Making small GRP Wind turbine blades

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Originally Posted by Jonathan

That's why I had hesitated to reply to the above posts after reading up on it. Would just doing it in the garden be enough to stop the fumes getting me?

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yes thats ok mate but still use the correct mask and gloves.

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Originally Posted by h4ppy-chris

yes thats ok mate but still use the correct mask and gloves.

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Seems a lot of effort - Plasti-Kote (from B&Q etc) works well and isn't too toxic.

http://www.plasti-kote.co.uk/Product/pcode---4181

Can you still get 2pack?

There's been a big shift in the paint shop area away from most things toxic, towards water based synthetic paints.
Only exemption I can think of is the one for cellulose paint, but that's only meant to be for classic vehicle use.

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Originally Posted by FatFreddie

Seems a lot of effort - Plasti-Kote (from B&Q etc) works well and isn't too toxic.

http://www.plasti-kote.co.uk/Product/pcode---4181

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I've seen those paints in a few shops. I might go for that since though the method suggested above is better, however I intend to use a white gel coat for future blades which won't need that paint. I didn't use a gel coat for this blade due to cost.

Sadly I've not got an autoclave :heehee:

The blades work! Not that I ever doubted them :heehee:

The mass of the two blades when I made them was only 2 grams off - complete fluke that. The centre of mass however was quite a bit off. I spent a bit of time balancing them but they're by no means perfect. This caused huge vibrations.

Attachment 4000

Attachment 4001

According to the frequency meter the rotor did over 800rpm at times - that means the tips of the blades were doing over 100mph! I need to be careful... next time I'm going to balance them properly and stiffen the tower up. Might have to use guy wires at full height.

I'll upload a video soon.

Here's the video of the blades working:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ1yr...=youtube_gdata

As you can see I've not painted them yet. I intend to do so the next time I put the wind turbine up.

I just need to find somewhere to put my 3m diameter variable pitch wind turbine next...not got enough space at home.

Great job Jonathan. Are you going to attach to it some kind of generator? What power output do you expect ??

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Originally Posted by wiatroda

Great job Jonathan. Are you going to attach to it some kind of generator? What power output do you expect ??

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Thanks... It's already attached to a permanent magnet generator I made. I made the generator about 5 years ago, so I must admit it's not the best of designs! It does produce some power though - peak was 40W into a 12v lead acid battery in that video.

I do fancy to make a wind turbine some day (when I finish my 100's other projects) and generator from wheel hub something like http://www.otherpower.com/otherpower_wind.shtml
It seems like it's quite good generator thou

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Originally Posted by wiatroda

I do fancy to make a wind turbine some day (when I finish my 100's other projects) and generator from wheel hub something like http://www.otherpower.com/otherpower_wind.shtml
It seems like it's quite good generator thou

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The generator in my small wind turbine is based on this one:

http://www.otherpower.com/woodax.html

My bigger wind turbine is similar to the standard 'wheel hub' design. I machined the hub from 120mm steel bar and shaft from 80mm steel bar myself though to get higher accuracy for the magnet rotor disks and keep the weight down, this video shows it in the pictures at the end:

http://www.youtube.com/user/Jonbliss...27/R8eNm4cQzqI