Wind blade plans/ideas?

General Composites Discussions Composites Talk
#1

Morning kids.
Once I get a house, I want to get into some new energy sources, and since composites is exploding with wind generation, I figure that is one way I will go (easier to find a house with wind, then a stream with good head!)
I havn’t found much lit. on HOW the blades are made. Are they using solid metal mandrels, and the blades are desided so they slip out, or using a Smart Mandel and just collapsing it when they pull off the blade?
or, 2 part molds…which I doubt since I think they tape wind the blades.

I am sure I can just get some foam blanks and tape wind them, but It would be more fun and cheaper if I had hollow blades!

#2

All I know is that they use inflatable mandrels and the molds I’ve seen are nickle famale molds bolted together.

CCE

#3

Most blades are made in 2 halves and bonded together. I went to a factory in Europe were they make some of them, very impressive. I think the blades were over 60 feet long, the plugs and molds were HUGE!
Good luck doing this as a home project. I believe they told me the necessary tolerance was less than 5mm of twist through its entire length, and they were using hundreds of pounds of carbon per blade.

#4

Our state just put up dozens of the giant wind generated electric mills.

While The application that they have is massive and probably alot easier to formulat solutions for…they are also generating massive amounts of electricity.

The smart thing for you to do is research the right draft angle of most modern “getting off the grid” HOME windmills.

They are typicaly flat metal blades bolted to a flange.

Think of it like this…if you use say 4 layers of carbon (2 layers sandwiching a core material for stiffness) you can effectively double to triple the size of your blades and utilize more winds.

I think that there is a math formula that will tell you the blade size needed for X mph of wind to successfully generate power.

The beauty of carbon or hell…just plain old fiberglass (no real loads here fellas) is that you can open up the size of it to offset the weight penalty.

Thats the purpose of the new composite ones…to mimic the (danish???) skelotonized blades with cloth fabric (similiar to how they skinned old airplanes) keeping the weight down

Popular Science used to have plans on building your own wind generator.

I believe it involved some wood and a simple electric motor strung together with belts.

Good luck…Ive been thinking of doing the exact same thing. Ive not got the property to utilize it so its a back burner thing but Id be interested in hearing what you manage to dig up.

#5

BTW

why dont you just hand carve one out of wood or foam and make a mold of it? 2 part mold. Either use the mold to make foam cores (2 part pour foam) or to make the shells.

Epoxy paste it together? It dont have to look pretty to generate power.

#6

I’d just buy the pro made ones as they need to be balanced and have the proper angles and such.

#7

http://www.otherpower.com/otherpower_wind.html

Hey Werk…on most wind turbines the blades dont turn fast enough to warrant really precise balance. The smaller the fan array the faster it will turn due to weight.

This site above though has the plans for back yard made functional ones and has the basic math for output!

#8

bugger that!!! 2-5k for a 1-2kw generator? I can make a few homebrew alternators for a fraction of that.

but i figured I should make a composite blade, not wood like they show! wood is boring :slight_smile:

#9

yeah, I found some plans for them…i guess a 2 part mold would be ok to build. I would need a pre-existing blade though i think. I don’t know if I have the wood/carving skills to make a plug in the first place!
though, with practice maybe…

#10

Ok, then look around for an airplane surplus yard for a prop and they might have one cheap to buy to make your mold from?

I’m looking into selling the home, moving from So. Calif. and also looking into alt. energy ideas for the next home too! Maybe even having the home built into the side of a small mountain.

#11

I say if you want to do it, go for it :slight_smile:

I like driving through Southern California outside of LosAngeles… looking at all the hundreds of windmills turning. It’s a nice idea to make power.

#12

now THAT is a good idea!
if you do find a home on a hill, find one with a stream as well, and check out micro-hydro power!