05-27-10, 11:57 AM | #51 |
Lex Parsimoniae
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I wonder if you removed those two clamp-on sinks and added a good 3" or 4" muffin fan
about 1 or 2 inches away from the hotspot, using an 'L' bracket mount from the base bolt?? The air blast is going to have an instant cooling effect.. |
06-02-10, 11:45 AM | #52 |
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I did another 24v test with a small fan blowing over the hot area of the inverter, and it seemed to do enough better that I think it will be okay.
I built a bracket out of some U channel I had lying around. It will mount the tower pipe just under the peak of my barn and hold it out so it will clear the overhang. I also added some heatsinks to the motor just to keep things cool. Yeah, I like heatsinks . Now I need to make up a base plate for the tower and actually buy the pipe for the tower. I also should move my circuitry from the breadboard over to a circuit board, and mount and wire all my electronics and relays to a panel. |
06-02-10, 12:05 PM | #53 |
Lex Parsimoniae
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It seems like you might have a welder in your shop!!
I wonder if you could weld 3 steel disks into those holes in your propeller Hub?? |
06-07-10, 01:26 PM | #54 |
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I do have a welder at my disposal . I painted the hub a while back, so I probably won't weld on it unless it bends in the other direction. We'll see.
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06-07-10, 01:35 PM | #55 |
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I made a base for the tower.
I'm not sure how well it will work. I plan to stick it in the ground and pivot the tower up on it. I'll probably have someone stand on it while a couple others raise the pipe, pulling with a rope from the roof and pushing from the ground. It's really just for temporary use at first, unless this site works out well. I mounted the microcontroller and my homemade I/O board into a box I had kickin around. I plan to mount this box on the panel with the inverter and all the other stuff which I'm currently setting up. |
06-15-10, 02:32 PM | #56 |
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I'm getting my electrical panel all laid out well, but I'm hung up on the tower a little.
I found a source for cheaper pipe but the lengths are ~10ft. This makes getting it home easier but I need to come up with a strong cheap way to couple the pipe to make the tower. The pipe they sell may or may not have threads on some ends and I'm not sure I'd trust a threaded pipe coupling for tower duty. The coupling needs to be able to come apart later if I want to move it or change the tower height. I've seen some extruded aluminum couplings that are neat, they are clam shell clamping style and the guy wires attach to them too. Like the one in this kit. Southwest Wind Power 27FT Tilt-up Tower Kit for Air Turbines - Towers for Air-X and Air Breeze @ AltE I haven't seen them sold outside of a kit though, and I don't think they would be very low cost. |
06-15-10, 03:39 PM | #57 |
Lex Parsimoniae
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I looked around for Guy-wire clamps and didn't find much..
Most of the stuff I saw was for TV & small Ham radio masts..
I kinda liked this idea. I wonder if you could use 4 large steel angle irons (about a foot long) and grind down the sharp corners just a bit, so they wouldn't cut into the mast.?. |
06-16-10, 06:51 PM | #58 |
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That's an idea to think about.
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06-16-10, 07:17 PM | #59 |
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I have the pipe!
My neighbor gave me six 7ft pieces of galvanized 1.5" sch 40 pipe because I fixed his gas weed trimmer. It was used for fence posts so they were chocked full of dirt, one isn't too straight and they all needed their ends trimmed. With many shorter pieces, I am really going to need a good coupling system now. I'm not complaining though, the price was right and there is plenty to make the tower I want and then some. I might weld (in very good ventilation) them into 14ft lengths so I only need one removable coupling for a 27-28ft tower. I think 14 ft is a manageable length to haul around. Plus I found some pipe that fits with a little interference inside the 1.5" pipe. I'll pound short lengths of that into the pipe where the butt splices are welded for strength. Maybe I can make the undoable joint between 14ft sections by welding that smaller pipe into one outer pipe, leaving the other outer pipe as a removable slip on joint. |
06-16-10, 08:51 PM | #60 |
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Nice to see this all coming together.
I think I'd be weary about a slip fit joint personally. That thing is gonna see some pretty good force pushing against it...
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