Making the stator

[d3lilley]

 I am currently building a permanent magnet alternator for a wind turbine I am building. So far, I have gotten to the stator. I've wound most of my coils,I've prepared my stator inner, and outer mold. I am very close to castiing. I am uncertain about something though. I have about 3 gallons of fiberglass resin laying around my house. Everything I've read so far has suggested using polyester resin with talcum powder and some sort of catalyst. Would I be able to substitute the polyester resin with fiberglass resin for the stator and or the rotor?

This would save me about $30 so please let me know.

Thanks

[Flux]

Not sure where you are based but here in the UK the standard fibreglass resin is Polyester. Others are available but unless you specify otherwise you get the Polyester.

As long as you have the catalyst for it then it should be fine. You will need talc or some other filler such as slate powder or ATH to control the rate of set and give some strength.

Flux

[DanB]

Yes as flux said...

there is no 'fiberglass' in fiberglass resin.  'Fiberglass resin' is a term used for resin that's used in 'fiberglass work' and normally it is polyester so you're fine.

Vinyl ester could also be considered to be fiberglass resin.  Odds are what you have is polyester and itll be fine.

[tanner0441]

Hi

As Flux said I would think your resin is already polyester, the catalyst will be MEKP (Methylethylekeytoneperoxide. incase you are curious)  The thing to watch is it has a shelf life and does not like moisture, so do a test batch to prove viability.  Add between 2% to 5% catalyst to resin depending on ambient temperature.  If you mix it too strong to try to speed things up it will go exothermic, so keep a note of the mix you used for the test batch, if I was using old resin I would try to aim for an 8 hour cure time, but leave it 24.  It may also be sticky on the outside but as long as it has gone uniformly hard you can wipe the sticky film off with celulose thinners.

Also polyester will degrade at a lower temperature than other resins recomended on here. I would still read this site a lot more, the information and the possible pitfalls will be on here somewhere.

Hope this helps

Brian.

[d3lilley]

Thank you very much, that just saved me about 30 dollars.