Yesterday we welded the main housing and attached the tail mount and gooped
everything up with polyester filler.
First we had to grind off the bar that we used to block the housing from
rotating during tests. After that the tail support was welded to the top, the
slipring housing to the bottom, all the welds were ground clean and inspected.
Then we filled the welds with polyester filler to make them easier to paint.
RonB did some more finishing touches to the blades.
Today we worked on the tower adapter, the painting of the various parts and
on the blades.
In order to make the adapter I needed a piece of metal with a
minimum of 5" in diameter to be turned down in order to fit the
pipe that the tower is made out of (5" schedule 40).
To my infinite surprise and happiness I found a chunk of an old
railroad axle, exactly 5" in diameter, with a 1/8" rim that
butts up against the tower, 10" long. If I had ordered
a piece it couldn't have been a better fit !
The rest of the day was spent machining it down to a size small
enough to use the steadyrest (that little chunk of metal is really
pretty heavy and I didn't want to see it flying all over the place).
RonB worked on the blade tips and the balancing, and Johannes painted all the mechanical parts a nice shade of blue.
Pictures follow:
The main housing with the 'test tab' still attached:
left to right, main housing, tail support, slipring housing:
RonB working on the leading edges:
Main housing, tail support and slipring housing welded together:
Johannes busy cleaning up some of the welds:
All the mechanical parts ready for the filler:
Filling in the welds on the housing:
Cutting off the remainder of the blank on the tips:
Drilling the pilot hole for the center:
I am so glad that RonB takes personal hygiene serious...
The painted parts:
Blade mounting plates, blade shaft support blocks and governor linkages:
Main housing and rotor spacer ring:
Blades shafts & root bars, governor weights and governor synchronizer:
Governor baseplate, rotor:
Boring out the initial hole (that drill is 7.5" long, 1" dia!)
Using the boring bar to widen the hole to the diameter of the
shaft the sliprings are mounted on (40 mm):
The finished hole:
Sliprings in position in the tower adapter:
