Wind Turbine

Instruction Manual

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Wind Turbine Materials

1 DC motor (from a treadmill, the pulley is 6.7 inches in diameter)

3 car hubs

K
K
K
K
K
K
K
K
K
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K
K
K
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K

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1 steel sheet 4mm (to cut a disc, and a square part)

3 L steel pieces

1 small iron pipe (to make the pool)

2 large iron pipes 10 inches in diameter

1 hinge

1 piece which holds the bearing in place

1 cement bag

1 PVC pipe 6-inch in diameter (cut a 10-inch portion and another piece
to protect the generator)
2 brushes (from an old grinder)

1 smaller PVC pipe in diameter

2 straps of copper foil

1 PVC pipe 12 inches in diameter (to cut the blades)

1 bond sheet

2 pieces of aluminum profile 40 inches long

1 bulk CD case

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Introduction
Welcome to the Wind Turbine Instruction Manual from Power4Patriots! By using this manual,

youll be able to build a wind turbine from low cost materials and parts that you can scavenge from

your local junkyard to harness the wind and literally pull electricity out of thin air.

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The centerpiece is a DC motor, which is inside the Nay-cell. The DC motor youll see in this

manual was taken from a junked treadmill. A simple electric motor works on electromagnetism and
consists of a cylindrical housing with a central shaft or axle with an external flywheel or pulley on
one end. Inside the housing, the shaft has spokes tightly wrapped with copper wire, and this is
called the armature. The inside of the housing is lined with magnets.

The armature is charged with an electrical current in such a way that the ends of the spokes are

repelled by the encircling magnets, which causes the shaft and the pulley on the end to spin. This

is the way an electric motor converts electricity into mechanical energy. Oddly, you can make a DC

motor work in reverse. A propeller driven by the wind attached to the flywheel on the end of the

shaft is a way of applying mechanical force to spin the armature and induce an electric current in

it, which you can draw off to run a small appliance, or lighting or trickle charge batteries.

So, thanks to electromagnetism, instead of a motor that operates on electricity going in, you have

a generator with electricity going out. The amount of usable power you get from such a generator
depends on a number of factors: the strength of the magnets, the size of the armature and how fast

you can spin it. The small-scale wind turbine shown in this manual will produce a modest amount
of current.

Of course, theres more to a wind turbine system than the DC motor. The blades, which are spun
by the power created by the generator, transform the wind into energy you can use. Both the blades

and the motor are attached to the mounting frame so that they can work together to produce power.
The tower upon which the mounting frame sits is what gives the motor and blades access to the

wind. Determining when to pour more power into the batteries and when the batteries are already
full is the charge controller. Of course, the batteries store the energy that is created by the wind
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turbine system and act as a reservoir. Finally, an inverter changes the direct current (DC) generated

by the system into alternating current (AC) that homes use.

You may have several options for the placement of your wind turbine system, but just make sure

its as far away as possible from trees, buildings or other structures that could block the wind that
the system needs to operate effectively. If there is no clear, open space available on your property,

make sure the tower is tall enough to avoid any obstructions. Some people opt to install it on their

roof.

In this example, we are fabricating the pole in two sections connected by a hinge, so that our

generator assembly can be raised and lowered for repairs or maintenance. To keep the propeller

pointed into the wind, a simple wind vane or tail-fin is used. Youll want your wind turbine to turn

freely on top of the pole through 360 degrees. Electricity is usually transmitted by wires, but
because the generator assembly is going to be turning with the wind, you can avoid turning your

wind turbine into a tangled up maypole by the use of a commutator you will fashion out of two lengths
of heavy PVC pipe. One will be slightly smaller in diameter than the other, so that the smaller one
fits easily inside the larger one. You will fasten the larger one to the bottom of your generator, and

fasten the smaller one over the top of your pole. How that works will be explained later.

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Lets Get Started

You will fabricate your pole out of ordinary steel pipe, and

youll make it in three sections.

The base is a 10-foot length of 6-inch steel pipe, which you

will set in concrete in a hole in the ground.

The upper section of the pole is 4-inch steel pipe, which will

have your hinge in it, so you need a reducer to transition to the smaller diameter pipe and incorporate
the bottom element of your hinge.

