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Forum Index : Windmills : How about blades from a plastic bucket?

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adric22
Regular Member

Joined: 06/08/2008
Location: United States
Posts: 47

Posted: 03:06pm 18 Aug 2008

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I have a 5 gallon plastic bucket. I was looking at it and wondering if I cut this thing up, if I could make a decent small test windmill from it. Specifically, the blades. The bucket is 15 inches tall. So if you include the hub, I think I'd have a diameter of about 3 feet. (or 0.91 meters)

I'd heard people mention using pipe before, but the trouble is, every piec of pipe I've looked at that is large enough diameter to consider, is extremely thick. I think this bucket is pretty strong and not nearly as thick.

robbo

Regular Member

Joined: 25/03/2007
Location: Australia
Posts: 71

Posted: 10:46am 19 Aug 2008

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Hey Adric22,
I know what you mean. I have been looking at buckets for blades, (everywhere I go), but you have to have the thickness in the blade so you can shape the aerofoil into them. The areofoil design looks like an airplane wing from the side. This is what is required at the tips (going all the way into the root), of the blades to perform better, than just the standard CATCH the wind type of blades.
There hae been studies that show that the Aerofoil design can provide better wing performance, i.e faster speed -more power, than the "catch" wing design.
I have a 3 Blade PVC prop, and it works suitably well. It is the normal "catch" blade design, until it reaches about 1 foot into the blade (past the root, which is thick for startup torque. It then shapes into the aerofoil design which is needed at the wing tips.

This helps to get me more speed at the wingtips, which in turn provides more power.

I suggest to cut the bucket up, and then cut some PVC blades or wood blades up, and then test them both. Yu will find the PVC, with the aerofoil design works a lot better.
[;)]

"the Earth was not given to us, by our fathers, rather, it is lent to us by our children".

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