More progress

[SmoggyTurnip]

I have finished a set of blades:

They are 9' 4" long TSR 7.  They are too big for my alternator I think.  

I didn't paint them - I epoxied them because I plan on building another set soon but I want to try them out as a test.  They are made from 1 inch pine boards.  They are 3" thick and 13" wide at the root.

They have a linear taper but twist is as per excel spread sheet.  

I painted my generator:

Finally its time to start on the tower!

I want to build a 100' tilt up tower.  I have 10.75 inch outside diameter steel pipe with

3/8 inch wall thickness in 20 foot lengths.  I was thinking about welding 1/2" flat square steel plates to the ends of the sections and bolting them together.  Is this a good idea or bad idea?  The tower should weigh about 4500 lbs with the gennie on top.  Is this too much for a tilt up?  I was thinking about a 40' gin pole using the same pipe.

Where is a good source of tower hardware such as guy wire, turn buckles,  anchors etc? Where can I get data for guy wires ( the loads they can take)?

Do you think it will fly?

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[willib]

Smoggy i've never built a tower , so take what i say with the appropriate amount of salt, but it looks to me like there are no trees to disturb your wind , at all.

so i may be wrong but it seems to me like you dont need that high of a tower?

nice blades

[SmoggyTurnip]

That picture is about 10 miles away from the site.

There is 50 ft trees about 200 ft from where the

tower will go, and anyway the higher you go the faster

the wind - even if there is no trees.

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[SmoggyTurnip]

I am also considering copying the bergy tower shown here:

This is not a tilt up - it is 120 feet high.

I measured the diameter of the main legs - the outside diameter is 1.25 inches.

Does anyone know what the wall thickness is?  Would it work as a tilt up.

I think this might be easier to build.

I am still undecided on the tower but I want it to be a tilt up because

I think I will be doing lots of experimenting with the thing.

What makes a tilt up tower start tilting down when you want to bring the

machine down - I think the weight of the gin pole would make the tower want

to stay up when there is no wind.  Do they have to be pushed or something to

get them started on the way down.

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[DanB]

beautiful!  Not much else to say... ;-)

Can't wait to see how this one works out.  Seems like lots of folks building big machine in the last year or so with good results.

[SmoggyTurnip]

Thanks Dan - a compliment from you qives me quit a lift.

Yes it is big and if it works I will build a bigger one.

[Shadow]

I agree with Dan and the others, Beautiful professional workmanship!I am amazed at how many nice wind turbines, large and small that have turned out on this forum in the last year or so.I thought I was done after building two, but ones like this inspire me to get started on a third one!Good Luck with the tower end of it.I know most information out there indicates the higher the better. But depending on your wind for your area, I'm a believer in not going any higher than you have to.If you can get fairly consistant steady wind at 40 feet or 50 feet ,it makes life easier than trying to go 80 or 100.

[harrie]

Beautiful!!! Great to see your progress, keep us posted.

[WXYZCIENCE]

They are 9' 4" long TSR 7.  They are too big for my alternator I think.

Smoggy, that will give you over 18'. I know you did tests on the genny. What is your educated guess at the size you will need. Nice paint job. Joe.

[SmoggyTurnip]

This is more based on guessing than education but I think these blades

will give me 5 Kilowatts into my heaters at 24 mph while producing about 30 watts in each coil while the alternator is turning at 350 rpm.  If I try to slow them down with the load the stator will over heat (unless it is winter and it is cold outside).  So maybe 5 meter blades would be better.  I still have to think this over quite a bit and see how these blades work.  I may need to furl at lower wind speeds in the summer or something.

Speaking of education - I told my father the other day that I probably learned more from this project than I would have learned in a year in university.  He said "yes and it only cost 3 times as much".  I said "Yes but its worth 10 times more"

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