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The top section of your pole has the top element of your

hinge at the bottom, and when your generator assembly is

complete and attached to the top of the pole, youll put

the hinge together, raise the top of the pole into the

vertical position and fasten the hinge using heavy nuts

and bolts.

There is a collar at the top of the pole, which will be shown

in detail later, to afford a tight seat for your generator

assembly.

The inner sleeve of the commutator fits

down over the top of the pole.

And your completed generator assembly with the outer sleeve of the commutator attached fits

down onto the top of the pole.

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Lets get started on the pole. You will use an arc welder to put your pole together. If you have no
experience using one, you should enlist an experienced friend who has all the necessary equipment

to do your welding, or you should hire someone to do it.

First, start building the reducer by welding a 6-inch flange you can cut out of sheet steel onto a short

length of the 4-inch steel pipe. The bottom element of the hinge goes on the other end.

In this example, the hinge was built out of two old car wheel hubs found at a junkyard. They are

perfect because they have a flat side, and the bearing housing on the other side is small enough to

fit into the end of your 4-inch pipe. Get two that match. The holes for the mounting studs will line
up and you wont have to do any heavy-duty drilling later. Your hinge is going to be a simple pin2014 Copyright
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and-socket affair, so you will need to whack a matching segment off each hub so that you have a
place to weld the smaller parts that create the hinge itself.

Take one of the hubs and weld it to the top end of the reducer.

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Now, go outside to weld the

completed reducer into the 6-inch

pipe that forms the base of your

pole.

Next, you can finish building your hinge. When you line up the straight edges of your wheel hubs,
the stud holes should also line up, so you can fasten them together while you build your hinge.

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The hinge in this example is just two short lengths of 1-inch steel pipe. One has a pin welded in

one end so that the pin fits easily inside the other one. You will weld the pipe with the pin to one

of the wheel hubs and the other piece to the other hub. In this example, we welded the piece with

the pin to the wheel hub at the top of the reducer.

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Once the small pieces of pipe are welded in place, you can weld what is now the top element of your

hinge into the bottom of the top section of your pole.

You will connect the top and bottom sections of your pole by placing the flat side of the wheel hubs
together and sliding the pin on one into the socket on the other.

You can complete the top section of your pole by welding an old, hexagonal steel fitting into it to

form a collar to accommodate the base of your generator assembly.

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You can use an old car wheel hub for that,

too, and youll want the bearing housing

on that car wheel hub to fit tightly into

the top of the pole, so that the generator

assembly will rotate smoothly and easily

through 360 degrees on the wheel hub

bearings.

Here is a completed pole. Youll want to make sure the hinge fits together easily on your pole

because you will be putting the hinge together after the base of the pole has been set in the ground

and the generator assembly has been attached to the top of the pole.

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Once youre sure everything fits, take it apart so that you can take the top section into the shop.
Having a workshop with a loft will be a big advantage because it means you can stick the top section

of pipe up through a hole in the loft floor, where you can work on it in its natural vertical position

at a comfortable height.

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All that you are about to do can be done with the pipe in a horizontal position, but it is not as easy

because you wont have gravity holding the pieces together while you work on them. An alternative
is to fix the pipe in a vertical position and build a working platform from plywood and 6-foot risers
and some temporary steps.

Now you will begin your turbine

assembly by fabricating the hub for your

propeller from some 1/4-inch steel plate.

Youll start by measuring the flywheel

on your motor, which is about 6 5/8

inches in diameter, and measure off a

circle on the steel plate about twice that

diameter using a compass.

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Then, cut out the disk using the angle grinder.

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If your sheet steel is rusty, use the grinder and wire brush attachment to knock as much of the rust
off as possible, so that it will be easier to paint later on.

Next, you are going to cut a rectangular plate to serve as the base for your bearing plate. It needs

to be slightly larger than the base of your motor, but not so big as to interfere with the flywheel or

the propeller that is going to be attached to it. Give it the same treatment as the disk.

