Scrap yard Wind turbine

[smithw Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close smithw]

I have made a number of wind turbines from scrap with good success, I was going to post this on another Thread but couldnt find it, maybe it been moved or deleted.
Anyway my engineering students had a go at making a turbine and a video to go with it
so for your amusement have a look at
YouTube - liquidhandwash's Channel

[wheelbarrow Member Find all posts View Profile Close wheelbarrow]

Re: Scrap yard Wind turbine

Thanks Smithy, a bloody to be continued!

Very interesting, I'd only ever thought of washing my cloths with a washing machine....


Never going to be able to do my washing again with a hammer in my hand....

You got any specifics on the electrics of it or do we talk to google?


Got a mate at work converting everything in his house to run of 12 volt.


All very interesting, thanks for sharing.


Daniel

[smithw Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close smithw]

Re: Scrap yard Wind turbine

Thanks for the comment, there is a video here to show you how to make the blades and using a treadmill motor as a generator. I use black irrigation pipe as pvc tends to break in storms. The irrigation pipe is much softer and near impossible to break it can also be shaped with a hand plane. although it may sag in 40 + degrees in no wind, it straghten itself as soon as the wind blows. in the video they use 8 inch pipe, I used 12 inch pipe and scaled everything up and it seems to work well
YouTube - Maker Workshop - Wind Power Generator on MAKE: television
tread mill motors work really well as a 12volt generator and are easy to turn into a wind turbine.
The smart drive f&p motors are also very good but more suited for 24 plus volts, and you have to fiddle with the windings to get the best performance from them. The are 3 phase AC so i put a rectfire from a car alternator to get DC. There is plenty of info on the net about it. The video was just a bit of fun for the kids and to show the bike head stem swivel and how to mount the bearing in a pipe. Its a great project but you must follow the 3 rules when building wind turbines: location, location, location, you need wind and plenty of it.

[froggo Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close froggo]

Re: Scrap yard Wind turbine

Hi smithw,

hey that's just great stuff. Don't you just love old bikes fridges and washers.

My backyard and junk shed has a collection of old stuff just waiting to be reborn.

I've been thinking about building a wind powered pump for my aquaponics and pond system.

God bless, froggo.

[hobie1kanobie Donating Member Find all posts View Profile Close hobie1kanobie]

Re: Scrap yard Wind turbine

Guys,

just stumbled upon this thread. i too build win gen sets, using F&P motors but also use amtek motors.

lots of info on the net, the amtek motors come out of lots of things, but the best ones are form old reel to reel computers, there is a small company in Alexandria that sells them.

i have made pvc blades but am too scared to mount them around my house just in case they break and fly off at a hundred miles an hour.
i did a small test on the amtek with 1mtr long blades in a smallish wind, damn thing spun that hard it nearly took my head off, had to very slowly walk out of the wind direction to get it to feather down...

may need to have another show and tell bbq for all things backyard invented.

Hobe's