Mondays up at otherpower headquarters

[DanB]

It's been a fun couple of weeks up here.  We (me and some of the neighbors) usually get together on Mondays and build stuff... kind of an 'open shop' day.  Usually we work on wind turbines, or generators.... or something along those lines.  Here's some of what was going on yesterday.

This may be the last one we build from Volvo parts!  Volvo parts are starting to get scarce for some weird reason...

There's another nice picture of it.

Notice the maroon 'designer stator'!  It sounds kind of funny, but I just mixed a touch of acrylic enamel with the resin.  It doesn't seem to hurt anything, in fact it seems to make the resin noticably less brittle.  I mix about 2% by volume and it seems to work out fine.  It looks nicer anyhow...

Here's a blue stator we finished up for a new machine.

Here's a brand new machine with no Volvo parts in it.  I used a common trailer hub/spindle.  The bolt pattern is 4 bolts on 4" diameter.  The steel rotors were cut from 1/4" steel.

There's another shot of the same machine.  This one has a 96 Volt stator.  The magnets are wedge shaped, a bit larger than the 1" X 2" blocks.  The coils have 250 windings each of #20 gage wire.  This thing will really zap you if you turn it and grab the leads...

Another shot of the alternator.  You can see how the blade will fit between the two 6" diameter hubs that sit on the front of the alternator.  This keeps the force of the nuts that hold the blades on from affecting the airgap of the alternator.

Here's the new machine assembled.  We fabricated all the parts for this machine from pipe except for the rotors.  I kind of used this one as a prototype to design parts for the next one(s), so that in the future all the parts are fabricated locally with a CNC water jet cutter.  The water jet makes really nice parts and the cost is reasonable.

Here are the parts I've had made up.  All the flat parts are cut from a sheet of steel with the water jet, the rest is fabricated from pipe.  In the end it weighs a good bit less and should be a bit stronger than those made from brake rotors and strut assemblies.  I think it looks nicer too - and there is much less time involved in building it.

Here's one underway that's made from the 'prefab' parts shown above.  Soon we may offer a sort of kit, which could include only the most basic parts (steel rotors, magnets and wire)... or - it may include all the metal work finished like we have pictured above.  I find that some folks want to build, but cannot cut, or weld steel.  Other folks love that sort of thing, but get very intimidated when it comes to making blades.  So it may be fun to offer some of these things done.  This 4 on 4 bolt pattern will also fit the really tough fiberglass reinforced 8' diameter blades that Art Randolf makes - so it could also make for a nice 8'  machine I think.

Thats usually how Mondays end.... a few large pizzas and a small party in the shop.  Lots of fun!

[PHinker]

Nice work Dan!  I recently bought a place north of Lyons which has a couple of great windmill sites and would love to drop by some Monday and watch/learn from you guys.

Paul

[Volvo farmer]

Looks like Evan Williams made his way into a few of those shots ;-) Will trade Volvo parts for magnets! Hope to see you some Monday in the next few months.  

[RatOmeter]

Yeah, that reminds me of a story... a friend of mine (an Okie transplanted from Missouri) has a big spread out in the country. I was out there with my wife's car and the old gravel road gave me a flat. So we take the wheel off, hop in the truck and head over to a neighbor's a few miles away (he's got a tire machine).  

He fixes the tire, then I ask him what I owe. He just walks over to a freezer in his shop, pulls out a bottle of Jim Beam and hands it to me.  We share a few drinks, shoot the bull and then I'm on my way.

Gotta love them country folk.

[DBGenerator]

I keep looking through the papers and Monster dot com and I can't find a job listed anywhere that is even close to Dan's.  Wanted: Somewhat self motivated domestic engineer hobbyist to hang around the house with friends and play with a never ending amount of magnets, wires, and other discarded electronics stuff.  Unlimited access to welding equipment and power tools.  More tools comensurate with ability to bargin or trade for them.  Hours are what ever your comfortable with.

Very nice work!!  Actually, I was kind of wondering when the world was going to run out of wrecked Volvos!!

[wdyasq]

Possibly a regional problem.  You might try another brand of car - say a Yugo... after all - they weren't much good as an automobile - they might actually have a use.  Or, might not.

Ron

[tecker]

  looks like Mr williams had a twin made it to the shop earlier in the day. I guess a little anti frezzzzze and somthing to knock back the dust.

[tecker]

That paint idea is a keeper very good .

[ibedonc]

Looks Like I get my Green Genny soon

[Shadow]

Very Nice Work! I too like the metal cut out rather than the brake rotors.Do you think the 4 bolt pattern will be better or worse than 5?.. Also do you still use 10 inch long threaded rod? I did on mine, and not sure What happened, but I barely have enough threads to bolt the blades on. I did leave the root of the blades a full 2 inch thickness. How will you use the 96 volts? Two strings of 48 volt batteries? I'm getting ready to start my second mill here shortly.

[Victor]

How in the world did you get pizza delivered up there?

Make the wind fun!

Victor

[domwild]

Great photos, thanks! You are right, laser- or water-cut CNC stuff looks great.

