1st wind mill with tape drive motor

[harley1782000]

Well this is my first wind mill with a tape drive.  As you all know I have had to fight the township here to be able to put up a mill.  This is the finished blades mounted on the hub.  The blades are just made of pine.  Simple and fast.  Special thanks goes to TomW for his donation.  I will post more when I get it on the poll and all done.  Sorry about the Chrome paint kind of makes the blades look real bad.  As I said earlier not very good with wood at the moment.  They turned out not too bad.

[ghurd]

YOU might not think they are pretty, but they look a lot better than the kindling sized firewood I end up with!!!
G-

[harley1782000]

Just wait till I try to make one of your controlers.  Now that is going to be funny. I just may invent a new way to time travel on 12 volts.

[TomW]

Jim;

I gotta ask. how are you going to mount it to the TDM shaft?

I used an arbor adapter gizmo but it was kind of prone to loosening and spinning the prop faster than the shaft.

Zubbly had a cool way that used a keyed metal hub and a bolt through the prop face into a tapped hole in the shaft. Very secure. The shaft on that TDM is smooth  but since you work metal it should be easy to get it set up somehow.

His looked like this but no bolt installed in this photo. It is a motor conversion so it had a keyed shaft to start. Sorry, no better photos here but Zubbly posted about it long ago.



Tom

[kurt]

more on what tom is talking about what zubbly used was a weld on hub welded to the back metal plate the blades are sandwiched between then he would drill like a 1/4-20 centered hole down the middle of the shaft and then drill a clearance hole for a 1/4-20 bolt in the outer disk of the hub for the blades thereby holding the blades onto the shaft. i do not know if it would work that well on a shaft that did not have a key way you would have to figure that out.




http://www.anotherpower.com/gallery/zubbly?page=3

[harley1782000]

I welded on a 2 inch wide collar and drilled and pinned it right threw the motor shaft and drill two more holes in the collar and put two allen head screws to clamp on the shaft too.  That is then welded to a plate of steel mounted to the blades.  So far so good.  I spun it as fast as I could with my hands today and got just about 10 volts.  Once it is up in the sky it should do fine.  I will get another pic tomorrow to share with ya all.  Again thanks TomW.  Guess the township is going to get the shaft.  "Evil Laugh" HAHAHAHAHA

Oh, Since I have fun doing this little one I do beleive I got the bug.  I caught myself today day dreaming about a bigger one. 

Jim

[dave ames]

I do beleive I got the bug.  I caught myself today day dreaming about a bigger one.

LOL tilting at windmills... the battle has begun.

jim, those blades look good from here! i'm happy just to get something spinning 

looking forward to see how she flies!

cheers, dave

[harley1782000]

It is done and up, I don't have it charging anything yet just running a couple of light bulbs.  Now I have to wait for wind.  LOL, figures.  Its up about 20 ft, best I could do intill I get something taller.  It's on a old metal post my grandfather put in long time ago.  Don't mind the date on the pic, new batterys in the camera. Here is the pic......

[TomW]

Jim;

Probably won't get it to start very easy with a load on it like light bulbs but time will tell.

You could ad a switch to disconnect the bulbs so you can see it spin in lower winds.

Glad to see you put that motor to good use. Looks much better on your pole than my shelf!

Good Luck with it.

Tom

[harley1782000]

Well its been dead calm here all day.  94 degrees F and 80% humidity.  Sucks big time.  I have been sipp'en on ice tea and rock'en on the pourch... LOL

Jim

[DanG]

What, no porch glider generator?

[Norm]

Well its been dead calm here all day.  94 degrees F and 80% humidity.  Sucks big time.  I have been sipp'en on ice tea and rock'en on the pourch... LOL

Jim

Dan's right.....ya ougta have a porch swing hooked to a generator and a fan
you could be stirring up a big breeze and charging batteries while you're waiting for the
wind.
I've had  the 2 seater lawnswing for a couple of years...thinking about hooking it up
one of these days....4 people swinging could probably swing out 20 watts each...easily !

[harley1782000]

OMG, I would love to see that.

[harley1782000]

OK I am stumped, I had 25 mph winds today with a storm, plus about 12 to 15 all day.  It would turn into the wind but wouldn't spin.  Took light bulb off nothing.  Spins very easy by hand.  Could it be my blades are just not up to par, too short.  They a 3 foot each.  Maybe try a set of PVC blades that a 5 foot each, 3 of them.  It is about 30 feet in the air now.  Got my tower up.

Jim

[kurt]

i assume that is one of those 30v tdm's that tom got cheep way back when dinosaurs roamed the earth and the scoop version of this board was young and fresh. it will do well with a 4 foot prop or so total diameter 2' each blade. you need to connect it to a battery hooking it to a lightbulb is the same as shorting it it will never turn that way. most likely if you could not get it to spin up you had it shorted somewhere. try hooking it to a moderately discharged 12v battery and see what it does.

[harley1782000]

Yes it is, As soon as I took the light bulb off within a hour it started to spin.  So I put a 5 volt bulb on it and it works.  Spins like the wind.  Guess that 12volt bulb was just too much.  Thanks

Jim