Razor Twin Blade - heres all the body parts - with pics

[Matrix1000]

I know, stubborn me, I'm still going to build this thing for fun so I picked up most of the parts today.

I'm still trying to figure out an easy way to attach the main body to the vertical yaw tube that sits on top of the tower pole. I was thinking of using a heavy gauge piece of flatbar in a "U" shape with a holes in it where I can wrap it around the yaw tube and slide the body through the holes and a bolt on the outside to 'clamp' the body to the yaw tube...any ideas? (besides welding)

This design does furl. The yaw tube is mounted on the left side and the rear fin/tail is mounted on a hinge that allows it to swing out to the left in high wind (like a rudder) and force the entire mill to swing to the right, making the blades less efficient. The point of yaw is controlled by a spring; the stiffer the spring the higher wind speed is required to furl it. (I know its not the greatest but..)

I know its not the 'best' design but its different, and cheap, it only cost about $40 for all the parts so far purchased at the local hardware store. Now all I need are the 1/8th inch round plate steel blanks for the magnets and a couple small hubs for the blades I'm going to bolt the stator plate on instead of weld it etc..

Thanks for any ideas or suggestions.

[Big All]

Could the Mach3 and Quattro be far behind?

Good to see you are pushing ahead.

I'm looking forward to reading the continuing story.

[bob golding]

keep up the good work, most  inventions come about when someone says thats  a silly idea there are better ways. or the other  way is to  get fed up up with it, chuck it to one side then come back to it later with more experience and try to remember what the hell it was you  were trying to do. ;-)

bob golding

[kitno455]

engineers make sure the product works before marketing names it

anyway, here are some more problems you will have to fix:

1. with a long tube like that, if it flexes at all (and it will once yawing and gusty winds are hitting, it will) it will tend to flex the spinning shaft as well. the soft threaded rod will actually survive for quite awhile, but eventually it will break, likely just inside one of your bearings. you design relies on the shaft being in tension for the props to stay on. if that shaft breaks, both props come out. this could be helped some with a ball and socket style flange bearing at both ends, which are attached to the tube, not just floating on the shaft. then you will need a collar on the inside of the bearing. threaded rod makes a very bad shaft. solid bar in your app would work better, with no other changes...
   
2. your yaw system may need some more work. i dont see enough offset in the mainshaft to give you any real force for yaw. remember than this thing might act like an arrow when the wind is going, so you are going to need some serious off-set. how about the american wind-rose style of two tails? the rear could still fold, but the side tail means you dont need as much offset...
   
   

oh, for cross-tube attachment, look at long ubolts, but replace the cross-bar with a flat steel plate, or switch to a tee fitting in the center....

allan

[Matrix1000]

Thanks for the comments. You may be right about the yaw tube not having enough offset. I'm not sure how to add more offset without having to weld. I'm trying to stay away from that. I have a 115v Lincoln welder but I'm not sure how well it will weld the 1/4 in steel I would need to use.

As a fix I'm thinking about making the tail a little bit wider to give it more force to turn. I can see though that more turning force means more wind resistance and therefore more force on the tower.

I suprises me though that the moderators would take this post off the front page. I didn't know the design sucked that much.

[kitno455]

dont think this tail arrangment will work. just making it bigger is not the answer.

you could get more offset on the mainshaft with some more creative use of pipe and tee fittings. that will also remove the need for the ubolts. unfortunately, the threaded pipe is weaker than welded steel tubing.

if you dont change the design that holds the propshaft into the bearings, this thing will be down-right dangerous. dont build it.

the admin may have moved your post from one section to another. that causes it to just off the front page too.

allan

[rotornuts]

Forge ahead and don't worry too much about the problems, you'll find out soon enough. The great part is you'll know exactly what needs to be done after you have a prototype. No more speculation. I'm all for unconventional. I wish you the best of luck.

Nuts

[wooferhound]

Instead of using just one tail fin, Put 2, or even 4 or 6 fins on it like a rocket. All the fins will point it into the wind as well as smoothing out the air some before it passes the second prop.

[wgatenson04]

Are your two props going to be different sizes like in the drawing?  The small one will be trying to spin faster than the large one, creating loses, also putting one set of blades in front of another diminishes the output of the second set.  i.e. when setting up a wind-farm, the gennys should me no closer than 10x the blade diameter in respect to the prevailing wind direction.