Hey wildrabbit
I've nearly purchased this on ebay before reading your thread http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Wind-Turbine-1KW-24V-/220776019242?pt=AU_Hardware&hash=item336746b52a
Now I'm thinking I could build my own, gain some knowledge and save some money.
@ carcus 27,
Building turbines is fun and I have found it highly addictive, probably the one thing you should consider when doing any project though is the cost, even if you are able to get materials for free, it is surprising the number of tools you will need to do a job properly, consider all of the steps and if you might need to buy tools to do certain things, it is easy to spend more on tools than the actual project. I luckily I had a pretty solid arsenal of tools before I developed an interest in turbines however even now i occationally spend stupid amounts of money on the simplest of tools ie: I bought a stepping saw a couple of days ago(which is a stepped cone shaped drill bit that cuts holes in increments) $108.00 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My only justification was that I needed to cut a hole in steel plate for my twin stator turbine that was a non standard size, I am still upset at myself for buying it however it is a very handy little thing that I hope will get plenty of use in the future. I spent $180.00 last week on a top of the line soldering iron to tab my solar cells, the reason being I needed an adjustable one, which I didn't have and it could save me a lot of money and frustration in damaged cells, and it is getting plenty of use now, and a lot more in the future.
Having said all that I wish you all the best with your turbine building, by the sounds of the location of your property in NZ it should be a perfect spot for turbines.
In regards to the turbine you are looking at on E-bay it does look like a pretty good deal, it looks very robust/solid and comes with all of the important hardware, controller and dump load. I actually remember looking at this item a couple of times myself, I might even consider doing a trip down to the GoldCoast to have a hands on look and chat with the seller, if time permits.
As mentioned in my other posts I not long ago met up with a turbine enthusiest just outside of Brisbane.
My intent was to buy components for a twin stator F&P mill, however Phil is no longer producing the parts due to the limitations of the F&P alternators (each motor is good for a little over 300w after this point they develop saturation witch is the electrical equivilent of flooding a motor) He has one complete twin stator kit left for sale at $1200.00 (700w turbine)
Phil now imports a chinese made turbine with a high output neo-magnet alternator, Phil has tested and experimented with this turbine over the last 12months. He has basically made an instruction book that improves the well designed, poorly built turbine. Basically the turbine has an exceptionally good core product(alternator) built around crappy components. The list of mods is not costly nor overly difficult, things like upgrading the internal wiring, changing the furl speed and angle, decogging the alternator, making the tail larger, and balancing the blades.
Phil says by following his instructions you will end up with a very reliable 1200w turbine, as opposed to something that will be less efficiant, and require regular replacement of parts.
Phil is asking $650.00 for the turbine with a 6m tower and the PDF on modifying it.
My dad is planning on buying one some time later this year, and I will modify it for him, so I am hoping by Christmas I will have hands on experience with the mods and operation of this turbine.
This link has Phil's contact details should you be interested, he really needs to update his kit section on the backshed because he no longer makes/sells the stuff mentioned there, with the exception of the extruded blades.
Thanks again for the info... I'm very interested in Phil and will look into it.
This is the unfinnished tutorial for my turbine bank, two turbines almost complete, 4 more to go!!
I have been very distracted by a treadmill motor lately
Testing the lenz2, and testing my decogging technique, still room for improvement but getting close.
The Red mill is finally up on the roof! not connected to anything yet, but getting there slowly.
I have dismantled a motor for myself and have begun this project! Thanks wildwabbit this will prove a handy guide 
The Red Mill has suffer a minor set back. It has been performing well however this afternoon a small storm passed through the area. Everything was going fine however my own stupidity, led to severe damage to the blades.
As the storm hit the mill was spinning at eye popping speeds, I can only guess at the rpm's maybe 3-4000, but the mill looked completely stable and strong, not the slightest hint of any problems.
This morning I re-balanced the blades as they had a slight vibration until they got up to a certain rpm, having fine tuned the blades I was sure the mill was ready for anything. What I hadn't counted on was that in my excitement I forgot to tighten the grub screw on the arbor. Everything sits on the shaft quite tightly and the mill would have probably gone for weeks under normal conditions but the failing to tighten the flywheel/arbor onto the shaft was fatal.
As the wind got stronger the mill got faster and as was supposed to eventually it began to furl, the offset of the tail axis and motor to the yaw shaft forces the blades to swing away from the wind while the tail remains straight with the wind.
I was quite happy because furling generally is accurate guess work that more often than not needs to be tweeked after a bit of storm testing, and my furling seemed to be working quite well, probably could cut in a little earlier but the mill certainly didn't seem to be too phased up to speed it was furling anyway.
As the mill furled the blades would have been transferring force onto the arbor like a lever (had the arbor screw been tightened properly it would not been an issue), after about three attempts to furl the hub became loose and began spinning off center to the shaft. The blades then struck the mast and the arbor/fly-wheel flew off followed by the hub and blades.
They surprisingly landed only a couple of meters away on the roof, the flywheel is pretty much indestructible but the blades (one in particular) are bent. Considering the speed they were spinning upon impact it could have been worse, I will attempt to straighten the blades however even if I get them back into perfect shape I am a little concerned that their strength will be compromised.
You must log in to post.
Zeitgeist Australia Forum is proudly powered by bbPress.
you are who you are, and nobody else