm. made a right mess of the stator,and the magnets were scattered far and wide. found all of them bar one by just walking around the area in steel toecap boots and waiting for them to jump up out of the grass. the scariest moment was when i forgot to tie off the gin pole and it crashed down just nicking my shoulder blade and brushing past my ear. that was a ohhh (*^^%0 moment i dont intend to repeat.

bob

Re: What is your Most Spectacular Failure? (3.00 / 0) (#12)
by kenl on Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 05:53:53 AM MST

Mine would have to be coming home from the road only to find both turbines stripped of their blades. One set was PVC and we found all of the various parts. The wooden blades off the 8'footer was another story. Half a blade went through one of my windows, another half was found 400' up the road and the rest of the pieces 3 years later are still to turn up.

kenny

seemed like a good idea at the time

Re: What is your Most Spectacular Failure? (3.00 / 0) (#13)
by kenl on Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 06:00:54 AM MST

The way the poll is tallying surprises me, I would have figured more blade failures then anything else. Could just be that tower failures are more spectacular.

kenny

seemed like a good idea at the time

[ Parent ]

Re: What is your Most Spectacular Failure? (3.00 / 0) (#14)
by ghurd on Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 07:00:59 AM MST

Tally is about like I expected, which is why the tower makes me so paranoid.
G-
Ghurd.info
[ Parent ]

Re: What is your Most Spectacular Failure? (3.00 / 0) (#29)
by kenl on Sat Feb 06, 2010 at 06:48:04 AM MST

Your tower will will be fine as long as you keep the rotor size down. I use 1-1/2" GRC with a 1-1/4" IMC stuck into it. About 19' overall and unguyed. 6' rotor on a 20+ lb PMG (7' was to much rotor for the PMG)total weight around 35 lbs all said and done. 35-45 mph wind it will sway a little but not too much. I raise and lower by myself but it takes all I have to stand it up. Yours being guyed should have no problems.

kenny

seemed like a good idea at the time

[ Parent ]

Good timing (3.00 / 0) (#15)
by opo on Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 07:03:40 AM MST

I just lost my tower last night! Good timing woof. The genny, blades and everything else survived the strong winds and rain. The only damage was a guy wire, the tower pipe and a cheap multimeter. Yes I did try to test for amps of course (before going to bed). I also received a good shock trying short the mill to see if I could stop it. Who grabs both terminals when the mill is spinning like crazy?

The tower bended in a 45 deg angle (talking about precise furling?) Had to wake up earlier today to put everything down. More winds are forecasted for tonight.

Its only a 4' or so turbine. I thought bad things happened only to the big turbines. Big mistake. Lesson learned.

Cheers,
Just trying to make some power

Re: What is your Most Spectacular Failure? (3.00 / 0) (#16)
by Perry1 on Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 07:43:46 AM MST

My biggest failure was in buying a house in a place that gets absolutely no wind.

Perry

Re: What is your Most Spectacular Failure? (3.00 / 0) (#32)
by taylorp035 on Sun Feb 07, 2010 at 08:43:28 AM MST

I am in a place with wind, but there are zoning restrictions, power lines, and airports in the way....

[ Parent ]

Re: What is your Most Spectacular Failure? (3.00 / 0) (#17)
by zap on Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 08:27:41 AM MST

Since neither opposite sex nor marriage is an option...

My worst was, somehow (I still haven't figured out how) I brushed by the multi purpose adapter from the Harbor Freight 45watt kit and it shorted out.
I didn't realize it and my girlfriend and I were leaving for church. My girlfriend calmly asked "What's all that smoke?" She said she'd never seen me run faster than that before!

Yes... it ruined the multi purpose adapter.

ROFL about it now but easily could have burned the house down.

zap

Oh, I get it, RE related failure... (3.00 / 0) (#18)
by TomW on Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 08:53:59 AM MST

Sorry for my earlier flippant comment WRT social failure.

Most spectacular failure of RE:

That would be my prop killer mill. One of Dans made up of parts of early experimental models.

It destroyed 2 nice 10 foot props before it got fixed. High winds caused tower strikes.

And at 65 feet on a fixed tower! Some blade parts were found a good 250 yards downwind some are still MIA but that is a brushy area downwind so unlikely to ever see them again.

Then there was that incident while blowing stumps out for a driveway. At least it wasn't my truck that got accidentally loaded with a six foot diameter mostly intact walnut stump! Don't ask. This is RE related because I lit the fuse with one of those solar cigarette lighters!

