Replacing and Upgrading Turbine Gear

[TomW]

Got these blades from DanB when he, DanF and DanB's daughter Maya stopped on their way to MREA in Custer, WI BIG THANKS!. Spent last week putting 7 coats of polyurethane on them.

Will do a complete overcoat once final fasteners are installed.

High resolution photos of the prop are HERE

Heres some pics of ongoing upgrades for my 30 foot 4 leg tilt up tower:

The new tower stub extension a much beefier unit now:

The head I got from DanB several years ago that was a prop killer. Dan adjusted the tilt back on it and hopefully those troubles are over. One of the original Volvo brake rotor designs. I gave it a fresh coat of paint just to even it out and cover the raw metal from the fix. That vertical pipe in the left is the old stub extension.

This is the 50 foot 6.75: tube mast in the background that I hope to get a 12 foot Otherpower turbine on by fall another ongoing project. You can see it in the background of the previous photo, too.

As you can see the "jungle" is back so not much to see if its within a couple feet of the ground. Hehe

High resolution photos of these are over HERE

More pictures of all the stuff going on here at the compound are over HERE

Enjoy!

Tom

[TomW]

Finished enough of the rigging to do a test lift with everything but the prop.

This shows the new PVC tail I am trying. Not much contrast with the overcast busy sky. Fresh squirt of paint on the head and metal boom parts, too.

Tom

[ghurd]

I would never work in those conditions!

No chance of ever finding a dropped nut in that grass.

How is your long term luck with poly?

You don't find it flaking off in a few months?

G-

[TomW]

Ha! I know I seeded a couple pounds of 3/8 and half inch nuts up there and a few bolts / washers / wrenches. Maybe a golf cart in there, too.

No clue on the poly longevity. The stuff I could find locally was Interior / Exterior Satin Sunlight resistant moisture resistant and resistant to temperature changes. Minwax Helmsman Spar Urethane.

It claims full protection at 3 coats applied at 4 hour intervals lightly sanded between. I used 7 coats at 12 hour intervals lightly sanded between. I really did not want to paint over the nice grain so I will keep an eye on it for deterioration and being easy to service just redo it as needed. Will have used a full quart by the time it flies.

My wife used the same approach to a table on the screened porch 5 years ago it sees sun, snow and ice but is under a roof and it shows no signs of deterioration so far so I think it will be "fair" if I watch it and service it annually.

Thanks for the comment.

Tom

[Stonebrain]

Hi Tom,

Nice blades you got there.

I like you towers too,

Specialy the 'hybrid',four legged with a small guyed one on top.

If you make another,you should try something like this

this one is still waiting for the finish.

Some people think that eiffel made his tower to make it look fancy.But it is just economy,going as high as possible for the least material invested.

By the way,That grass represent a lot of btu's.If you want to reduce your carbon footprint you should mow it,wet it and press it for fireburning.Just an idea for if you run out of projects...

cheers,

stonebrain









Hope my pic comes over

[Stonebrain]

this should be it.

it doesn't

Sorry tom,scoop is doing it again.Maybe next time i've more luck

[TomW]

stonebrain;

Interesting approach to that tower type. Is that factory or did you "reconfigure" it?

Mine was a freebie that had got slammed by high winds and was twisted pretty bad 60 footer to start only got a enough strate material for the 20 foot height 4 leg so I did that stub trick with much too light of material but fixed it now. It is something around 32 feet now to the hub center.

Thanks for the reply and the photos.

Tom

[Stonebrain]

"Interesting approach to that tower type. Is that factory or did you "reconfigure" it?"

I just wanted to upgrade my small selfmade 3leg tower,I didn't plan it like that but it turned out to be the best way.I'll update my dairy about my vawt soon,with further explanations.

cheers,

stonebrain

[zeusmorg]

 I came up with a handy little device for finding nuts and such in grassy areas.

I took a piece of plywood and drilled a series of 10mm holes in it and inserted 10mm

neos in it (I have a lot of them) real nice for finding lost stuff.

[ghurd]

Keep an eye on it.

I made some Adirondack chairs from well aged, home made (pit in the dirt, to poly covered) cherry.

Same poly.  

Seems like it went 5~6 years in the same conditions before peeling.

After that was maybe 2~3 years.

Peeling gets worse every time, for me.

One of the chairs looks a bit hairy here compared to the effort we put into making it 'purdy'.

http://www.otherpower.com/images/scimages/2050/StprBody.jpg

G-

[kurt]

we used to use a gadget like that for removing sheet metal chips, screw and nails from the gravel parking lot at the sheet metal shop so they would not puncture tires on the trucks was called a magnetic sweeper was a row of magnets with wheels on each end with a handle so you could push it around the parking lot and it had a lever that you pulled and it disengaged the magnets and all the junk fell off into the metal dumpster or what not. we would sweep the lot once a month or so.