Chinese VS handmade blades?

[welldog]

I have read on here that a few guys have used the purchased chinese blades with success and alot of guys have made blades from wood by hand.  What is the opinion of the people on the forum?  

The purchased blades may not be the highest quality but I would assume that if they are all made from the same mold that the weight and shape should be the same.  Being as I am new to woodworking,  That may be a real asset to me.  If home made is much better then I am willing to learn to carve if needed.  

The purchased ones on Ebay seem to be very reasonably priced. Am I wasting my money that should go for woodworking tools?

Thanks for the advice in advance.

Welldog

[gotwind2]

My experience with the Chinese blades supplied with the 500w turbine I bought were very good, I can only compare them to PVC blades however.

Make sure they are the more 'sculpted type' rather than the ones that just look like guttering, they are a lot quiter.

[gizmo]

We did some work on the fibreglass blades at TheBackShed. A few modifications can improve performance, and more importantly, reduce noise.

http://www.thebackshed.com/Windmill/articles/ChineseBlades.asp

Its also worth noting the mounting holes are starting to fail after a couple of years use, the fibreglass starts to break apart and you can end up loosing a blade.

Glenn

[electronbaby]

How much petroleum does it take to make fiberglass blades,....and ship them from china?

I know it doesnt take any to make the wood version (well, if you grew the trees). Performance can be had with wood also, if you do your homework.

Plus, wood carving is a good skill to have.  :-)

[windstuffnow]

I run a set on my 500 watt kit and it seems to perform fairly well with them.  The hand carved blades perform better but you can't beat the price.   For me saving time is worth a bunch although I've carved many blades before them.  I think its worth the effort to learn to carve them yourself but I also recognize the savings in time to purchase them.

I've only had them on the turbine for several months now so I can't provide any information on the longivity of them.  I've been checking them occasionally, especially after storms and so far I have had no problems.  

I plan to build an 8.5 footer with them as well for testing.  

.  

[chubbytrucker01]

Isn't part of the attraction to homebrew power saying Yes I built it? I think alot of the attraction for me is the creation. I think the coolest part of explaining how I am progressing on mine is when someone sees the roughed in blades and asks me about it.

  Just my thoughts,

   Doug

[welldog]

Thanks for the comments.  

The prices on the chinese blades is very appealing at $38.00 for a 8.5ft set of 3.

As far as how much petroluem it takes to make and ship.  For the price mentioned above they are obviously not buying it at the same place that I am.  lol.

I think I am going to try a set and get something up that can be used to learn more.  At that time, it may be a good time to be able to carve a wood set to be able to see the differences.  The goal is to make a couple or more of different models and sizes to be able to get a good handle on what this is all about.  We are located in a high wind area in the winter (within 10 miles of a commercial wind farm) and would like to be able to reduce some of bills that continue to rise.

Thanks for all of the good input.

Welldog

[phil b]

I bought a set of Chinese 10.5 foot fiberglass blades from magnets for less, out of Plano, Texas. I think they were removed from a 2 piece mold and 'glued together' with resin while they were still wet. They don't track well because each one has its own unique twist and curve. The fiberglass under the gell coat was not smooth. When I squeezed the blade tip,the gell coat broke like an egg shell.  He offered to replace one blade after a 1 1/2 weeks of emails. Freight to and from his location would have added more than the blades originally cost. These blades were definately sub standard. I'll continue to carve my own until I can find something better.

Phil

[wooferhound]

The problem is that it costs more to make your own power than it does to buy the power off of the grid. We make our own power because: we don't have grid power to start with, we need backup power, doing our part to be green, or the fun of a hobby that gives back to us. Our original motivation may have been to save money on power bills, we have discovered that it can't be done cheaply, but it's Fun trying. If all you really want to do is lower your electric bills, then start conserving, cause making your own will require cash. Many people refer to Wind and Solar power as Free Power but it's NOT, it's more like Prepaid power.

[luckeydog]

I bought a set of the same blades you are talking about.

 right now they are leaning agents the wall and my wood blades have been up

for over two years with no problems.

 I put about 8 man hrs. into getting the Chinese blades into good shape

using a professional composite shop to do the work. (i love power tools)

  Lots of sanding, the blades are not ready to just throw up on the tower.

  Lots of pinholes in the resin and gel cote so you will be doing a lot of

filling sanding filling and then painting.

  for me they were not worth the time and money and in my opinion they do not look as nice as the wood blades.

  if you would like i would be willing to sell the set of Chinese blades all ready

to throw up on the tower.

[richhagen]

Don't forget about the oil (linseed oil) to coat them. . . Rich

[Ausi319]

but wouldnt it pay off in a long run?

You might pay a lot of money to start but in a long run you will save?

[Todd a]

It all depends on the wind in your location and the design of your wind turbine.  I think VAWT are not as efficient, but much stronger.  I am working on basically a zero mantenance VAWT with a sturdy solid frame, well built generator, and a a very heavy duty bearings.  The blades do not flex one bit and will likely stand up to at least 2x the wind of a HAWT.

I am putting about $500 into a wind turbine and actually having the magnet plates laser cut and outsorcing the welding and bearing sleeve.  The thing is this actually includes the fact I am building 3 stator plates with diferent coil configurations and a few extra purchases phased out in the long run.  The end unit will likely be about $350 in parts and hopefully produce in the 500-1000w range.  I figure it will likely average about 100-200w in typical wind in my area.  Yes it will likely take a few years to pay for itself, but I expect this thing to last many years.

Yes paying $10,000 for a skystream 1.8Kw and tower with installation takes a mighty long time to pay off...  imless you are at a remote location that would cost that much or more just to run power to you cabin.  Making it yourself out of scraps and elbow grease and a few hundred dollars can be fun and proffitable.

[osku]

I bought a set of Chinese 13.1 ft (4 meter) blades via Amazon.com and have had those for four days.

These are the magnet master /CMS / Magnet4less and so on  ebay-blades and come from the same fellow from Plano, Texas.

I measured the blades and used dimensions from the 36 cm diameter hub that comes with the blades.  The diameter of the turbine is not 13.1 ft, it is only 12.5 ft, which means that the swept area is only about 90% of what it should have been.

The blades have thick seam lines and need lots of sanding and filling but after that I think they might work somehow, the profile is very fat.

A funny thing is this from one of the sellers ads:

"Note: Keep away from those fraudulent copies from our competitor, which have the thicker poorly made seam lines, that severly change the aerodynamic characteristics and make lots of noise."

I did send an email to the seller, I wrote that I had measured the blades and that the diameter was only 12.5 ft, he sent back an email where he states that the diameter is 13.1 ft or 4 meters!

No more blades from the same seller. Ever.

I have also bought some N42 magnets from the same people.  

How to check those?