Phase Two,New and Improved 12V Mill

[Scotth]

Here is my second effort at an 11' turbine,basically the same as the first with a couple improvements.The magnet rotors ar cast in West Systems epoxy and are surrounded by a stainless band to help keep them in place.The other mods are heavier steel used for the stator mounts and tail pivot assembly,zerks on the pivot points to make greasing simpler than it already was,and stainless hardware throughout(no more cogging!!)The tower is an old TV tower,the heaviest I think that's made.It is migged together everywhere as opposed to the lighter duty spot welded ones.It sure is a treat having a tilt tower after hanging off my first effort with a safety harness.It goes up and down smoothly using the hand-cranked winch with little effort and is very solid-I think it will last a long time.No output numbers yet as I just got it flying yesterday and am waiting for the reminants of the latest hurricane to arrive here in Ontario.I took a little more care putting this one together so expect it will exceed the performance of the first one,which was impressive in itself.For those of you starting out,this mill is pretty much an exact copy of some of the machines that Dan B has built over the last couple of years.Easy and fairly cheap to build,and puts out way more power than the plastic garbage you would buy at Crappy Tire for 2 grand.For you guys in Canada,all the hardware came from Princess Auto,accumulated over the last year whenever it was on sale-a good way to save yourself a few bucks if you're not in a hurry.

Scott

[willib]

Scott have you got any photos of the alt itself

under construction?

looks nice

[harrie]

Hi Scott, Looks great, but how do you get away with a guy anchor in your wifes flower garden?? ha.Thanks for sharing.

[elvin1949]

Morning Scott

 Nice setup,love the tower.

later

elvin

[Scotth]

I have a few pictures under one of my other diary entries but unfortunately I'm a better turbine builder than computer guy-I have no idea how to attach a link to those other postings of mine.

Scott

[Scotth]

Two ways to get away with that:

 1-Give her TV and lights during the power outage a couple weeks ago.

 2-Tell her a climbing vine would look real nice going up that guy wire.

 Both seemed to work for me.

 Scott

[Scotth]

Thanks,the tower is nice,and it was free!I have one more section(9.5ft)but couldn't get the anchors far enough away to make it work properly-don't want to push my luck.

 Scott

[Darren73]

hi Scott,

great job, nice to see another turbine up :-)

Any chance of some details on the tower sections, ie tube size and wall thickness, distance between supports, distance between legs, and any other info you think might prove useful.

regards

Darren

[willib]

it takes a bit of work , not much really,

the way i do it is first i bring up a pic of mine , then insert your user # and the name of your photo

but for you to add a photo of yours (that you have allready uploaded) to your own post , just go down to user files , and select file , then insert image

sometimes the user files are on the right (like when starting a new thread)

what did you use for a rotor?

[Scotth]

Hello willib,

 Rotors are 3/8" mild steel with a 1/2"stainless band tig welded around the outside.Hopefully this will help keep the magnets in place.I left a little of the magnets exposed to stir the air up a bit as in the older otherpower mills,I hope I'm not shooting myself in the foot by doing this as far as the elements getting in and around the magnets and causing the epoxy to come away from the steel rotor.It should be OK as the epoxy is 150% better than the polyester resin I used first time 'round.

[Scotth]

Hi Darren,

 I'm not sure of the wall thickness of the tower tubes and believe it or not,I don't own a vernier so I can't check it for you.Maybe a hair under 1/8"???-just a guess though.Each section is just shy of 10' and is just a standard TV tower,although very well constructed.I gathered up several towers last summer and this one is by far heavier than any others I have.For the guy wire mounts I got a hunk of pipe that just fit over the tower tubing and cut it in half using a bandsaw.Then I welded a big 3/8" chain link(the kind with the threaded nut to open it up)on 3 of the halfs.Next I clamped the two halves back together over the tower legs and welded them back together.This was for the main guys near the top.The lower guys are attached to the same size pipe but I didn't need to cut it in half as I just put them over the tower legs at the first section joint.Bith upper and lower guy wire mounts are able to move back and forth on the pipe to center themselves so the tower doesn't twist when everything is tightened down.At the base I welded three,10' pieces of sched 40 pipe that fit inside the tower legs to give them a little more suport where it is needed.I just slid the first section over the pipes on the base and built it up from there.It pulls up nice and straight considering there are no guy wires stopping side to side movement until it is fully raised.I don't know if that would be the case if I went up another section,maybe I'll try it one day WITHOUT my nice new mill on it and see how it works.Oh yeah,the guy wire anchors are about 20' from the base,and the tower is about 35' high.The whole works is on the side of a huge hill where 90% of the wind comes from,so It is well above the trees in the forest below.

 Scott