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Forum Index : Windmills : " HOMEGROWN" - PVC BLADES- AWESOME
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fillm Guru  Joined: 10/02/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 730 |
Hi All, I took delivery of a set of the new PVC blade extrusions last tues and set about making the mounting hub to suit my dual F&P and the AxFx which will be ready soon. The first thing that hit me was how little flex the blade section had so I decided to use up some 25x1mm S/S tube as the blade supports and go 800mm in a 1.4 length.. The hub I designed to suit my type of dual stator where I bore the front rotor to press fit over the F&P shaft and compress/lock everything together using the blade hub , this keeps the shaft at 25mm and the rotating mass close to the bearing and everything solid . See Pics . I finnished mounting the blades to the hub and the finnished dia ended up at 3.1Mtrs , they went up in nothing more than a slight breeze and instantly started and by the time I got back to the piclog it was up to 100+ RPM and making power. I pretty well watched in amazement for the next hr as the watt/hr reading steadly climbed in no more than 6 to 9 klm , a couple of brief puffs came through at 17klm and it instantly jumped to 180w .. With the wind dropping to 0 to 3k at times I started to wonder if they would stop , it did but took about 30 sec of absolutly no wind and the then started again in 5-8klm and kept speeding up to cut in 100rpm in 3-6klm . I must say I have not seen anything like these as I thought my ABS blades performed pretty good For the the price in my opinion it is not worth the hassle of making blades unless you cant get these or you are after extreeme performance . Thanks Glenn you have made my stock pile of ABS pipe useless.. While making the blade hub I came up with a better simpler design to mount the tubes that will allow pitch adjustment / Tip run-out adjustment / and tip to tip distance adj , I am going to make one and see what type of cost it comes in at , as always mounting blades accurately is the key to a smooth running mill.. The other thing that has amazed me with these is how quiet they run , I have had 30+ klm today at times and these blades are quiet , the wife has told me to throw the others in the bin !! The weight at 2.9kg per blade seems to have no problems in accelerating in gusts once up over 80-90rpm and I was sceptical about the constant pitch blade with no twist , I am running them at 8deg and have tried 5deg this morning but I put it back to 8 as it seemed to drop of in performance.. Anyway I give these the big tic of approval and I will be putting in an order for some more lengths for the AxFx , I've taken a heap of pics they should tell the story.. 
The Hub , collets onto the shaft as it compresses against the front rotor.. 
I made my own blade tips from 6mm aluminum plate , this made it easy when balancing , after the initial tube balance and run-out set up it did not require much more attention when the extrusions where rivited on.. 
Setting angle of attack is easy with straight ends , they have been up to 350RPM today and don't seem to make excessive noise.. 
Blade Hub going onto shaft shows spacer tube used to compress the collet onto the shaft , this will be modified and the spline removed and a 14mm bolt taped into the 25mm shaft end will secure it better and make the front more compact.. 
The next blade hub will have the plate almost against the rotor keeping the rotating mass close to the frt bearing.. 
Nose Cone on 
All up a pretty neat looking set of blades 
Up and Running I've taken a few shots of the Piclog readout below , the readings should say it all , Please note this dual is set up in a 7p2s config with twisted poles and the voltage doublers and Caps to both stators @ 48v 
PhillM ...Oz Wind Engineering..Wind Turbine Kits 500W - 5000W ~ F&P Dual Kits ~ GOE222Blades- Voltage Control Parts ------- Tower kits |
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| Jarbar Senior Member  Joined: 03/02/2008 Location: AustraliaPosts: 225 |
Great work Phill,I like your mounting plate for the blade spars and an excellent result.Keep us informed. Anthony. "Creativity is detirmined by the way you hold your tounge".My Father "Your generation will have to correct the problems made by mine".My Grandfather. |
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Gizmo Admin Group  Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5119 |
Good to see it up and running Phill. It will be interresting to see how they perform in stronger winds. That nose cone really sets if off. Glenn. The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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oztules Guru Joined: 26/07/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1686 |
This is one of those feel good stories..... and it works, I feel good. Nice setup, and very nice to see simple design in the blades works as well as I suspect. (mine.. straight taper, straight twist.. nothing fancy) These ones don't even have that and still work well. Gives a good idea about how flexible the wind is... (thankfully). .......oztules Village idiot...or... just another hack out of his depth |
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| fillm Guru Joined: 10/02/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 730 |
Hi, Just a quick update on the performance at the higher wind ,the piclog recorded this ( see pic ) , Its 7.30 at night and the mill has not stopped even in the night breeze of 2-8klm and still making little bits of power , as I said "UNBELIEVABLE" and looking pretty good for the top end..All up over 300w/hrs for the day and most of the day was below 14klm... 