In order to mount the propeller hub on the flywheel, you will drill six, equally spaced holes around
the circumference of the flywheel using a drill press. Be very precise in marking and drilling these

holes. Use a protractor to ensure that they are exactly 60 degrees apart and a ruler to ensure that

they are the same distance from the outside edge of your flywheel or else your flywheel will be
out of balance.
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You will use heavy machine screws to fasten your hub to your flywheel, so you will need a tap set

to thread the holes you drill. The depth and size of the holes, as well as the tap size, depend on the

size and thread count of the machine screws you select. Buy them all at the same place and get

advice from your vendor.

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In this example, were tapping the holes in our flywheel for our machine screws.

Next, you should remove some segments from your disk to reduce weight and wind resistance.

Measure these carefully to ensure that your segments are symmetrical, so that your hub will be
balanced.

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Now, drill holes through your hub to

match the holes in your flywheel. It is

important that the center of your hub be

lined up perfectly with the center of your

flywheel when you are finished. Note that

three of the six holes are on the centerlines

of the spokes of the hub, and these will do

double duty later on because you will use

them not only to fasten the hub to the

flywheel, but also to help fasten your

blades to the hub.

Next, youll fasten your hub to the

flywheel temporarily to check it out and

make sure you got it right and that the hub

and flywheel are balanced when you give

it a spin.

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Now, mark and drill holes in the base of your bearing plate, so that you can attach it to the base of
the motor.

Take the hub off the flywheel so that you can paint it to discourage rust. You can paint your base,

too.

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You have to have some way to mount your generator assembly on top of your pole, which is just
some steel pipe, so that it rotates freely with the wind. You can use the hub of an old car wheel for

this purpose so that you can stick the bearing shaft down into the top of your pole.

Next, drill three holes in the wheel hub 120 degrees apart and matching holes in the base of your

bearing plate, and these will match up with the mounting holes in your DC motor. You need to

attach three brackets to the car wheel hub to attach the outside sleeve of your commutator. Those

brackets should be placed properly to fit your pipe. You can make these brackets out of stainless
steel, and now you can fasten all these pieces together with nuts and bolts.

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Next, seat your motor and bearing plate assembly

into the top of the pole to make sure everything fits

properly.

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Now, reattach your propeller hub so that you can make more holes for attaching your propeller
blades.

You want your propeller assembly to be in perfect balance, so the placement of the holes is really

important. Use a magnetic arm attached to your pole to make your first measurement. Then, chalk

the ends of each spoke of your hub and use the stylus on the magnetic arm to inscribe lines in the
chalk, which are just parts of a circle centered on your hub.

Next, remove the hub and make your second measurement. Simply use a ruler laid down across
the exact center of your hub and the exact center of each spoke, and where that centerline crosses
the line inscribed in the chalk is where you will drill your holes. Mark the spots with a punch.

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Drill them out on the drill press.

Next, you will build your commutator. You have to have some way to transmit current from your

generator, which is going to be turning in the wind, down the pole to where you need it. Youll start

by measuring and cutting a length of 7-inch PVC pipe that will form the outside sleeve of your

commutator.

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Now, attach it to the bottom of your generator bearing plate using the brackets you

installed earlier.

Make precise measurements to install the electrical contacts in the outer sleeve. For this you can

use brushes taken from an old grinder motor. These brushes will line up with copper bands on the

inner sleeve of your commutator, which youll get to in a minute.

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You want to make sure these brushes dont bind unduly on the top of the pole. The outer sleeve

has to fit down over the inner sleeve, so that the brushes are in constant contact with copper bands,

but not so tight that your turbine wont turn in the wind.

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Now, you can build the inner sleeve of your commutator from some 6-inch PVC pipe. This will fit

down over the top of your pole. First, measure and cut off a length of the 6-inch PVC.

Cut some copper straps out of heavy copper foil to fit around the outside of the inner sleeve, then

solder the ends of one strap together to form a ring that will fit tightly on the inner sleeve. Position
both rings on the inner sleeve so that they will line up with the brushes in the outer sleeve, then

confirm your placement by holding the sleeve next to the top of the pole.

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Now, attach wire leads to the copper straps.

