Wind Power.

This feels soooo good, we are finally moving along again on our ten foot wind turbine. Our whole project got a very pleasant shot in the arm last week after locating a drill press on Craigslist. The guy wanted $150.00 for it. I agreed, sight unseen. I sent two images along with my contact information, one of our renewable energy workshop and a second, an image of Rich’s wind turbine which we helped raise while we attended the Other Power workshop in Colorado last year. My intention was to personalize my offer. The man responded later that day saying he thought we were doing a fine thing to help Grandfather Nature and he would donate the drill press to us. I couldn’t believe our good fortune, and it got better when we saw the drill press! This is a one horsepower, 12 speed, Enco brand, floor model made of cast iron! ———– Happy dudes!

Below is schedule 40, 2 inch diameter water pipe we are using for the piece that goes between the spindle housing and the yaw bearing pipe.	–	We are working on the iron fabrication using our new totally cool drill press and 2.5 inch carbide tooth hole saw.
Above this piece of old water pipe found in one of our recycle areas. The new hole saw cut through this thick steel quickly. Heavy metals in the dump? I wish we had more of this stuff.		We used the vise to hold the 2 inch pipe steady as pilot holes are cut in preparation for the hole saw. Gotta get everything centered and square, then keep it there.
		Figuring out how to clamp the 3 inch pipe to the drill press table. We used a piece of leaf spring steel running through the pipe and bolted to the table. Dang it, spring steel is extremely hard metal, we had to resharpen the 3/4 inch drill bit, like five times before we made it through the spring. This worked very nicely and we got a perfect hole cut exactly in the center.
		Keep the cutting edge immersed in oil to keep it cool, and well lubricated. We used biodiesel and after that ran out, automatic transmission oil, hence the reddish tint.
We cut the spindle housing out of what we had, a 3 inch (inside diameter) cast iron pipe coupling. Seen on the right, the finished spindle housing doesn’t look like much, but it was a huge accomplishment for Kevin and me. We went round and round worrying that the cast iron of the old pipe coupling we were going to use would be to hard to cut with our new carbide hole. The plans called for a 3 inch diameter piece of schedule 40 pipe, the same type of pipe plumbers use. Below, Kevin supplies ample cutting oil to the 2.5 inch hole saw while it cuts through 3 inch pipe like it was cutting wood instead of metal.

This thing looks like a Star Trek logo, but it actually is the bracket which will hold the polyester stator (stationary) between the rotating magnet rotors. We have the holes cut out of this now, one 7/16 inch diameter hole in each tip, and one 1 1/4 inch hole in the center for the spindle. The other funny looking thing is the spindle housing which gets welded to this stator bracket. The spindle housing changes the angle of everything on the wind turbine. The hole in the side is for a 2 inch pipe to fit in at 10 degrees off of a right angle. This tilts the blades up away from the tower slightly.

The stator bracket with the holes cut.

Stator bracket sitting on top of the spindle housing, doughnut, and axle – hub assembly.

Saweet, we are on our way. You betcha, we’ll be sending this writeup to the man who donated the drill press along with a big happy thank you. There really are a lot of good people out there. ——————————- Well I gotta get ready for the work that helps put food on the table around here. Sincerely, Brian Rodgers