Skyl4rk Have had a look at caleb's site. V. interesting as a potential problem for me is manufacture/procurement of suitable Vawt airfoils (aerofoils to me ).
coroplast looks interesting and speaking from a viewpoint of vast inexperience (i.e none) I would have thought lining mould with thin foil (baking foil ? grease proof paper ? ) or spraying with the right compound (WD40 ? ) would ease extraction problem.
His technique of using foam laminates also looks good. He seemed a bit disappointed at lack of rotational speed using these but IMHO the Savonius type (Lenz ?) foils he has incorporated are giving tremendous drag . I like the idea of a Savonius type starter but think it has to be decoupled from the rotor (tapered track ball ratchet ?) once the lift rotor has started. Even better i feel are automatically retracting vanes as per my last post as they would have less effect on wind profiles thro the turbine--unless the Savonius starter can be designed to contribute to a more effective wind profile which ourweighs the drag it contributes once lift forces give a TSR >1.
A final thought -I hate building things I have to spend hours maintaining and would need to convince myself that coroplast or plastic foam would stay the course. How ever at worst they give good ways to produce blades for testing.
My internet skills are limited and I was n't clever enuff to work out how to contact Caleb directly. I will continue to post anything of general interest on ecorenovator but if you want to pass my email
alanfrost43@btinternet.com to Caleb it my be easier if he contacts me directly.
Rgds. Big Al