Will this be stable?

[brokengun]

I am working on adding a piece of 2 inch pipe that is about 5 feet long to the top of my lattice tower to mount a 7 foot single rotor machine. We tacked it onto a piece of 1/4 inch plate today and mounted it on top of the tower piece. Basically, I am looking to add some gussets to the pipe for extra support. I was wondering if 3, 12 inch tall with 8 inch based right triangles will be enough support. They would probably be welded on and made out of 1/4 inch plate as well. It feels very solid even with just the tacks in place. The machine isn't crazy heavy (it is made out of a volvo brake rotor). What do you guys think?

On a side note, what is the consensus on slip rings? I won't have my windmill up for an extended period of time because it is sort of a school project but i don't want my cable to snap either. I have read that if I just leave some slack in the cable, it will allow the mill to turn a bit and they rarely make 360 degree turns so I should be ok.

Huge Photo size, no one reads FAQs these days? I got it this time, next time is delete city.

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Frequently Asked Questions
Dang

[TomW]

Your pictures will probably go bye bye when Kurt sees the size of the files.

[tanner0441]

Hi

Quarter plate is a bit thin, I would go for half inch and brace it to at least half way up with one inch by quarter strip.  You have two inch pipe with five foot of leverage.. Also it looks like galvanised pipe which you did not clean the galvanising off, bad for your health, and bad for weld penetration. I would like to see a closer view of the weld.

The genny may not be heavy but the vibration is there as long as it is turning, and the gyroscopic forces when it yaws can be very high.

Brian.

[halfcrazy]

i would have been tempted to make the pipe longer and go thru the top plate and make a second plate say 3-4 feet lower? and second what has been said do not breathe in the fumes from galvanized

[tmcmurran]

Your weld has a little to be desired, but my setup is about the same and is a roof mount that runs through the roof to the second floor for the base.  We have had winds well over 150km with no real problems other then sound even with the sound damping and insulation on the pipe and enclosure.

Clean and grind your weld at the plate.  You might be surprised at what might not be fused and create a stress point that will snap if enough force hits it.

[DanG]

Forum member kenputer left some advice and a 1800×1200 pixel photo at 394.46 KB size.

Huge Photo size on a second warning in post? Let's see if he cares to repost, the pixel count on it was 480 pixels per inch, maybe that had him confused...

Photo Size is limited to 150K bytes and/or 640x480.. RESIZE your photos before posting them, whether they on our server or yours. If you post large images, it causes problems for other users who have slow internet connections and small screens.


Frequently Asked Questions

[DanG]

And my interest in this? Everything stopped for 2 minutes and 25 seconds while his photo downloaded... Cropping the picture to highlight the subject would've got it under limits...

[brokengun]

Firstly, sorry about the pictures I had them resized to 400X400 and I thought it was good. I should've double checked or maybe something is messed up with my browser, I don't know.

Secondly, the weld is not finished. We did clean the galvanizing off at the bottom, this picture doesn't show it very well. It is "tacked" on there just enough to stand upright basically. It is not fully welded on, but it will be welded fine when we finish it up. Thanks for the heads up about the galvanized.

If I have to brace it up so high... how will I get my blades to clear? I know the thing is off center, but I still want a safety margin here.

[hiker]

might try this............

[Rover]

I think you might be over thinking the attachement of the 2 inch pipe. Other than esthetics I don't see why you need to center it, your tower legs are vertical and the cross section of the tower is not very large (I'm assuming you will be guying it off anyway) . I would get some U bolts, say 4 of them with longer legs, lay the pipe on the inside of your tower against one of the legs, so that it will extend down past 2 or more lattice sections , lets say 4 or 5 feet (I don't know the spacing on the lattice), then place the u-bolts over the 2 inch pipe and the leg, and tighten. This is safer than a single attachement point on the plate as now your pipe will distribute horizontal force to the leg, which is actually the entire tower due to the lattice.  

I would probably place the pipe against the union of the lattice and the leg and through bolt once or twice through the leg and the pipe.

You could at that point add some welds, and if your worried about the lattice strength, reinforce it with some angle iron.

 

[Rover]

based on my previous post, I don't think you need to do anymore than this

[kurt]

kenputer, you have reduced the file size of the picture to 134KB but you have left the pixel size at 1800px × 1200px if i leave a picture that big on the board i will have every internet explorer user that uses this site yelling at me because IE does not resize pics on the fly to fit your screen for this board. you need to make it 640 x 480 pixels or less please otherwise it cannot stay.