PhillM ...Oz Wind Engineering..Wind Turbine Kits 500W - 5000W ~ F&P Dual Kits ~ GOE222Blades- Voltage Control Parts ------- Tower kits |
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| Gizmo Admin Group Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5119 |
Is that 515 watts I see there?  The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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| brucedownunder2 Guru Joined: 14/09/2005 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1548 |
Nice work as usual , Phill. Like everything you do ,it's well engineered must get over for a bo peep . Bruce Bushboy |
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| fillm Guru Joined: 10/02/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 730 |
Yep thats 515w but thats pretty well the norm for that wind speed , but the best thing was there was virtually no noise... Woke up this morning to see 125W/hrs logged , the mill ran all night in 2-9klm , we have a good S/W blowing today so it is just cranking out the W/hrs , to coin a phrase here in QLD - I'M EXICITED -  And that's what I think of these blades!!!!PhillM ...Oz Wind Engineering..Wind Turbine Kits 500W - 5000W ~ F&P Dual Kits ~ GOE222Blades- Voltage Control Parts ------- Tower kits |
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DaViD Senior Member Joined: 14/01/2009 Location: United StatesPosts: 120 |
Wow ! now that says alot about the blades to do that with as little wind as you said  If your not living on the edge your taking up to much space! |
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JimBo911 Senior Member Joined: 26/03/2009 Location: United StatesPosts: 262 |
Well that does it for me I now know what blades to use. The winds we get around here can blow stink off an out house. It will be interesting to see how they handle high winds. Real good news for me. Thanks Phil. Jim |
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| fillm Guru Joined: 10/02/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 730 |
Another update , Today 1019W/hrs so far , yesterday 795 W/hrs , 1/2 day 270w/hrs -thats over 2KW in 2 1/2 days in not big wind , max 31klm mostly 2 to 15 .. This is a masive turn arround for my mill ,I hope everyone gets on board with these Blades and gets the same results, but also twist the poles and go for the voltage doubler and caps and you will get the same result if at 24v + ..... Hi Jim , I don't know if these PVC Blades are in the USA yet but I think they are made in timber over there , Hope you can get a hold of a set to try... PhillM ...Oz Wind Engineering..Wind Turbine Kits 500W - 5000W ~ F&P Dual Kits ~ GOE222Blades- Voltage Control Parts ------- Tower kits |
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| JimBo911 Senior Member Joined: 26/03/2009 Location: United StatesPosts: 262 |
Phill I have just received a quote from Anthony for the PVC blades I will need. Blade price is very reasonable, shipping is not but where there's a will there's a way especially after the success you've had with yours. After some lessons learned the hard way tells me that putting money up front for quality parts and materials can pay off in big dividends especially in the long run. I am familiar with capacitors but still need to learn about voltage doubler? I also need to up grade my system from 12 volts to 48 so my mill needs to be able to charge 48 volt flooded batteries. I need my inverters to peek at 6KW (girlfriends hair dryer & microwave)and that's difficult at 12 volts. Still trying to decided on which F&P stator to go with and how it should be rewired? Jim |
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| domwild Guru Joined: 16/12/2005 Location: AustraliaPosts: 873 |
Phill, Great shots! I am green with envy! What is a collet? Is that an arbor? Regards, Taxation as a means of achieving prosperity is like a man standing inside a bucket trying to lift himself up. Winston Churchill |
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| fillm Guru Joined: 10/02/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 730 |
Hi Dom , Don't be green with envy , you just have to part with some of the green stuff and Im sure you will be happy with the performance , If I could have had these blades a year or so ago when I first started I would have saved so much time mucking arround with blades that really don't perform as they are not a good airfoil design , I would also be streets ahead in power produced. The collet is like the way a die grinder or mill holds its tool a outer taper compresses an inner split taper onto a shaft . As I said in my oriigional post I have come up with a design for a hub to suit these blades that will accurately mount the blades , at present I think it should be between $125 - $150 for the hub which will suit readily available tube. To do a dual stator as a similar design as mine I would require a Shaft , F&P bearing housing ( with at least 10mm - 15mm of plastic still arround the aluminum housing ) and one rotor to be sent to me and I will do the mod and I should be able to do that for a similar cost. That will the give the person a compact dual stator with adjustable pitch and adjustable offset for tuning the blades and furling . As this is something I have had in the back of my mind for a while but the blades and hub have always been a stumbling block .. Anyway hopefully over the next few weeks I will get it all together and post it somewhere on the site PhillM ...Oz Wind Engineering..Wind Turbine Kits 500W - 5000W ~ F&P Dual Kits ~ GOE222Blades- Voltage Control Parts ------- Tower kits |
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| domwild Guru Joined: 16/12/2005 Location: AustraliaPosts: 873 |
Phill, So a collet is also called something like a taper mount. Thanks for that. Regards, Taxation as a means of achieving prosperity is like a man standing inside a bucket trying to lift himself up. Winston Churchill |
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Greenbelt Guru Joined: 11/01/2009 Location: United StatesPosts: 566 |
Time has proven that I am blind to the Obvious, some of the above may be True? |
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| fillm Guru Joined: 10/02/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 730 |
Had some good wind to give these blades a good test , took a couple of pics of the piclog readings 
42 klm @ 624Rpm and outputing 770w , thats fairly hooting and says these blades can perform but I am finding they seem to be hard to set up with furling, but will keep that for " Furling - Getting it Right " thread PhillM ...Oz Wind Engineering..Wind Turbine Kits 500W - 5000W ~ F&P Dual Kits ~ GOE222Blades- Voltage Control Parts ------- Tower kits |
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marcwolf Senior Member Joined: 08/06/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 119 |
Hi Fillm Re the issue of the high powered hairdryer.. What a bout a kerosene driven one :> Works well.. Dryes in minutes.. only drawback is the residue Dave Coding Coding Coding.. Keep those keyboards coding.. RAW CODE!!!!! |
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| fillm Guru Joined: 10/02/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 730 |
I think you have got your wires crossed on which thred you are answering to . PhillM ...Oz Wind Engineering..Wind Turbine Kits 500W - 5000W ~ F&P Dual Kits ~ GOE222Blades- Voltage Control Parts ------- Tower kits |
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| marcwolf Senior Member Joined: 08/06/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 119 |
Whoops.. Sorry - I should have put Jim01 in the comment. Tad overloaded at this end.. Coding Coding Coding.. Keep those keyboards coding.. RAW CODE!!!!! |
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