Author Topic: My No2 3.7m dia, (12 footer) gets a rebuild. (Read 4513 times)

clockmanFRA · « **Reply #33 on:** October 17, 2021, 07:19:46 AM »

Latest works.

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clockmanFRA · « **Reply #34 on:** October 17, 2021, 07:23:46 AM »

hmm picture size okay, but not showing.

clockmanFRA · « **Reply #35 on:** October 17, 2021, 07:26:24 AM »

just a few more pics!

Mary B · « **Reply #36 on:** October 17, 2021, 01:18:36 PM »

Engine hoist on the trailer... I thought was redneck for doing that LOL we did it last week to lift a rock out of the tower base hole I am digging. Glacial leftovers that frost pushes to the surface. We hit this one at 3 1/2 feet down, dug around both sides but the mini excavator couldn't get a grip on it to lift it out. approximately 16 inches wide, 18 deep and 36 inches long. Only had a 12 inch bucket on the excavator. dug bot sides out, hand dug under it to pass 2 straps thru then used the engine hoist on the trailer to lift the beast out of the hole. Then drove to the side of the yard and dropped it on the field rock pile the farmer keeps adding to despite my using them over the years that pile keeps reappearing. Last time around we used a bunch when I built the garage, used them to set the poles(Pole barn style construction) on before adding concrete.

It pushed the limits of the 1,000 pound rating of the engine hoist! Boom was bending alarmingly... we had the hoist strapped down and I thought the straps were going to break when we hit a rut in the yard! Local granite runs at the upper end of the scale, 180 pounds per cubic foot. I used to hate rock picking in spring before planting because we were tossing basketball sized rocks all to often. And frost pushes more up every year!

bigrockcandymountain · « **Reply #37 on:** October 17, 2021, 04:01:57 PM »

Wow, great job on the blades. And i too like the hoist on the trailer.

In your pictures it looks like your blades are not pointed directly at the centre of your hub. Is there a reason for that?

Astro · « **Reply #38 on:** October 17, 2021, 06:21:46 PM »

That is art!!
My wife is an artist and we both play a little music. I think we have 6-8 different musical instruments around here.
She gets on me sometimes because she wants me to do whatever art she is into at the moment (she paints, makes jewelry and melts glass among other things). I always tell her, see the remodeled bathroom? That is art. See me building this or that? That is art.
Anyway those blades are art. Nice job. She is going to be pretty up in the air.

clockmanFRA · « **Reply #39 on:** October 18, 2021, 03:05:39 AM »

Mary,

Yes, been using the engine hoist/crane on the trailer after No1 wind turbine went up in 2007.

The trailer is wonderfully flat bed inside, so the engine hoist/crane can be moved about on its wheels for alignment.

Also since 2007 most of the time working with these wind turbines, I am normally alone, and nowadays all that young muscle i used to have for those grunt moments have left the nest and gone overseas, even my farmer neighbours children have grown up and left.

So the engine hoist/crane on the back of the trailer just relives the strain on me, and gives me that gentle finesse, especially, as all you wind turbine guys and girls will know, Wind Turbines are very delicate, especially the blades at only 7mm thickness at the tip.

clockmanFRA · « **Reply #40 on:** October 18, 2021, 03:10:34 AM »

Bigrockcandymountain.

Its a matter of strength in the design of the blade mounting. At the root of the blades the speed is not really an issue on the wind sheer/direction forces.
Its the outer half of the blade that does all the work, and by that distance not aligning with the centre of rotation is no longer a real issue, well for our purposes anyway.

clockmanFRA · « **Reply #41 on:** October 18, 2021, 03:15:21 AM »

Astro,

Art, hmm yea, 'what ever floats your boat', is a saying we use around here.

I always say, .... what ever you create for public gaze and appreciation of others should, ..... be as beautiful as possible, be elegant and graceful, and the design should not clash with its self, and yet should use minimal materials, be designed to last and be robust, and be able to be maintained/repaired by competent persons in the future. Yep, I am Old School engineer, I am constantly informed. haha.,

The problem is once its up it gets hammered by all the elements of nature, so its making it sufficiently robust enough to stand a few years before a service and re-balancing.

Best get on now balancing the blades, then chainsaw away the hedge a bit as its grown in 14 years and at present would foul the blades when i try and mount them onto the PMG generator. Then with the weight of the baldes the Wind Turbine complete turns so the bales are vertical so i can now fine tune balance the whole revolving turbine. However it needs to be a non windy day.

kitestrings · « **Reply #42 on:** October 18, 2021, 02:10:47 PM »

Looking good. Are you planning to use edge tape?

