Turbine Busted

[andyman5002]

Hi all, Had an accident today, my little motor conversion had been flying for a few weeks and was doing very little due to its hight. So today I thought I would double the hight of the turbine. When I bought the pole there was a thread on the end of it, so I could increase the hight. Well today I did just that, once I started erecting it, BAM the thread snapped, the whole turbine fell to the ground, blades gone, motor conversion damaged, mags broke. So pretty disappointing day.

At least I know now for my next conversion to get much thicker tubing to support the turbine. Just hope I don't wreck the new one as that will cost a lot more than my little one.

Oh well, Look forward to my next one

Andy

[Gary D]

Andy, sorry to hear of your tower disaster. The threads are indeed the weak point. Others here have had the same thing happen to them. Hard learning experience, however, you'll do better next time!  Gary D.

[SmoggyTurnip]

Sorry to hear about the crash.

How big was the pipe and how high was the tower?

.

[andyman5002]

Hi, the pipe was small, about 1.5 inch, could have been smaller, it was in two halves, total probably about 25 feet. It broke on the thinnest point the thread, so I know now just to get one big length of pipe which is greater in diameter.

Andy

[dinges]

Sorry to hear about this.

Glad to learn that this happened with the small motorconversion, not with the new, big one (3HP) you're planning.

Another reason to start small and a warning to all newbies to not immediately start building 20ft+ gennies. Not only will the lessons be more expensive but also more dangerous.

Ah well, at least now you've got a strong motivator to get that 3HP conversion over with

Peter.

[kenputer]

Something was not together fully or were you useing plactic pipe? I have benn in the plg. & htg. business for over 35 yrs. and have never saw metal pipe in good condition snap at the threads,installed wells with galv. pipe, 24 lengths of 1" pipe x 21' long hanging in water,yet to see a joint snap,not to say it can not happen,but I think there was some problem that caused it.

Ken

[coldspot]

That really would make for a less than good Day !!!!!

When I read that you had it bust at the threads, I started to

get a bit more bummed out myself.

Untill I read about the pipe size. One and half inch or less?

Thats way to small I'd think, my anemometer tower is about that size

and only holding a couple ounces maybe.

I have gotten a couple of 25' lenghts of 2.5" heavey walled pipe that

are also with a male and female thread, (one of them on one and the other on the other one), I was planning to use for my 2 HP conversion.

Now I'll be testing it with weight first only, I'd hate to have a crash,

 but I know this stuff happens.

So Sorry to read about this, but-

THANK YOU, for sharing this with us !!!!!!

I'm sure that I and others will learn from this!!!!

PS: get on to the 3 HP, You'll get good power for make-up I hope.

 

[RP]

Remember this was 25ft of it with a weight hanging off the end and it failed while in the process of raising it from horizontal to vertical.  I'd guess the little Vee of the thread quickly tore in half under that stress.

[andyman5002]

I hope my 3 HP goes better than this one. The output was minimal anyway. I was using steel tubing not plastic, and it still snapped when raising the pole on the thread.

Ill keep everyone posted as the  3 HP progresses.

Andy