Author Topic: Gearbox for a 9 coil 24 magnet wind generator  (Read 2772 times)

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Carlos

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Gearbox for a 9 coil 24 magnet wind generator
« on: December 24, 2010, 11:36:15 AM »
To all of you I wish you a very happy holiday season and a very prosperous 2011!!

I just completed my new (15 awg/60 turns) 9 coil 24 magnet generator and I am considering the idea of adding some sort of gearbox that I can build myself or salvage from a junk yard. I would appreciate all and any comments you may have, ideas, materials, etc.
My goal is to create wind generators for myself, friends and family, and dream that sometime soon I will accomplish my life long dream of building a home that is completely self sufficient, produces it's own power (wind/solar), rain collection, etc.

Thank you for sharing!
 :)


fabricator

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11 Miles east of Lake Michigan, Ottawa County, Robinson township, (home of the defacto residential wind ban) Michigan, USA.

Rover

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Re: Gearbox for a 9 coil 24 magnet wind generator
« Reply #2 on: December 24, 2010, 01:55:20 PM »
Fabricator,

I thought about referencing that post as well, and Chris has provided a ton of information on his build there. But he is using a chain drive (or did I miss something) , the original poster is asking for a gear drive.

Rover
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Carlos

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Re: Gearbox for a 9 coil 24 magnet wind generator
« Reply #3 on: December 24, 2010, 02:14:04 PM »
thanks for the replies so far, and yes, I had read the link before. I was wondering if there are other ways to accomplish the same thing using an enclosed gear system.

fabricator

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Re: Gearbox for a 9 coil 24 magnet wind generator
« Reply #4 on: December 24, 2010, 02:58:33 PM »
Sure there are a lot of ways to use a gear train, but why? Chain and sprockets are easily available and cheap, gears are NOT easily available, therefore NOT cheap and with gears your tolerances need to be much tighter and alingments are critical.
For the average home brew turbine builder a long lived gear train transmission would be nearly impossible, but a simple two sprocket chain drive transmission is relatively simple to build, and can be made to any ratio and the ratio is easily changeable if you decide it's to high or low, if it were a gear train you would have to have new gears cut of build a whole new gear box.
I aint skeerd of nuthin.......Holy Crap! What was that!!!!!
11 Miles east of Lake Michigan, Ottawa County, Robinson township, (home of the defacto residential wind ban) Michigan, USA.

freejuice

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Re: Gearbox for a 9 coil 24 magnet wind generator
« Reply #5 on: December 24, 2010, 03:43:55 PM »
I would  parrot what Fabricator said, chain and sprocket would be simpler.
 However if you want gears....well here you go!
http://www.bostongear.com/

Carlos

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Re: Gearbox for a 9 coil 24 magnet wind generator
« Reply #6 on: December 24, 2010, 05:05:12 PM »
Thanks Fabricator, Rover and Freejuice for the replies and good advice.
I am currently in the hospital bore to death and won't be released until 12/29 or so; when I hope to return home and work on my axial generator. I am already thinking of possible improvements and design changes. I really appreciate your replies and I totally agree that the best solution would be to use a chain drive design. So, were would be a good place for me to order the materials to put it together?

fabricator

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Re: Gearbox for a 9 coil 24 magnet wind generator
« Reply #7 on: December 25, 2010, 12:32:30 AM »
If you'r in the US Tractor supply carries a good selection of chain and sprockets and sealed bearings, if not, you can order that stuff from boston gear or McMaster Carr.
I aint skeerd of nuthin.......Holy Crap! What was that!!!!!
11 Miles east of Lake Michigan, Ottawa County, Robinson township, (home of the defacto residential wind ban) Michigan, USA.

Janne

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Re: Gearbox for a 9 coil 24 magnet wind generator
« Reply #8 on: December 25, 2010, 04:30:24 AM »
A lot depends about the size of the machine you're building. For a small machine, the direct drive / chain drive make sense, as with those you can keep the machinery atop of the tower on the small size. Chris's design is smart in the way, that the whole power unit is still as one unit, and no separate frame is needed to fix the parts. But for a bigger machine, it makes sense to have a higher transfer ratio, + a separate main shaft arrangement becames more feasible (easier to incorporate brakes on the slow speed side etc.)

With  the bigger machine I'd go with a stock gearbox,  for example, a 20kW 540rpm input / 1620rpm out 3:1 gearbox retails new for about 350€ in here. It comes with splines for attachment to tractor pto, so couplings to mainshaft could be easily fabricated from agricultural parts. Also, those units are usually easily available on junkyards too, if you can spend the time looking the correct one in them.

One idea I've been pondering for a while, if it would be a good idea to use a hub with a planetary reduction unit incorporated. Units from the front hubs of the small 4WD tractors might be in the correct ballpark when it comes to size.
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Harold in CR

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Re: Gearbox for a 9 coil 24 magnet wind generator
« Reply #9 on: December 25, 2010, 08:52:45 AM »

  Check out Ebay for "Gear Reducer". I bought a 10:1 reducer, helical gears, and it will power my 2+ KW wind turbine, by turning it around, and driving the low speed shaft with the blade. Allow for a flex mount to the shafts on the gearbox and generator, and, you are set. No fancy welding and bearing alignments.

 Weight is less than 22#, and that includes the cast iron mount, that I plan to do away with, and use Aluminum. It was a Brand new unit, and, I paid $22.00 + S&H, so, total was $34.00.

 I used a "Shaft Mount" gear reducer on the 4KW machine, I built in 1979. Never had a minutes worth of trouble, until the Tornado trashed the machine.

cdog

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Re: Gearbox for a 9 coil 24 magnet wind generator
« Reply #10 on: December 25, 2010, 01:15:42 PM »
A velvet drive has planetary gears for reduction, they come in different ratios, around 3:1, been around forever and were rated to 130 hp, but I have seen boats running them with twice that.
Cdog