Yeah that site has been cobbled together by various mates over the years. Had a lot of people offer to fix it for me, but no one's really come through. Paid a guy, who somehow made it worse...
Indeed. The next iteration of the tutorial will have more info for attaching alternators/generators in various ways now that I've had more of a chance to develop options for that side of things.
The matter of what to plug it into electrically and how tho isn't really tutorialisable, at least not in a one size fits all sense, as every situation is wildly different and needs to be designed bespoke.
Hence the need for a discussion forum type approach to that bit.
Essentially it's just a matter of ringing round all the offset printing companies in your area til you find one that will sell you their used plates.
I've only so far not managed to find them in the deep Australian outback, and the high Himalayas.
Otherwise tho any ~0.3mm aluminium sheet will do.
Weight and oxidisation are certainly issues, but mostly it's that the alu is easy to bend and cut by hand, and is more than strong enough to withstand high winds.
Modeled in Rhino, everything else done in Maya.
From a technical point of view it's fairly basic, bit of work tho. This one needs a bit of an update, and got a couple other bits of tech on the list for same...
I can confirm that I can make the three vane version myself from scratch in 3.5 hours.
90 minutes with pre-cut sheets.
And is usually $20-30 all up including the alternator.
The chain drive concept is indeed no longer what I'm using. It kinda worked, but not as well as I would have liked so now it's either a automotive alternator belt or direct drive to a Smartdrive unit or equivalent.
Yeah, essentially.
The tutorial is in the process of being updated, which is mostly the addition of that side of things; how to attach the generation capacity.
I made it as is because that's the extent, the physical turbine itself, which can be fairly standardised. Everything after that, ie what to plug it into and how, will largely depend on each individual implementation, and so is more of a conversation than a step by step, and so hence the FB forum group.
But like the next version will have more info on next steps.
1 - There's a couple options in terms of alternators / generators.
Hoverboard wheels are good in terms of cost and availability (in Western countries at least) and do a decent job tho will need to be geared up with a belt or similar to produce 12V charge voltage in realistic winds.
Direct drive washing machine motors are usually high enough voltage to direct drive, tho can be a little tricky to source.
Motorbike alternators will usually do a sufficient enough job, and are highly available in most parts of the world.
2 - The electrical side of things, ie charge control, batteries, load diversion, inversion, etc really needs to be tailored to each individual situation.
We've got this Facbook group going: https://upload.facebook.com/groups/windturbinemakers/
for figuring out that side of things and others.
Firstly, yes this turbine can be easily made for less than $30, including the alternator (but not usually the pole, charge control, batteries etc). At the moment I've got a particularly good contact with a local printers for the alu sheets and a full six vane version is costing me about $22 total.
The sheets are usually pretty easy to find, just ring around any printing companies in your area which do offset printing and you should find someone to sell them used to you for about $1-2 each.
Sometimes they just give them to me for free.
Any ~0.3mm alu sheet will work just as well, but will cost more if bought new.
Steel will work structurally, but is a lot harder to bend and cut so won't really work with the process documented in the tutorial.
The turbine (as in the general Lenz2 design, not my specific build) has been independently tested to about 25-35% mechanical efficiency, and does particularly well in turbulent and low clearance wind conditions compared to most horizontal axis turbines.