Plastic Classic Forum

Public television has a new show called Make TV http://makezine.tv showcasing people who make stuff.

One of the segments they did was on a do it yourself wind power generator http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/0 ... rator.html

Basically they used an old treadmill motor as the "generator" and made the blades from a piece of PVC pipe. Really rather basic and no special tools required.

Given the high cost of new wind generators for sailboats, this seems rather intriguing.

Wind generators on boats can be very dangerous. Just be careful if you try making your own, might be more than you bargained for.

Hirilondë wrote:Wind generators on boats can be very dangerous. Just be careful if you try making your own, might be more than you bargained for.

Why can they be dangerous?

I wonder if Dave is thinking of the whirling blades (?). The boat I cruised on came from the previous owners with a hoistable (or towable) Red Wing wind generator. We never used it (decided it was too large and heavy to lug along and we'd make do with solar panels), but it had quite a "wingspan" and looked like a formidable thing to handle/hoist in the rigging.

This photo doesn't quite convey the size and heft:



I have sailed with an Ampair (commercially made) wind generator; it was permanently mounted and high enough up that you couldn't get tangled in the blades (at least if you were on deck). Still, something to watch.

Rachel

I think I'd second the dangerous judgement. A wind generator in your back yard, or on your roof, is not subject to the horsing around that a boat-mounted piece of equipment is. I did not check out the website but blades homemade from PVC pipe sound prone to all sorts of manufacturing anomalies and that plastic is not so light, stiff or strong at best. Ditto for keeping the salt atmosphere out of the important parts.

I think the dangers are primarily the whirling bits coming off in bad and unpredictable directions due to failure in bearings, shafts or blades.

Quetzalsailor wrote:
I think the dangers are primarily the whirling bits coming off in bad and unpredictable directions due to failure in bearings, shafts or blades.

That is what came to mind and prompted my comment.

I did some research on building something cheap... There are a few manufacturers that sell hubs and blades through ebay for folks wanting to hack the rest together.

Less than a hundred bucks and you get the dangerous half fixed proper. Grin.

I lost interest after trying to figure a low cost generator head that charges at slow speeds, has a decent amp output all the way to maximum... and somewhat corrosion resistant.

(I did my normal of drawing up a rube goldberg contraption... pinion and ring gear mounted way up in the air, shaft in a tube running down below deck through seals to a permanent magnet alternator... etc. Grin.)

Zach