Hello all RE friends.
Ive been reading this forum for over 3 years and find it the best informational site out on the web for RE DIY projects. Thanks to all for your contributions.
I'm a 46 year old, disabled by doctors orders, HVAC contractor.
Little did I realize how much I had to learn to be able to build a good working turbine. Ive built 2 garbogens and decided I "needed" (LOL) a axial flux mill next. I don't need a off grid system but something rather to toy with, as this has become my favorite hobby. So after months of planning and a bunch of emails (Thanks Glen) I started building my mill with only hand tools. No welder, milling machine, or lathe at my disposal so I worked with what I had. I did pay a guy $5 to weld on my tail hinge pin.
I came home one day with 2 square chunks of plate steel, one piece was 3/8" thick the other 1/4" thick. I got the ol skill saw and 3 metal cutting disk blades and started whittling the steel into shape. I made 2- 9" rotor disks out of the 1/4" plate and trued them with a bench grinder and rotors mounted in bearing blocks to hold it secure. This took hours. I cut the body of the mill to a shape I had in my head and started putting together a dual rotor, 8 magnet, 6 coil turbine following basic plans I had from Mr Piggots 2003 information.
Beings money (or lack of it) was my biggest issue I had to use the least expensive poly for my stator and wrapped 6 coils of #20 150 turns. Then I made my stator form and poured my stator. I made my stator a bit different trying to keep the magnetic flux as far away from my stator bolts as possible. I wired it with 2 coils paralleled each, then the 6 coil ends to 3 bridge rectifiers. Regular old steel bolts was to be used to hold this stator. Cost effective only for me.
After a month of building on and off again, I ended up with a 300 watt 24v mill running a 5'7" dia blade that I just put on the pole yesterday. Believe it or not, the wind did blow. Only 7mph by local weather stations but my mill took off putting 25 watts into 2 125AH batteries. Within seconds the wind picked up to around 9mph and my batteries went from 26.5v to 28.2v, my resistor dump load was handling the rest. Again, thanks to GHURD for the inexpensive resistors. I'm using a Tristar 45 to route power to batteries and dump load in diversion mode. I have no 24v inverter yet so Im hoping on that for the future and then I can start putting this power to use.
Mr Flux had been contacted while I was building this unit, we needed his expertise and knowledge. I wanted to send a special thanks to him as well for his willingness to help. I sit here typing, looking out the window and watching my mill turn.
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http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm249/Southbuck7/IMG_0732.jpg
http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm249/Southbuck7/IMG_0730.jpg
http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm249/Southbuck7/IMG_0679.jpg
What a joyful Christmas Day. God Bless you all and thanks.
Fused
...and not "quite" as con-Fused
AKA Doug
Hope this is what you wanted. TW