VAWT + treadmill motor

[taylorp035]

The last few pictures that I posted that are assembled are very unstable and would most likely fall over if you blew on them...

I think I am going to work on them this weekend, as I have not heard that I am working...
I will definitely make it so I can go down to 2 blades of the design doesn't work.  My plan was to have the big air gap in the middle so the high pressure could be released.
After recalculating for the actual diameter, power output will be less than 20 watts.  So at least I will not have to worry about over heating my motor.

As for the batteries, I found the cheapest batteries on ebay seemed to by the AA nimh cells, at $0.99 for a 4 pack @ 3000 mah, free shipping.  But that would be a pain to wire up so many cells.

I hope to update again sometime later on Saturday or sunday.


have a good day!

[taylorp035]

Sorry for the lack of progress...  I re-cut each of the slats so they were all exactly the same length.  I then took each slat and hand fitted it so they would line up better and I angle some of the edges so they would meet up on the curve.

 I also decided that I will glue the slats together in the middles so it would be stronger and easier to shape when  it is all dry.
I ended up working outside since it was so nice and we burned some of the tree stumps that we pulled out last fall when we had access to two tractors at once ( nothing better than running two tractors full speed into a stump at the same time ).  The fire was so hot from Saturday that it started right up when we put some sticks on it this morning.

[taylorp035]

Today I glued the first blade together, and I cut the bottom "curve" piece to 1/2" from 1" thick, so they would be lighter and more aerodynamic.

I was thinking that my design could easily be scaled up to a 4' or 5' radius and maybe 6ft tall, especially if you glue the slats together like I did.

[taylorp035]

Here are some pictures for the people who like them

big version:
http://i41.tinypic.com/9hujk3.jpg




big version:
http://i42.tinypic.com/b3juwo.jpg

[taylorp035]

When I took off the clamps, i was surprised at how light they were, probably less than a pound, but that's what I said about all of my windmill blades.

Trying to put glue in cracks after I clamped it together failed quite miserably.
 Time to go sand /  plane the bumps out.

[taylorp035]

I glued #2 today, roughly an hour of fitting the slats.  #1 looks really good after I found my circular card for shaping/smoothing.

If all goes well, there is a chance that the blades will be mounted by sunday.

[taylorp035]

I finished all 3 blades and mounted them on the motor.  Unfortunately, there was no wind to speak of, so testing and most likely pics/video will have to wait until tomorrow.

[Norm]

Great job !.....starting to look like a piece of fine furniture !

[taylorp035]

I have taken the newly made vawt out for the last 3 days.  Today was the windiest, with winds up to 10mph for a few seconds.  This was enough for the windmill to hit about 60-80 rpm.  Start up speed appears to be about 10 mph and it takes about 7 mph to keep it going.  I have not finished the base for it, so it currently just stands on the box that encases the motor.

[taylorp035]

I finally made a video of my windmill.  Wind speeds varied from 5-18ish mph and voltage got up to 4.6 or so.  I did a little charging, but I soon found that 4 of my batteries were completely shot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1HnJ9rynGU

Towards the end, I noticed the 4-wheeler was rocking a good 1" or so back and forth, caused by the pulsing of the blades, which is quite noticeable and is why I grabbed the windmill since it would of most likely tipped over.

Rpm should of peaked at 4.6v * 33 rpm/volt = 151 rpm.  It seemed like it was happy at about 100 rpm or about 3 volts.

I think I may make a wind thread with this windmill once I get some more testing done.

[electrondady1]

congratulations on your build Taylor

(sir, there seems to be some thing drastically wrong with that deck chair)

windgen.org vawt discussion

check out this site there are lots of familiar names.





 

[taylorp035]

Thanks electrondady1.  I guess it doesn't work as well as I had hoped, but I guess others can look at mine and use the same construction design. 

I can't wait until we get a day that I am free, not raining, and raining.  That has yet to happen 

sir, there seems to be some thing drastically wrong with that deck chair

What do you mean?  I didn't have my lawn chair out in the video?

[ghurd]

Reminds me of some chairs too.   
http://www.woodworkersworkshop.com/graphics3/furnitureplans_adirondack_chair9575.jpg
G-

[itsandbits]

I don't know if you are still interested in vawts but if you are here is a link to a successfull wing design that will self start under load at .5 mps and give you the rpm s you require in less than 10 mph wind. I am not trying to push my wings, just showing you it can be done in a pure lift design. these are 45"diax 42" tall


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIFwF87K424