Quote Originally Posted by Jonathan View Post
Yes you got the wrong end of the stick/blade there! :lol: I am intending to mill them horizontally. Near the hub, due to the twist on the blade, the Z distance is quite large. I'm intending to make a set of 3.2 meter (diameter) blades for a variable pitch wind turbine I've made. There are other things I want the big Z travel for, I just can't remember them at the moment!

I've found some 160x80mm steel box section. There's 5mm, 6.3 and 8mm wall thickness available. I think the 5mm should be ok. No idea how much it costs or if I can buy less than a 7.5 meter length....

http://www.steel-shop.co.uk/contentf...talogue(1).pdf
(page 7 - I live very near to them but I've never actually been)
Ah ok i see now... thats some serious machining you're planning! what material will these be made of (I know you said wood, but what type?). So each blade is 1.6m long approx by what at the root? the aspect ratio of a blade like that would be maybe 12:1 or more so the biggest cross-dimension is 135mm but I dont see that needs a 400mm travel. What am I missing?