Thx for the many welcomes and replies, sorry I was away, would have replied earlier had I known you wrote.
Ok, here is a better phrased version of my earlier question:
I am actually quite educated (44, architect) and handy (construction worker most of my life) but have thus far found nothing online which I could use, because I just have a hard time comprehending circuitry diagrams, converting them to a usable point. I need it broken down to the very basics, where to get parts, what to ACTUALLY do with them (align like this picture, solder here to here, drill a hole here, be careful not to cut this thing off, this is what it should look like, here is an example of what not to do, etc etc.) I feel hopelessly dumb when I can't find a resource that explains it in simple enough terms.
Today though, I think I found that first baby step that I was looking for:
http://www.amasci.com/amateur/coilgen.htmlMost of you will laugh at the crudeness, but it fully describes the different components tangibly- of course I will quickly move on to more refined experiments. So it looks like I answered my own question, but I will surely be back to ask for more guidance, and of course I am still thirsty for other suggestions.
In the meantime, as part of my introduction, I would like to explain what brings me here:
Not only am I a science geek that is utterly mesmerized by the ever increasing flood of information available via internet, I am a bit of a collapse theorist, think that society (or at least North America) is in for a rude shock due to our coddled culture, peak oil, impending MASSIVE financial collapse, etc. I just want to be more self reliant, 2 projects in the near future would be a pedal generator and a wind turbine. I would also be very interested in integrating something already easily/cheaply available, like used car alternators, into my plans. I have many woodworking/construction tools, can build anything if I can just get my head around what it is and what it does.
I am also a sales agent for a solar panel company, so wind and other alternative energies comes up a lot in my line of work. I would like to have a better understanding of the science behind alternative energy production beyond installing components.