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Forum Index : Windmills : Blade Shank Failure
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KarlJ Guru  Joined: 19/05/2008 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1178 |
No doubt you're having fun, on ya Mac keeps us entertained. I'm lucky in that I have a 2KW, 5KW and 15KW (all est) windmills at Murdoch University (RISE) to keep me entertained. I'm even trying to tee up a job for OZtules. the inverter on the big sucker has died thus power is just being dumped. Manufacturer has gone by the wayside so no one will fix it. I have absolute confidence he could, so I'm trying to get hold of it for him to play with -and hopefully fix! Karl Luck favours the well prepared |
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Perry Senior Member  Joined: 19/11/2009 Location: Posts: 190 |
Mac, Thanks for the response. I re-read my prev post and it seemed a little snotty so I appreciate you taking it constructively. Still a fan of your project even if I do poke and prod you occasionally. Perry |
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MacGyver Guru Joined: 12/05/2009 Location: United StatesPosts: 1329 |
Perry As promised in the PM," This One's For You". Also, I took your advise and changed the manner in which the blade spars are attached to the hub. I straightened them out and you can see that on the tight shots on the video or you can stop the motion with your mouse. The shanks are in line with the center of rotation now. In your reply post you eluded to the Coroflute blades not being able to "scream" as I had previously indicated. The video should dispel that one. There is just not much wind in my backyard, where the previous (first) videos were shot, not even on the new 15-foot-tall pole (MacGyver's Tower). Even though this puppy is running like a scalded dog in the video, it's small (16-inch blades on 4" stand-offs) and if a generator were to be attached, it'd likely not spin nearly as well. I'd be surprised if it spun at all with a load. This "test" was merely to satisfy my curiosity about the tip-speed-generated sound. I did this same hollow-blade thing away back, something like 40+ years ago with aluminum sheet-metal blades and I remembered it worked then, so it should still, right? Apparently it does. Thanks for watching! Edit: Added link . . . . . Mac Nothing difficult is ever easy! Perhaps better stated in the words of Morgan Freeman, "Where there is no struggle, there is no progress!" Copeville, Texas |
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| Perry Senior Member Joined: 19/11/2009 Location: Posts: 190 |
Man, the ocean looks awesome. Turbine looks good too. Perry |
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ChrisOlson Regular Member  Joined: 19/01/2010 Location: United StatesPosts: 60 |
Hi nialli I have five turbines flying and a hodgepodge of different photos of them being built, generators that I've built, etc.. It's always nice to see the finished product so here's a photo of one of my 13's perched on it's 52 foot steel lattice free-standing tower (yes, I built the tower too), taken with the zoom on the camera 
And one that shows more of the tower for that machine 
off-grid in Northern Wisconsin, USA |
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niall1 Senior Member Joined: 20/11/2008 Location: IrelandPosts: 331 |
hi Chris thanks for the pics...it must be quite the view underneath that 52 foot tower with the other machines running nearby...with 5 machines i,m guessing you have very nice neighbors.....or possibly none at all ..  niall |
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| ChrisOlson Regular Member Joined: 19/01/2010 Location: United StatesPosts: 60 |
Pretty much no neighbors at all. We own and run a 3,200 acre grain farm here in Wisconsin. Two of my machines are 12 volt - one runs my shop office (lights, microwave, computer, cordless tool battery chargers), the other powers our lake home which is 7 miles away from the farm. The others are 48 volt and power the house, rest of the shop, machine shed and outdoor lighting. The bulk of our power is generated with a Cummins N14 465 hp 250 kW diesel genset. We don't have grid power because the utility company wants too much money to run lines to our place. With the price of diesel fuel we try to keep the genset silent as much as possible. But even so, our diesel fuel bill runs around $30,000 a month during harvest in October and November when we have the grain dryer and all the handling equipment and combines and trucks running. We'd like to get a Jake 31-20 but can't afford one. We've applied for USDA REEP grants to get one, but the government is broke and no funds available after paying for cleaning up oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico, and other such pet projects that make it look like politicians are worth voting for. My hope is that, someday, we'll get some of our tax dollars back in the form of one of those grants. But I'm not holding by breath in wild anticipation. -- Chris off-grid in Northern Wisconsin, USA |
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| MacGyver Guru Joined: 12/05/2009 Location: United StatesPosts: 1329 |
ChrisOlson Nice work. I went back to your original post in this thread and re-read it. I was thinking if you had a simple mechanical "rudder pedal" to furl your machine, over-speeding would be an avoidable thing. I've designed, but have not yet built a fly-weight activated mechanism similar to an antique steam engine "governor" that merely ultimately moves a rod connected to a rudder (vertical stab.) similar to one used on an airplane. When the wind gets to a pre-set velocity, the mechanism pulls the rudder to one side and the machine turns slightly out of the wind, slowing its rotation. It looks like you have no lack of machining capability or expertise and I thought maybe you could build something like this and add it to your existing mills to prevent future disasters. My windmill designs all use a central shaft supported on bearings and I see yours uses something on the order of an automobile hub. Still, I'm sure a mechanism such as I describe could be designed and built into your parameters. If you want more details, PM me and I'll email you a picture of what I intend using on my little mills. For the rest of the crew here, I'll post everything on this topic as I build it, so just hang in there. . . . . . Mac Nothing difficult is ever easy! Perhaps better stated in the words of Morgan Freeman, "Where there is no struggle, there is no progress!" Copeville, Texas |
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| ChrisOlson Regular Member Joined: 19/01/2010 Location: United StatesPosts: 60 |
Hi Mac, My machines all use a thru-shaft riding on sealed, self-aligning ball bearings. I never got into use automotive/trailer spindles/hubs because I don't like tapered roller bearings in wind turbines due to adjustment issues. I have pretty much a full machine shop in my farm shop. If I don't have it, and can't order and get it by tomorrow, I build it in my shop. I'll PM you - I'm ALWAYS looking for better ways to furl these turbines and I built a variable pitch hub once and tried it too. But the complexity of it outweighed the advantages. -- Chris off-grid in Northern Wisconsin, USA |
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