Hank,
I hope I am able to frame this comment so it conveys my thoughts as if I were having coffee with a friend and talking things out.
There has been a ton of Psychobabble in the last few decades about disappointment being a character builder or a confidence destroyer in the care and feeding of youth. We have the "no child left behind" initiative keeping some classrooms at the lowest common denominator..lots of the Little Leagues don't even keep score now..no losers! everyone is "Special" and gold stars all around!
Whats all that have to do with us? I believe there are plenty of opportunities for disappointment to help with the character building without the sure fire disappointment that is likely to come if we try to use that Argord motor for a 12 volt wind generator.
Experiences like these (helping the kid with the wind generator project) are memories for a lifetime. Why not try and made the best memories we can and build something that has a chance of working?
I would recommend gathering all the data and working through some of the maths with the kid..the volts per rev of the proposed generator, the blade size, it's expected rpm -in what wind speed.. that sort of thing. This will show him/her the importance of planning so we can avoid some of life's disappointments. Or at least have something better at hand to switch out when we find out that one won't work?
kind regards, dave