My New Vawt

[willib]

This is my VAWT from a couple of winters ago, reworked with Foam airfoils. A nice copy of Ed's cycloturbine if i do say so.

and hooked to my new Mini gen( one phase only)

it spins at 84 rpm in front of a fan.

this is held together with bubble gum and tape,minus the bubble gum , no hot glue ..yet

i just wanted to see if it would work better with lighter blades and more of an airfoil shape than the origional ones which were made of poplar, they were kind of sad looking really.

at this point i'm wondering just how large of a chord i could stick on there.

i had to make a special holder to hold the blade as i was hot-wireing it.

WXYZ should sell the origional blades as VAWT blades ( no taper or twist required)

i also used two layers of fiberglass to connect the supports and the top bar to the blades.

i held the offset (pivot point) in place while testing , i had an idea let the whole machine rotate on a base under the base shown,that way a holder could be made for the offset , since its position in space is constant, and the offset holder could have as large of a tail as necessary

picture a cage sort of , three posts connected together at the top , holding the offset in position , but able to turn with the wind, with a large tail to pivot the whole works into the wind.

[willib]

[windstuffnow]

  Nice work willib !  It will be fun to hear how it does in the wind!

.

[vawtman]

Hello Willib

 If you curve the blades to the rotation you wouldnt need any gizmos to help it.Leave it the same chord but have the trailing edge follow the outer perimeter of rotation and test.

 How did you design your cutter?

 Has soon has i get my icehouse(shack)completed ill get back to the blades.I think everythings gathered up.

 Transformer

 conduit(for wand)

 milkhouse heater booster element(200w)4ft straightened

 Insulators from same heater

 spring from dishwasher.

 Agreed on Joes blades i just need many blades and love the challenge.

 Testing seemed to cut like a dream.

 You cant say vawts arent fun and nice work.

[harrie]

Real clever willib, keep getting them perfected so I can copy you sometime when I finish getting my big hawt up. Thanks for sharing. Harrie

[WXYZCIENCE]

willib, what do you have for a bearing in the unit and how true does it spin at the top? What do you figure the maximum rpm will be? The wings look real good.


I have to do some actual work this week that pays. Joseph.

[willib]

the cutter is made out of cedar , wire , a pushbutton switch and stainless wire for the cutter element,its resistance is 5 ohms per foot and works real nice

i had to move the switch to the middle ,because i used my other cutter holders

i can mail you some of the stainless wire if you like, i have lots of it

i had to build a pivoting base to hold the blade while i cut it, because if i held it in my hands while cutting the foam would flex and bend and the middle of the blade would be thinner than the ends

the ends of the foam block had two airfoil shapes,also made of cedar, and were square to each other , held to the foam with a couple drops of epoxy

[willib]

Joe i'm glad you asked about the bearing at the top , i found it in a hard drive ( its what the heads pivot on) and comes with a bolt to screw into the pipe end cap at the top , and is one of the smoothest bearings that i've ever seen

the other connection (to the top bars ) could be improved with two micro size ball bearings (like ones in a pc powersupply fan )that is the next improvement i would like to make to it

as it is now its just copper on steel , not much of a bearing really ,but it works

i dont know the max RPM yet

[vawtman]

Thanks for the offer Willib

 I have tried stainless wire looks like about 17awg worked also.Have alot also.

 Steel wire melted but was thicker(maybe 12awg)not good

 Any chance for a pic of your cutter?

 Im planning the same thing with shapes on each end.

 Another ?. Are you planning on epoxy resin and cloth? Seems to work from a test i did.The regular stuff ate my foam, pink or blue extruded stuff.

 Thanks

 

[willib]

17 ga. is a little thick?

mine is more like 0.01 or 0.012 dia. wire

i'll try to get a picture of it tomorrow