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| July 2004: Oregon Turbine Manufacture - Part 1 |
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| blueEnergy's prototyping workshop in Veneta, Oregon. |
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| Wheel hubs salvaged from a car junkyard. These cost us around $10 a piece, but can be found cheaper, especially when purchased in bulk. |
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| First things first - cleaning the shop and sharpening the tools. This draw knife was part of a set of tools generously donated by Lowell Marshall. |
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| This board was 2" x 6" x 13' CVG (close vertical grain) Douglas Fir and was used for the three rotor blades (each 4 ft. long). The extra foot of board was used to make the wedges which are glued near the root of the blades. |
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| The board was so beautiful that Darin couldn't wait until morning to start sawing it up. |
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| The trailing edge of the blade is cut out. |
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| Super-Darin sands down the trailing edge. |
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| Mathias takes a shot at sanding. |
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| Darin marks the blade for thinning. |
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| Mathias takes the first cut with the draw knife. |
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| The windward side of the blade begins to take shape. Notice the beautiful grain. |
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| This angle shows the twist that is being carved into the blade. |
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| Darin makes thickness marks at various stations along the blades. Most of this wood material will be removed. |
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| Plane shaving. |
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| Because so much wood is to be removed, the bandsaw is a good way to get started. |
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| Darin thins a blade using a power planer. |
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| Darin gives the airfoil side some shape. |
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| An over-worked Darin. |
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| Darin uses the bandsaw to cut out the wedges for the roots of the blades. The angles on the wedges make cutting them out fairly tricky. Darin tilts the saw table to help achieve the necessary angles. |
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| The triplets with the wedges glued on. |
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| Mathias gets suited up to use the sand blaster on the metal rotor plates and the salvaged hub. |
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| Darin begins work on the stator mold. |
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| The hub is sand blasted and painted. Good as new. |
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| The outline of the stator mold is sketched out. |
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| Farrell Bird sets up the lathe to cut down pipe for the tail vane hinge. |
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| Farrell imparts some practical know-how. |
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| Darin cuts angle bar which is then welded together to make the hub carriage. |
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| A focused machinist. |
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| The steel rotor plates are ruff-cut with a torch. The finer work is done on the lathe. |
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| Mathias welds angle bar together for the hub carriage. |
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| The steel rotor plates begin to take shape. |
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| A steel rotor plate is mounted on the lathe in order to be cut down. The steel (5/16") proved to be very hard on the lathe and caused considerable vibration. |
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| In order to spare the lathe, Darin uses the torch to get the plate closer to a circle. |
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| Darin assembles the hub carriage. |
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| Farrell and Darin use the mill to shape some pipe for the tail vane. |
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| Tail vane hinge cut to limit the swing angle. |
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| Hub carriage. The pipe on the left is the tail vane hinge. |
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| Mathias drills holes in a steel rotor to let the mounting bolts through. |
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| Farrell builds a wood jig to help space the magnets on the rotor plates. |
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| Magnet-spacing jig. |
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| Mathias works on the stator mold. |
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| Farrell, Darin, and Darin Willits wind coils for the alternator. |
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| Wind wind wind. For this particular machine, each coil had 160 turns of enameled copper wire. |
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| The first magnet is placed on the steel rotor disk. |
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| Carriage and coils. |
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| The completed magnet rotor mold. |
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| Darin checks the polarity of the placed magnets by placing a magnet in his hand and working his way around the circle. If everything is properly placed, he should alternate between being attracted to and repulsed by the plate. |
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| Mathias and Darin check magnet polarities. |
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| The completed stator mold. |
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| Brian Wenzl cuts out plywood for the wood rotor disks. |
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| Darin suits up and applies layers of clear to the blades. The clear was used for looks and to protect the wood from the elements. |
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| Brian Wenzl works on the wood rotor disks. These disks are used to attach the blades together. |
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| The coating of clear shines bright. You can also see that bondo was used to smooth out the joining of the blade and the wedge. |
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| Mathias solders the copper coils together. |
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| The stator is ready for casting. |
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| A magnet rotor and the stator await resin casting. |
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| The copper coils are spaced evenly within the stator mold. |
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| A sheet of fiberglass cloth is laid in the botton of the stator mold for strength. |
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| Darin coats the fiberglass cloth with resin. |
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| The stator in production. |
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| Resin casting. |
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| Another sheet of fiberglass cloth is laid on top of the copper coils for added strength. |
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| A magnet rotor receives its first layer of resin. |
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| Darin tops off a magnet rotor with resin. |
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| Darin places a pinstripe on a blade while he waits for the casts to cure. |
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| A magnet rotor disk is cured. You can see the magnets protruding ever so slightly. |
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| The stator is cured. |
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| Darin does a final blade check. |
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| A blade painted blue. The ripples near the bottom are from tape that is covering part of the blade in order to produce the following look... |
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| The paint job is both attractive and allows viewers to see the grain of the wood. |
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| Everyone gets a turn to hold it. |
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| The stub tower designed and built by Darin for the turbine display. The tower dissasembles into four parts that can easily be carried by hand. |
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| Various components get their paint jobs. |
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| The slick, color-coordinated tail vane. |
| Turbine Manufacture - Part 2 |
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:last updated - March 2007 |