Tom

The Truth is the Truth, even if no one believes it; and a lie is a lie even if everyone believes it

Re: Oh, I get it, RE related failure... (3.00 / 0) (#19)
by zap on Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 10:27:20 AM MST

ROFL... not about the blades.

"Solar situation sends stump surging skyward... seriously... film at eleven."

Sounds like one of those 'million to one' kind of things.

zap
[ Parent ]

Re: Oh, I get it, RE related failure... (3.00 / 0) (#20)
by DamonHD on Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 11:31:58 AM MST

This somehow needs to be combined with a well-decayed whale tale to get maximum 'green-ness'!

Rgds

Damon
"Once you have licked the windows of freedom your tongue gets stuck."
[ Parent ]

Re: What is your Most Spectacular Failure? (3.00 / 0) (#21)
by bzrqmy on Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 03:15:58 PM MST

I am pretty lucky sor far. My worst failure was just recently when I disconnected the batttery while the turbine was still spinning. Let the smoke out of a Ghurd controller.

Re: What is your Most Spectacular Failure? (3.00 / 0) (#22)
by coldspot on Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 03:19:05 PM MST

"Most Spectacular Failure"

Maybe as a Husband
Or as a Father!

Maybe none of the above

$0.02

Re: What is your Most Spectacular Failure? (3.00 / 0) (#23)
by Bruce S on Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 03:22:23 PM MST

Mine was learning WHY your not supposed to turn your back on a fire...ever...ever...

2liters of almost ready for conversion WVO splatters water/oil on dual burner Coleman stove. POOF!! F I R E!!!

Nice pretty flash fire (like The bozos you laugh at on TV burning the garage down trying to deep-fry a turkey inside).

NOW it's the bozo in the mirror :/

Lots of heat too >>>.

Sand & potting soil mix fixes fire.

NOT the look from the wifey though..
Never knew how much fire 2L of old oil can make WOW. Do now.

NOTE: No birds were harmed or killed but the Pin-Oak tree may have a few less limbs come spring.
Did have the neighbors come-a-running tho, it's OK they need the exercise :)

Bruce S

Re: What is your Most Spectacular Failure? (3.00 / 0) (#24)
by powerhouse1 on Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 03:22:48 PM MST

Hi all i though i was on my own with disasters.While pulling up my tower i droped the ring of the winch over the ballhitch on the tractor and started winching it up when it reached about 90% it pulled over the ball and you can gess the rest.BANG

Re: What is your Most Spectacular Failure? (3.00 / 0) (#26)
by hiker on Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 06:06:02 PM MST

tested out my 12" dual rotor mill out on my pedgen..
started out fine ...was hitting close to 30volts with a landing light for a load..
bam.........mags went flying past my face[ceramics-4 mags per pole-12 poles]..
well-that was close....glued the mags back down[had to buy some new ones-never did find them all-found some clear over on the other side of the house]
this time i wrapped some nylon tape around the rotors to hold the mags on..
thought it was time to try it out on my motorhome--drove out to the coast..
dragged the mill up to the roof of the motorhome..tossed it on the roof..
tail was hanging off the side of the roof--went to climb on top of the roof
when a big gust of wind hit the tail!! and the whole dang thing went flying
down to the ground-- totaled out-blades-stator-tail-base mount..
now that i look back on it --i came out lucky--because my mount was way to light for that kind of load--and the wind really kicked up later..mostly would have came down throu the roof or worse...........think that was back in 05 or 06..
hiker........

WILD IN ALASKA
[ Parent ]

Re: What is your Most Spectacular Failure? (3.00 / 0) (#25)
by fabricator on Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 05:43:57 PM MST

My worst so far was destroying four fifteen dollar magnets and getting two black fingernails out of the deal, pretty tame compared to some of this stuff, but I learned that those big neos are dangerous as heck and you can't be distracted while messing with them, I've gained a very healthy respect bordering on terror of those things.
I aint skeered a nuthin......Oh S%*T! What was that?!!!

Re: What is your Most Spectacular Failure? (3.00 / 0) (#27)
by wooferhound on Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 07:21:42 PM MST

Here are some videos of magnets smashing things . . .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClkP-QwIOAQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uET76b7GtXU

W o o f -={(
Huntsville Alabama U.S.A.