Drill a small hole near the bottom of each strap and fasten your wire leads on the inside of the

sleeve using small bolts and nuts.

Grind off the excess ends of the bolts on the outside of the sleeve so that they dont catch on the
inside of the outer sleeve or hinder the brushes.

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Next, slip the inner sleeve in place on the top of the pole and glue it firmly using fast-drying silicone.
Now, you can test the wire leads using a battery and a small light bulb. Make sure the leads from

the inner sleeve of the commutator are plenty long because they have to reach to the bottom of the
top section of the pole, at least.

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Now, re-assemble the whole thing.

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At this point, you have connected the leads from your generator to the brushes on the outer sleeve

of your commutator. Give the hub a spin and test your circuit with a multimeter to make sure you
have a good circuit.

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Make all of your blades from the same length of 12-inch PVC pipe. You will only need three. A

blade needs to be shaped and oriented as near as possible to the silhouette in this diagram, so that

you have a good curvature to catch the wind.

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Draw out your first blade on the PVC pipe.

Next, cut it out with the grinder.

After youve cut the first one, use it as a template to mark and cut the other two blades to make sure

they match perfectly.

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Make sure you smooth the edges of each blade with the grinder to eliminate all wind resistance.

Next, measure and drill holes in each

blade to match up with the holes in each

spoke. Drill these holes about 1 inch

from the trailing edge of each blade.

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Now, fasten the blades to the hub. For the holes closest to the center of the hub, use the machine
screws that also fasten the hub to the flywheel so that they go all the way through the blade, through

the hub and into the threaded holes in the flywheel you tapped earlier.

For the holes closest to the ends of the spokes, use nuts and bolts. Make sure you use large, flat
washers between the heads of your bolts and screws, so that you dont crack the PVC and cause a

blade to split.

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If you have some of the 6-inch PVC left over,

use it to make a housing for your generator to
shield it from the weather. Otherwise, you

can fabricate a cover from just about any

substantial, lightweight material, such as

sheet metal.

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Now, you are going to make your wind vane or tail. In this example, we used a product called
Bond, but any kind of 3/8 1/4-inch polycarbonate, Plexiglas or acrylic sheet will do.

Cut two lengths of L-shaped aluminum stock, such as what you would use to make a window frame,

to form the struts for your wind vane. Your wind vane will be fastened between these struts.

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Fasten these struts on either side of your

generator to the base of your bearing plate

by drilling holes in the stock and fitting it

on the bolts that hold your bearing plate

together.

Next, clamp the ends of the struts together so that you can drill matching holes all the way

through.

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Now, drill a hole in the bottom back corner of your wind vane and mount it between the struts.
Then, fasten them all together with a nut and bolt.

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Once you get the struts and wind vane lined up, clamp the struts together in the middle and as
much as you can at the front corner then drill your holes and fasten everything together with nuts

and bolts. You will have to use a longer bolt at the front of the wind vane because you are not
going to be able to get the aluminum stock to flex enough to fit tightly.

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Last but not least, make a cover for your generator housing. In this example, a bulk CD case fit

perfectly on the end of the 6-inch PVC and it was fastened in place with small screws.

Now, you are ready to head outdoors to your selected location where you will prepare to set
the base.

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You need to dig a hole about three feet deep and two feet in diameter. Set the bottom of your pole
in the center and fill it up with concrete.

Adjust the pole to ensure that it is plumb before the

concrete sets up and brace it so that it doesnt move.

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Now, bring the upper section of the pole with your turbine installed on it outside and attach the two

elements of your hinge. This is definitely a three-person job two people holding and guiding the

turbine and top section of the pole and one person on a ladder guiding the hinge elements together.

Two can raise your wind turbine with a forked pole and one can pull on a rope.

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Now, its back on the ladder to fasten your hinge

together using nuts and bolts.

All thats left to do is splice your wire leads

together, which involves more ladder work.

In this example, we got approximately 1 amp in a

5 mile per hour wind, which is great.

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The power output of the turbine in this example on a windy day is 500 watts per hour. This is a nice
complement to solar panels and will give you electricity day or night, as long as the wind is blowing.

We hope you enjoyed this manual. Best of luck!

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