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Forum Index : Windmills : Need advice repair Wijdmill Blades

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herbnz

Senior Member

Joined: 18/02/2007
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 258

Posted: 07:40am 23 Mar 2007

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Murphy's Law again we are short power and my windmill packs a sad.
Noticed a rattle lowered the unit found had shorn off the two 6mm drive pins so was free wheeling and flogged out holes in mounting plates. Unit was fitted with a system to allow 1/4 turn free to overcome cogging.
Remounting will not be a problem though I will lock the free wheel side only gets it rotating when there is not enough power to generate much at any rate.
Where I would like to pick the brains of ppl out there in relation to the blades. There are 6 of the type ecconnovation used to use I believe originate USA black very tappered like airmax type. Thes have damaged the tips shreaded. Overspeed or thinking now slop may have allowed to hid tower i never looked before puuting it back up.
What are the comments on these type blades they have given up to 20amps from a FP unit usually tho 10 or less.?
obtions I have
1- Throw them away buy new ones what type ?
2- try to repair I assume they are carbon fibre I doubt I could get a bond thats strong.I assume the original fibres are with long over laps. Any ideas ?
3- Cut the blades back in length. Hard to see the tips doing much <20mm wide. However one blade would need 100mm off so would need to do the rest same
4- as above but only do 3 at 50mm off and go to 3 bladed unit.
I need to do something now as we need power even if its only temporary. We are in the middle of a dought and the hydro's are down on out put.
Any Ideas on or in addition to above would be very much appreciated

Cheers
Herb

Gizmo

Admin Group

Joined: 05/06/2004
Location: Australia
Posts: 5116

Posted: 11:59pm 25 Mar 2007

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If those are the blades I'm thinking off, then I think there are made from poly or HDPE. I bought a set a couple of years ago, 6 blades and a hub adaptor. They didn't perform very well at all, lots of noise and no power.

I wouldn't spend any more time on them, throw them in the corner and make a set of blades from PVC pipe or something, a set of PVC blades would probably perform better and be cheaper in the long run.

If you do cut them back they would be fine for a small windmill project, driving a big stepper motor or similar.

Just my personal view, I did pay good money for a set of those blades and they never performed well.

Glenn

The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now.
JAQ

herbnz

Senior Member

Joined: 18/02/2007
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 258

Posted: 07:58am 26 Mar 2007

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Thanks for that Glenn I suspected that they were far from the ideal. I have cut in the mean time 100mm off so i can get some power. By the way it is not a unit I built and the blades where extended about 150mm from the hub. I will take up some the ideas on here and develop new blades as you suggest.
Again many thanks Herb

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