The next non-windy day will be immediately after the raising... and quite possibly for several consecutive days following

. Best, ~ks

Astro · « **Reply #43 on:** October 18, 2021, 02:40:57 PM »

"be as beautiful as possible, be elegant and graceful, and the design should not clash with its self, and yet should use minimal materials, be designed to last and be robust, and be able to be maintained/repaired by competent persons in the future."

That pretty much sums up my family creed. All of us are craftsmen and all of us are kind of perfectionist. I am the least perfectionist of the bunch and it used to turn my stomach to hear guys on jobs say "well you can't see it from my house".
I can cut corners on the simple stuff, but it is like I say about my old truck, what matters is what is under the hood. She may not be brand new or fast, but she will pull a rv all day everyday and never breaks down.

clockmanFRA · « **Reply #44 on:** October 20, 2021, 05:31:51 AM »

A couple of photos showing my blade assembly being balanced inside and the lead to get them tuned.

Typical, one blade is heavy by about 100 grams.

And finally, yesterday she gets assembled, and thanks to Greg here for helping me get the blades on to the PMG, allways difficult on your own. Thanks Greg for helping me get my 'Nuts' on.

Now just to need a calm day to fine tune the balance, kitestrings was so correct on this, Then No 2 can be winched up on its GIN POLE and she can Fly.!

Bruce S · « **Reply #45 on:** October 20, 2021, 09:08:06 AM »

Curious; Where do you place the offset weights?
I've seen discussions in the past here about leading edge versus various sections. Those discussions included boring out part of the blades to insert them

Cheers
Bruce S

Mary B · « **Reply #46 on:** October 20, 2021, 11:35:42 AM »

Third pic above, look at the blade roots. I see pieces of metal(lead?) screwed to them

Bruce S · « **Reply #47 on:** October 20, 2021, 12:43:28 PM »

Quote from: Mary B on October 20, 2021, 11:35:42 AM

Third pic above, look at the blade roots. I see pieces of metal(lead?) screwed to them

Totally Missed them, thought it was strange that that part hadn't yet been repainted.

Off to clean my glasses

Thanks!
Bruce S

SparWeb · « **Reply #48 on:** October 20, 2021, 11:23:07 PM »

I'm heartbroken to see that beautiful wood covered by everyday white paint...

...but I know why you did it...

...so I can forgive you...

...eventually......

clockmanFRA · « **Reply #49 on:** October 21, 2021, 02:40:08 AM »

its very very hard SparWeb.

To cover up that lovely wood.

Sometimes i don't know how you guys can fly your turbines when so much work has gone into them.

I remember my No 1, it had cedar blades, and felt so lonely when it was up in the air, and would have to go and check on it just about every day for the first year. So I understand your loving sentiments and gentle disapproval over this wicked man putting clothes on the beautiful young lady turbine. whistle! !!!!

clockmanFRA · « **Reply #50 on:** October 24, 2021, 05:03:58 AM »

Here at 'Le Vivray' my ladies are all flying again.

No 2, has had a total rebuild with a new set of wood red cedar blades.

Sadly, i had to paint over those lovely blades and put some clothes on them as the weather here in Normandy can be very wet and cold.

Yes, the hedges all need cutting down a bit, but that is a chainsaw job for the Winter when all the leaf and foliage has dropped.

kitestrings · « **Reply #51 on:** October 24, 2021, 04:22:50 PM »

Looks great. Nice work. Congrats!

mbouwer · « **Reply #52 on:** October 25, 2021, 08:40:48 AM »

Beautiful work that you can enjoy for years to come.

Bruce S · « **Reply #53 on:** October 25, 2021, 09:35:29 AM »

What a "lovely" sight. Looking forward to the posting of data.

Cheers!!
Bruce S

SparWeb · « **Reply #54 on:** October 26, 2021, 12:31:01 AM »

Congratulations!

Another satisfying erection.

clockmanFRA · « **Reply #55 on:** October 26, 2021, 02:35:39 AM »

Thank you, Kitestrings, mbouwer, Bruce S, and Sparweb.

Bruce, Data, finally agreed to my family asking me about data from the turbines output. So been also fitting meters that will give me Kwh output.

These wind turbines give raw DC into the battery bank, ie, the turbine is clamped to the battery bank to give it a constant guaranteed load, no load and the turbine goes supersonic and its bits.
However, battery full then excess power feed into the battery is dissipated by diversion controllers, i have 4 Tristars to 8Kw of heater resistors.

What this means is, i can not get data from the controllers except what has been dumped.

While fitting this new Kwh meter to the positive cable, after the rectifier diodes at the moving coil large Amp Meter output, its a independent coil wrapped around the cable type sensor so no flipping shunts, yippee! I hate shunts!

I noticed that the first Tristar PWM controller i re-fitted in 2012 showed that it had dumped 900kwh of electricity. And no idea what the turbine actually put into the battery bank.