*

[ibedonc]

did it for me , 8 , 12v batteries , into my 36v - 130v input pure sine inverter

[hvirtane]

Really nice work and photos.

One question:

if you'll make

the magnet rotor disks

really big (let's say 1 m diameter),

what is your method to get them

straight?

I'm thinking that

you could build the rotors

with strong straight bars

behibnd and fix the rotor disks

with adjustable bolts on them.

What do you think?

- Hannu  

[Bach On]

RatOMeter, not sure why, but your story reminded me of this one.

Read this in a magazine. Late in his life, Pablo Piccasso was to the point that nearly anything he sketched sold for big bucks.

He had a guy come in to make some kitchen cabinets. He was trying to describe what he wanted, but the cabinet maker was having trouble grasping it. So Piccasso picks up a sheet of drawing paper and a piece of charcoal. He starts sketching the design. Almost immediately, the cabinet maker says he understands.

Piccasso then says, "Now. How much will it cost?"

The cabinet maker points at the charcoal sketch and says, "Just sign that and give it to me and we'll call it even."

Talk about sweat equity.

B.O.

[Ex Mek]

  Ford contours have the same type suspension as volvos worth a try ?

[DanB]

Hi Shadow.

the 4 bolt pattern is probably not quite as strong... but I think its fine.  It's a bit  easier to lay stuff out... uses a bit less allthread etc.  Overall - this machine has about half as much allthread and a few less nuts involved which is nice.

Yes - on the Volvo ones, I cut the allthread to 10", and the root of our blades is actually 1.5" (planed 2X lumber).  So we have a bit of xtra room there.

The 96 V stator is for ibdonc, who's building a 96 volt system with his homebrew  inverter which may become available as a kit as far as I know...  it sounds pretty neat!

[jimjjnn]

How about using food coloring? It is so concentrated that a little goes a long long way. Of course , the little lady may yell/ If she doesn't tho, she may help you mix up a batch of resin.

[DanB]

they do make coloring for this stuff... I think it comes as  a powder.  Food coloring I believe is mostly water - which would probably not mix in very well and cause problems.

Using acrylic enamel definitely seemed a bit of a gamble, but it does seem to mix in nicely and it definitely seems to make the resin less brittle which is nice.

[whatsnext]

Dan, You really should have those partsn quoted on a lazer or a plasma table. Water jet is not even close to being cost competitive.

John........

[MattB]

I guess I sorta came out of my pizza delivering retirement... Liked it so much I just had to do this one delivery/week...

Of course, being that its always more then 30 minutes old, the pizza is always free. And they don't even tip... geez.

-Matt

[DanB]

There are no laser tables around that I know of.

There is a plasma table, and it is a bit cheaper (not a lot) =- but the finish quality is not nearly as good.  

[Peppyy]

Once again, all I can say is wow. Another beautiful machine and another great looking design. Someday my wallet and my time will come together and I will have myself one of those but for now I can look at all the lovely photos.

[nothing to lose]

I think the coloring comes either way, a powder or a liquid dye. I had some red liquid once years ago, was great for hiding the rear lights on a red car. Tricky getting the color match prefect though. I ever did but I got pretty darned close.

I was once pulled over by a cop, when he walked up to the car he just said never mind. I asked what, and he said he was pulling me over for no brake/tail/turn lights on the rear and when I fliped on the right signal and hit the brakes to pull over he found them

I had really nice reflectors on the rear so technically I was DOT legal with the hidden lights molded into the body elsewhere with the red fiberglass. Only saw them when lit unless you were standing very close and looked real hard for them.

[nothing to lose]

As always, Great work, looks great, wish I lived near you guys and could join your local windgennie building club.

If you built these as a kit I bet they'd sell really well at a reasonable price.

Maybe several stages of kits, all the steel parts (stage #1)

Stage #1 plus mags and wire as a #2

Stage #2 plus baldes as a stage #3

And maybe also have a comeplete just bolt together one, coils aleady cast and mags mounted as a stage #4 or even have the complete mill ready to spin and make power and just assemble everything else on site like mount blades and tail.

If you set it up as a package of various parts for each stage it would also be easy to sell just the middle stuff like if someone just wanted a cast stator and rotors with the mags mounted already.

Kinda like Sears and the Craftsmans tool sets. Buy the big professional set with everything, or a basic starter set and build up with added sets. Or buy anything seperate as a single piece.

If the price were something I could afford (low) I would probably buy 2 myself. 1 kit of just all parts nothing really built, and 1 fully ready to fly other than mounting blades and tail type stuff.

This way I have a working mill right away and something to build (kit) to compare to the working mill and see if I did it right myself, and something to compare my own stuff to as I build other things as I experimnet.

 If you want a distributor, got any wholesale prices in mind

City was without power at least twice in about the last month and we've been having alot of wind, I bet I could have sold some then for you here

Strangly though my crappy co-op here in the middle of nowhere has not lost power for a little while now, but I expect that soon as temps start hitting around 70-90f days before too long though.

[GBillerty]

Dou you have done CAD drawings for that parts Dan??

[TERRYWGIPE]

They make morter dye that comes in all sorts of colors

                          Just a thaught(try white)

                                  Terry