[ Parent ]

Re: What is your Most Spectacular Failure? (3.00 / 0) (#28)
by tecker on Sat Feb 06, 2010 at 05:46:17 AM MST

I plugged in Two Cheap inverters into the mains during a power outage . A 700 watt Coleman and a 450 watt Back and Decker both using the same neutral the mains were dead and the computer ,lights and Dsl were working fine for a day or so much so that I was enjoying a little Grrrrreen time that I extended for a month . It was not too much of a challenge but during that time my power was shut off and that sent me into another week and a trip to the laundry. The power co was slow in responding to the reconnect and the weekend rolled through saturday and I was going to power up and the mains were off but the when I touched the neutral it was loose I grabbed a screwdriver and when I tightened the neutral both inverter spit fire and and watched in amazement until I started snatching wire until the fire stooppped . What a rush and I checked the neutral to find it was running at 25 volts above ground .the rascals had slid in Saturday and reconnected the power with out leaving a note.

Re: What is your Most Spectacular Failure? (3.00 / 0) (#30)
by KEG on Sat Feb 06, 2010 at 09:15:09 PM MST

After cheating twice in the atempt to build a 10'er, the stator with a little to small of wire in it and a steady 35 to 40 mph wind all night long, I woke to find the mill running real slow went to throw the kill switch to find it not working, the stator wires had allready broken, had to go to work and when I got home all the blades were still there :-) but I did notice wire hanging out of the stator, one of the burnt coils had come clear out of the stator and got wraped around the stator and locked it up, Just had to make a new stator.
Kevin

Re: What is your Most Spectacular Failure? (3.00 / 0) (#31)
by taylorp035 on Sun Feb 07, 2010 at 08:07:26 AM MST

My biggest failure was when my brother and I were holding our 8ft diameter windmill that was "quick gripped" to the top of our 6 ft aluminum step ladder. There was about 3 ft of snow and it was really windy, 30mph steady.

At one point, the wind picked up to at least 40mph, and both of us were pushing for our lives so the ladder wouldn't tip over and then the blades would of sliced us. So the wind go so strong that it was pushing us both back so we desperately turned the ladder out of the wind. At this point, one of the quick grips fell off, and as we turned the ladder, the blade struck the front strut and BOOOOOOM!!!

The blades shattered and flew about about 100 feet up and 150 feet behind us. My brother and I just fell in the snow, and the windmill shook furiously until it plowed into the ground.

The second pic shows the carnage.
http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2008/4/24/14228/2397

http://i49.tinypic.com/14bnfb5.jpg

Re: What is your Most Spectacular Failure? (3.00 / 0) (#33)
by SparWeb on Sun Feb 07, 2010 at 05:44:25 PM MST

That's an easy question for me to answer:

... but those of you who follow the forum regularly already know about this goof-up.
Steven Fahey

Re: What is your Most Spectacular Failure? (3.00 / 0) (#36)
by don1 on Sat Feb 20, 2010 at 05:52:29 PM MST

Steven, Have you fixed that geny yet? Just wondering if it was repairable. Aside from the electric box and the blades it looks doable.
Don.

[ Parent ]

Re: What is your Most Spectacular Failure? (3.00 / 0) (#34)
by jacobs on Tue Feb 09, 2010 at 03:27:55 AM MST

Lightning

Re: What is your Most Spectacular Failure? (3.00 / 0) (#35)
by don1 on Wed Feb 10, 2010 at 06:15:49 PM MST

Well this is not wind related BUT.
About twenty years ago I built a new shop. I was given an old car hoist and thought that would be a nice addition to the shop. I installed it when I poured the concrete. About a week later I thought I would see if it would raise from the floor. I put a regulator on it and cranked on some air. at about thirty pounds It hadn't moved. The lift frame had not been bolted on yet and there was a square plate welded on top of the lift tube. I took a mall and taped the corner of that plate. It moved a little then I turned and taped the plate the other way. The sound heard was tink tink BOOM. Yes the ram came flying up and tore off 4 1/2 inch bolts that held the seal pac on the bottom of the ram and it continued up out the roof. It came back down through the same hole and chipped my new concrete as it landed.
I was covered in oil and to this day I have no clue as to how I ended up against the door before that ram ever thought about coming back down.
I went to the basement door and removed my oil soaked clothes, leaving them outside and went in for a long shower. I later just threw the clothes in the burn barrel. with out looking to see if perhaps the pants were soiled on the inside too.
After twenty some years have passed I have never fixed the hoist. The ram tube still stands in a corner. The hole in the floor is covered with a plate. And the patch on the roof is a reminder so if I get any silly ideas about having a hoist I may think better of it.
Lesson learned. To know how little air is needed to raise a hoist without the lift frame on it is a good thing.
Life is fun, Don.

[ Parent ]

What is your Most Spectacular Failure? | 36 comments (36 topical)

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