Hi - I'll comment on some of your thoughts...
"Now I will be setting up a shop there,with a mind to saving up some cash to invest in my own property-so I want to conserve on outside expenses as much as possible."
You'll not likely generate your own power for less than you can buy it from the grid. People need to realize that. You can save money if you build your own system vs buy one - but even then, cost/KWH will likely be more for power you generate yourself - if for no other reason, the cost of batteries. I believe that large grid tie wind turbines can start being cost effective especially in states that subsidize that sort of project.
"The place is already set up on the grid-so my priorities are not so much in charging up battery bank to supply power-as I am in a larger generator, or series of generators to feed power back into the grid. In other words,I want to "turn the meter backwards"."
Probably an induction motor as is described in another comment is the way to go, but keep in mind, it'll have to be geared way up - as is described in the other comment. And still, I doubt that once you count your time, and the cost of it all - that you'll really save much money. In your situation - since you have the grid, it makes sense to do this for fun, but the payoff will be a very long term thing I expect.
"Now,I have looked around and found other sites that sell ready made alternators. They range anywhere from 100 to as much as four hundred bucks a piece,(mostly used and reconditioned)"
What I see available on other sites is usually very small stuff - usually grossly over rated. To be honest, I don't see much out there that's really suitable for a decent sized wind turbine that will produce usable amounts of power and hold up over the course of years. Ametek tape drive motors are nice sometimes (depending on the model) for 50 - 100 watt machines with 3 - 5' props, and such machines might be handy on boats or cabins where we're worried about a light and a radio. But.. they don't hold up that well. In my experience, the brushes will usually fail in a year or less - the bearings in a year or two. The magnets tend to come loose sometimes. They are a fun/cheap way to get into all this, but not a very good machine in my opinion.
"Looking at the home made expoxy cased stators and magnet rotors gives me an idea that one could perhaps stack them. Will this have any detrimental effects or disruptions on the magnetic flux and outputs?"
Sure, you could stack them. I prefer to make them larger in diameter - I'd not be stacking them untill diameter became a problem because it's poor use of materials.
"It seems like a big waste of time to try to make an alternator-when I can just buy one ready-made that will hold up under torque and shocks better. (as in the more standard setup with a seprate shaft for the prop,and then up the speed with some simple gearing at the alternator input shaft)"
Yes, it would be a waste of time if you could buy one ;~)
I've seen whats out there and I dont believe you can to be honest. With a wind turbine, we need an alternator that produces the right amount of power at the right speeds. I dont think mounting blades to a shaft is nearly as strong as mounting it to studs so I prefer not to have a shaft, although it is workable. If you like 'ready made' stuff - I would study what zubbly has done with motor conversions. Thats good stuff there.
"There is also the matter of the cost of thicker cabling to reduce line losses. Is it better to use a higher dc output,and convert to ac only at the point at which I am feeding back into the grid?"
You'll either charge batteries and grid tie that (a bit expensive but nice in that you have backup power) or directly grid tie with an induction motor I expect. Higher voltage is usually nice.
"Are there any simple plans out there for how to build a prop you can actually set up to feather automatically, to stabilize the output under varying wind speeds? "
No - not that I know of. It's not a simple problem. Machines with variable pitch blades tend to be larger, more complicated -and expensive. The gravity tail furling system that many of us use is nice/simple and reliable and basicly achieves the same ends.
"The units I was speaking of seem to be actual generator motors.
I found them here: http://eduhosting.org/wgss/wsgprice.html ..Long term,it looks like it's easier to just go make some other stuff I'm good at doing,and buy a pro unit."
The smaller ones they're selling are ametek tape drive motors, from old computer main frame tape drives, again - they're nice for 50 -100 watt machines and occasionally one might see twice that from them, but they're not efficient (even the big ones) over 100 watts. Try driving one of those with an engine sometime and see what happens after about 10 min @ over 100 watts output (they get too hot to touch).
The other motors offered there are not intended for use as generators at all. The 3 phase motor appears to be an induction motor and would probably work for a small grid tie machine if you could gear it Way up, but for battery charging I cannot imagine that it'd be workable. Perhaps I'm wrong.
But that site is really full of hype and misinformation my opinion. The prices on some things are fair and I expect his blades mounted to the ametek motors do make nice little wind turbines, but some of the other stuff there I would disagree with.
"As far as the towers go,I'm not sure that I really trust a guyed "tilt up" sort. I'm more interested in a more massive lattice tower, mounted into a heavy concrete base. I have plenty of tools and skill to build this sort of thing,it's only angle and flat iron. I'm going to build a "toy unit" (probably with a smaller brushless alternator,putting out 12 vdc) before I move,a scaled down model."
Guyed tilt up towers are fine, you don't have to climb them and they require a lot less materials.
This will have a set of 3/8 inch thick steel plates mounted though the center of the lattice ,about half way up. They will be at a 45 degree angle,with a shaft from a gearbox mounted through them,and locking lugs to force them together solidly at the end of the pivot. So,to install the unit on top,and do any maintanence,you use the gear motor attached to the box ,and the tower swings down and around on it's pivot,bringing the unit easily down to ground level without a lot of histrionics. All you do is flip a switch.
"And with four or five hundred pounds of concrete pad for a base in the heavier duty unit-it's not going anywhere."
Hmm... I dont think four or five hundred pounds of concrete under a free standing tower will do you much good. I bet $5 it'll tip over ;-)
"While I do appreciate the value of simplicity in a home brewed unit-there's only so much wattage you can get out of one. There's got to be a break point at which you are not investing hundreds of hours, just to produce 20 kwh a day."
Claims on that website about 20KWH/day and powering a family home with 'kids' with an induction motor mounted to a 7' blade are absurd in my opinion.
"I've already looked into solar,and that's not very good in a dark climate like Washington-so the most efficient wind power is going to have to do instead."
Yes, I expect in your area windpower is probably your best bet. You should do your research - read some good books, look at some good websites. Avoid 'hype' - there is about as much hype and misinformation out there in the windpower world as there is in the perpetual motion world. If you're serious about getting into it - then time reading is well spent. I would look at Windpower Workshop by Hugh Piggott, checkout Paul Gipes books. Look at our 'wind' page and follow through some of the links. DanF's recent articles there are worth reading: http://www.otherpower.com/otherpower_wind.html
