I had a little time this weekend and the winds was blowing, so I took a peice of 3" pvc I had found durring bulk collection and cut out a 36" ZubWoofer blade put it on the shaft of a induction motor that I had planed to convert(havent got to that yet), I put it on a 12 foot section of pipe I had and lashed it to the swing set, soon as I did the wind stopped. Not even a breeze, dead still. I knew this was normal so I waited and waited. the next morning (saturday) the wind was about 5-10mp/h (acording to the local news) so I ran to the window and it was spinning, Woohooo it turns... but it was really slow about 20-30rpms, hmmmm..... maybe 36" is to short, ok make a bigger one! 48" 25 degree's at the hub 7 at the tip (default using zubwoofer blade calc)same as the 36" same induction motor, same pipe, about 1 o'clock in the afternoon, blades are finished, balanced and ready to switch places with the 36". put up the new blade, wind stops, not a breaze for almost the rest of the evening, an hour before dark here came the wind again these blades turn faster but I'm not sure that they arre turning as fast as they should. I have to count the blades over a period of time to get rpm, but I have seen them doing about 180rpm durring a good long gust, they average about 100-120 most of the time, no load of any kind, except the weight of the shaft in the inducion motor, and its not a big motor, about 6" long x ~5" in diameter I've knocked the rotor off of the shaft to cut it down for the magnets, even though I think it should be faster it was definitly alot of fun, so far Ive got 2 blades from the same pipe, and I think I have enough to make a 3 blade prop each blade about 30" long with whats left. thats next. Ill load pictures and maybe a short mpeg video in my diary when I find the camera again. As for the "lake car" its on hold but I have took in to account all the advice given from all of you and will let you know how that turns out later.