No2 has been up 1 day and only just generating in very light gentle winds just getting to about 3 m/s and according to its new meter it says it managed just over 1.2kWh.

Any way the idea is that once a week i will wonder down the 80 meters to the turbines and take a note of the output numbers and post them on facecloth or something, i will probably send them to middle boy to do what with.

We will see how long this meter actually lasts.

Bruce S · « **Reply #56 on:** October 26, 2021, 09:03:21 AM »

I agree with your families request

Cool little coil based meter you got there. Looks a lot like my old Amp clamp meter.
Hook up with DamonHD for a ultra low IoT and you'll have a whole new range of Merch you can post :0 .
Those little sensors he built are wicked cool , he uses them on his Open TrV.

Cheers!!
Bruce S

clockmanFRA · « **Reply #57 on:** October 27, 2021, 03:44:05 AM »

I am not showing any adds for this meter yet, until i have run it a bit.
But lets put it like this, 'it was not expensive', compared to Eltime Controls. who do electrical control meter gear.

They are now installed, but it was the accumulative record of power, KW 's, generation that i was interested in. Difficult getting DC meters like this sense coil arrangement, that can handle the amps, yep seen 55 amps at 65vdc for a brief second on my No 1 turbine.

These run off any DC voltage and it doesn't need to be a separate isolated supply, like some of my previous meters.

Just for you 'Bruce' and 'Damon' and 'Sparweb', here are photos of each turbine control box. Dont look 'Scruff'. All cables are minimum 16mm/2 main power cables going down to 10mm/2, except the little data cables.

No 1 control stuff was installed in 2007, so excuse all the cobweb, Its spread about a bit as this is the battery strings cables, 16mm/2 and 70mm/2 connection point as well. No1 is having its blades re-painted, so its not switched on.

No2 control stuff... As simple as possible. Photo showing just after switch on and showing 1Kw of generation a day later in very light winds.

Close up of new meter installed No 2.

clockmanFRA · « **Reply #58 on:** October 27, 2021, 03:57:18 AM »

No 3 control stuff being installed, I do hate those shunts, but at least with this new meter i can get rid of one of those shunts, yea!

No 3, New meter installed.

All Wind Turbine control gear is installed in this open ended restored oak wood 'Lavoir' building, (circa 1800's used by the local ladies to wash their clothes, the roof is to keep them dry, there is a small water source/spring coming up under the gravel.)

Bruce S · « **Reply #59 on:** October 27, 2021, 09:07:17 AM »

I do have a small question about the 3-phase rectifiers and how you have them being cooled.

The large heat-sinks you use, are they actively cooled via fans or do you let them cool via passive air movement?
What's the finger touch temps on the cooling fins?

Bruce S

clockmanFRA · « **Reply #60 on:** October 27, 2021, 01:39:11 PM »

Hi Bruce,

I let them cool via passive air movement through the control boxes stainless steel insect mesh.

My No 1 turbine gave me a shock when i went down after a 2 day storm to find the so called industry standard cooling fins, were very hot.
Later that month the Diodes failed and shorted the turbine to a stop.

So ever since, its the biggest heatsinks i can get, and the biggest bridge rectifiers i can get, those are all rated at 50amp each now.

Been running since 2007, 2009 and 2010, seen some very strong winds even official hurricane speeds.

DamonHD · « **Reply #61 on:** October 28, 2021, 11:58:28 AM »

Hey CM, good stuff! I like a good renewables install. Just doubled up my Enphase ac-coupled storage today!

Rgds

Damon

bigrockcandymountain · « **Reply #62 on:** October 28, 2021, 01:10:29 PM »

Thanks for asking Bruce. I was wondering the same thing. The mesh screen isn't visible in the picture, and it had me scratching my head too.

Nice and clean as always clockman.

clockmanFRA · « **Reply #63 on:** October 30, 2021, 11:31:56 AM »

Here was me thinking to myself that No 2 okay, and No 1 now balanced and just number 3 Turbine to now fine tune and re-balance the blades.

Dropped the mast on No 3, took away the nose cone, noticed blistering on the plywood hub, poked it and great chunks of so called marine plywood fell away.

So blades dismantled and some more aluminium discs ordered from Poland, (good price, no tax as they are in EEC Europe).

These fiberglass blades are fine and no issues, so good to catch those fake plywood discs before it got worse.

Mary B · « **Reply #64 on:** October 30, 2021, 02:49:00 PM »

Why maintenance is a good thing!

My ham towers get gone over once a year. Bolts tightened, cables checked, the telescoping tower the raising cable greased/inspected for damage...

kitestrings · « **Reply #65 on:** October 30, 2021, 07:21:48 PM »

Oh my... good you caught this when you did.

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Author Topic: My No2 3.7m dia, (12 footer) gets a rebuild. (Read 4513 times)