Getting closer

[Volvo farmer]

I can see the end! I found an old switch for some sort of large machinery and installed it next to my tower. The box is indoor rated but should work fine for shorting out the turbine at the tower. I know it's a bit of overkill, but it looks nifty and is easy to operate. I'm still going to use the plug idea for untwisting the pendant cable, it will just be plugged into this box instead of a socket laying on the ground.

It's about 150' to the power shed. I found a spool of telephone wire with something like 8 twisted pairs and decided to run it in the conduit as well. Maybe I'll want a hard wired anemometer or something someday, and the wire will be there.

I also built my stub today. I needed something to fit down inside 2" Sch40 I think the next size down was 1.5" and it was a real sloppy fit with sch40, but sch80 fit like a charm.

I carved up a nylon/plastic cutting board for the bearing. I read somewhere in here of people doing that so I copied the idea.

Oh, and lastly. Here's why not to use polyester on your rotors. This thing has never even been in the air, just sat in a garage for 3 years with temperatures from -10F in winter to 100F in summer. I spun it around by hand, shorted two phases to stop it and this is what happened! I'm either going to upgrade to round magnets or band these rotors before trying to fly this thing.

[Dave B]

 Looking good. You will be very glad you added the extra cable in the conduit. I can't help but comment once again about using a quality adhesive for the magnets with proper preparation of very clean surfaces. Magnets do not need to be banded and embedded if epoxied properly. Banding looks pretty and if anyone still tries to secure their magnets with cheap "bondo" instead of a quality epoxy then the banding might keep you from losing your magnets after the bondo cracks and rust sets in. The magnets must be adhered to the disks or at least surrounded by an adhesive that will bond to the disks and magnets, then pour all that extra epoxy in and band them if you like the look.

 Thank you for posting these photos, just imagine the forces on those magnets (and stator) when under load, now slam it to a stop besides by shorting the stator and the (3) 5 foot lever arms are going to want to bend, twist and break things at the weakest links.

 Next time anyone is running that drill press or lathe with say a 1-1.5 (1000 watts) horse power motor I would strongly advise against tossing a monkey wrench into it to stop it. Ain't no Bondo going to stand up to those forces.  Dave B.

[Jerry]

Hey Volvo farmer.

Thats great looking wind country there. I'd say Gods gift to wind power.

Where are you?  I use a disc of fiberglass sheet on my magnet disc. Its basicly the template I leave on the disc.

I've flown my small 4ft dual rotor machines in 80 plus mph winds with no furling. I havn't lost 1 magnet yet.

I think that extra epoxi around and up on the magnet sides that bonds to the fiberglass and the magnet helps to keep the magnets from flyinf off the discs?

There is nothing on the outer side of the magnets however. Rpms must be near 2000?

? 4ft diameter blade, TSR 6 at 80 plus mph 1600 watts whats the RPM?

                 Jerry

[Ungrounded Lightning Rod]

I recommend you put the connector for the cable from the mill on the BOTTOM of the box and plug any holes in the top and sides (like those slotted screw holes).

Having the pendant cable plugging in from the bottom forms a "drip loop" which will cause rain to run off rather than follow the wire into the plug and box.

(I'd also put a couple turns in the wires where they emerge from the conduit.  A tiny bit of inductance will encourage lightning following the wire down from the mill to sideflash inside the box rather than continue into the conduit.)

Properly the COMM wire should have gone in its own conduit.  Low volatge and line voltage stuff shouldn't share conduits.  (Or enclosures, except where the low-voltage stuff is hooking to some instrumentation in the enclosure that monitors the line-voltage stuff.)  Failing that, it should turn and exit the box without any cuts in its outer armor.  It won't meet code but will be safer.  Run it through some additional conduit to its own junction box.  At the powerhouse end do the same.  Then fuse all the conductors (get some dinky low-amp fuses) and treat it like it's live at line voltage rather than by low-voltage rules.

[Ungrounded Lightning Rod]

I recommend you put the connector for the cable from the mill on the BOTTOM of the box and plug any holes in the top and sides (like those slotted screw holes).

A little ridge of caulk on the top just behind the closed front door cover and running just over the fold to the sides will encourage water falling on the top to run off the sides and back rather than into the box.

[Volvo farmer]

Thanks. The telco cable is underground-rated I think. There's still time to jerk it out of the conduit and lay it in the trench next to the conduit. Maybe that would be a better way to do it. I did hang the pendant cable out the bottom of the box, even managed to find one of those nifty 3/4" connectors with a rubber compression fitting to mount it with. I do plan on filling up the holes in the box as much as possible, I suppose it might be bad to get things real wet in there.

[Airstream]

There is Lightning to consider - what are you doing proactively about possible surges?

There is nothing lightning likes better than ground contact rated cables that have structures at the run ends, the leader charges that don't evolve into full strikes will map every square mm of your lines and find the pinch points in the insulation etc..

Are you pushing 120VAC or low voltage DC down that trenched run? "Line" voltage in sharing conduit as stated above would be household AC, the free air space of your chosen conduit and the ampacity of the primary conductors have a code formula to follow too.

I would be investing in extra conduit run to keep ground contact telco cable out of the dirt, and a nice chunk of 2 or 4awg solid to lay bare in the trench before you cover it.