First post, wind mills & bicycle parts

[The Professor]

Greeting fellow experimenters

  I am a first time caller, long time listener. Fantastic board. I want to start out by saying that the last 3 mills that I have built used bicycle front forks and the supporting tube and ball bearings for both yaw and tail furling aplications. Small dia. frame tubing is used for generator mounting and larger frame tubing for tail booms. Even cheap bicycles use carbon steel, which is much stronger than electrical conduit.Theese components have held up well on 14' dia. mills. Another durable item that I like is a round tail made from the bottom of a plastic 55 gal. barrel.

  I have made propellers carved from foam, conduit and plastic sails, built up with  wood ribs and alum. skin, and cut diagonally from 55 gal. plastis barrels. My favorite is a wooden prop carved with a draw knife, a plane and a scraper. I have read a lot of posts where some one agonizes over carving their first wooden prop. My advice is to just dive in and start making shavings. And dont waste money on premium grade wood with out any knots. Sure knots are a weak area, just dont have any in the inner 1/3 near the hub. I have had props made of crappy lumber sustain storm winds without blowing up. But do take pains with balancing.

   I have used tape drive motors, industrial dc motors and un modified induction motors wich are my favorite because of cheapness, no brush wear or drag, no cogging,  and higher voltage output, which means cheaper, smaller copper conducter from the tower to the house.

     Thanks for listening

   

[Ungrounded Lightning Rod]

Great info.  (Like using bike forks.)

Question:  I see how to do the tail furler.  But how do you get 360 yaw out of a bike fork and the associated bearing.

[Ungrounded Lightning Rod]

Oh, never mind.  I was thinking of the wheel bearing, not the steering bearing at the top of the fork.  (Duh!)

[Nando]

The professor:

Thank you for your message, NOW, We need photos, descriptions, efforts and all possible information for us NUTS can see what you have done and what we can copy for our projects

Thanks

Nando

[wooferhound]

Talking about Bicycle Generators

I have been thinking about mounting the Prop blades to the hub that the pedals are turning in. then the Chain and 10 speed gearing to an alternator mounted in the hub position of the back wheel.

I would have a 10 speed wind generator and hand brakes to prevent overspeed. Need to mount a bike speedometer on there for RPM readings.

[veewee77]

Great idea!

Then all you'd need is one of the "automatic bicycle transmissions" that adjust themselves according to rpm and then it would automatically adjust itself for load and windspeed. . .  The turbine would remain at a fairly constant speed but the alternator would adjust according to load. . .

DS

[hvirtane]

I have been thinking about mounting the Prop blades to the hub that the pedals are turning in.

I've got the same idea.

I think that those bearings would be good

if used as the support bearings of

a VAWT. But does anybody know about

the general standard how much they

can stand RPM?

- Hannu

[juiced]

I couldnt tell you how much. But i used to be a messenger and have rode bike my entire life. I think they take the worst punishment out of all bike parts. Everything rides on bearings. They are pretty cheap.

   If you were really desperate for SERIOUS strength, i would recomend looking for broken <downhill> frames. You wont find anything that small, that strong for cheaper im sure.

              BTW. This is my first post. I LOVE this place.

                       I will introduce myself tomorrow, when im not so tired.