why i dont throw things away

[scout man]

My most recent project has been transforming piles of junk in the garage into a functional windmill. This will be mounted on the barn and used to power the lights and water heaters out there that run 24/7. The only thing I have bought so far in this project is the motor and the hub that the blades bolt to. One of the pics below shows where all the pieces came from. I set it up in the wind today to see what happened. I would call todays wind moderate for around here, and I saw a peak of 32V, and an average of around 16V, which will work great to power 12V batteries. Just need to buy a few components (such as batteries) then I can wire it all up and see how it works!




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjY7VAZCoYE

[Jackie]

So cool! Thanks for sharing!

[scout man]

Another video


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-Tv-Y2G31s

[4Runninfun]

Very cool, we have a wind generator here. It does pretty well for small tasks. A tip on batteries find someone who's taking down a solar array. You can get the nice bank batteries for pretty cheap.

absolutely agree, I don't throw anything away, especially metal. At the very least I'll keep it in a bin and take it down to the recycler.

[Pathrat]

That is really cool, nice job!!!

[CS79bronco]

That is impressive. PVC blades? I never would have thought of that. But how are you going wheeling? It's dependent on the Scout for support.

[scout man]

Ha, thats me alternator for the scout. Its how I keep her running.
I cant take credit for the PVC blades, I stole it off the internet. Blades were one of the few things I couldnt figure out. I know I could make one, but making 3 match perfectly I wasnt so sure about. The other thing that took some thinking was the swivel for the bottom. I was going to use some old axle bearings I had, but then I saw the fan clutch and it was just too good to pass up. Only downside is there wasnt a hole in the middle to pass the wiring through. So I will have to limit it from doing 360s and ripping out my wiring. Shoudnt be a problem though.

[glacierpaul]

Very nice Steve! Watched the program on DIY windmill's on PBS last year, really cool!

[Brody]

That is really cool, Steve!

I simply hate throwing stuff away. Hate it more when I "see" the project the stuff can be used on, but have to make room.

[Michael4rnr]

Thats really impressive.

[Java]

Very cool!! It doesn't look like a bunch of old parts. I like the shape of the tail end alot.

[scout man]

Thanks! I really have no idea what that tube was supposed to be or why it was bent like that. Something on the scout cage but I cant imagine what. When I saw it in the pile though I knew it was the perfect piece for that tail section!

[Brad]

Very cool Steve! :thumb:

[Heather]

That's great on so many levels! Great work!