I finally got around to posting pictures of my 3 hp 3 phase conversion with a 10 foot diameter blade. I am using it to heat domestic hot water. So far,the highest I have seen the water temp was 105 degrees in a 80 gallon tank after an all day 25 mph wind.I had it up for four months and so far no problems other than the blades seeking the wind. I need to lower it and increase the tail stop from 10 degreees to 20 or 30 degrees. It's gone through 50 mph winds without flying apart and the furling system seem to be working ok. Waiting for the 80 mph blast to see if I have all the bugs worked out. The only thing that scares me is I can't stop the blades by shorting out the generator when it is running. Anything over a 15 mph wind and it won't stop. I didn't think a 10 foot diameter blade would overpower the generator. Top speed is around 500 rpm using a digital frequency tester. Don't know how accurate that is, but it seems to be close to that. Still trying to dream up some kind of simple controller to switch the elements between star and delta.
The blade was the part that took the longest to build. I used cedar siding cut into strips and epoxied together using System three epoxy. It turned out so good that my nephew said that if it didn't work for the windmill that he could use it for a ceiling fan in his new house.
Another picture of the blade mounted on the generator.The furling system was built using Hugh's book on building windmills.
The raising of the mill. No one around to see it going up and nobody around in case I had a major failure. It went up with no problems using a silo winch that I got off an old silo that was not used anymore. It takes about twenty minutes to raise and about two minutes to lower. It's a two speed winch.
Finally up and no wind. Figured I better take a picture in case something unforseen happens. The tower is 70 feet high using 5 inch sch 40 pipe with 3/8 inch cables going to the top guyes and 5/16 inch on the other two guyes. I poured 2 yards of concrete for each anchor and two yards at the base. I built everything heavy enough so if I want, I can go to a 16 or 18 foot diameter blade. It was an interesting winter project and now that it is up, it's amazing how many people come up and ask questions about the windmill! I am going to keep experimenting with this one before I try a larger one, but I am sure I will try again this winter.
Thanks to all who answered all my ,what may have sounded like, silly questions. It never hurts to ask. Also,thanks to zubbly for all his posts on motor conversions. That was truely helpfull.
windy