Building the sickest ® VAWT ever. Brilliant minds unite please!!

[brandnewb]

Btw, I did not install this window. It was a window company that did it.

We are still in disagreement on how to deal with the aftermath.

 

[brandnewb]

-----------------------------------------------

The dopamine issue.

I as a fairly rounded guy myself, actually am triggered by the responses,

Ohhh even the negative ones can get my blood pumping.

-----------------------------------------------

Yes I fall into this category, so do some of my best participators.


How to proceed?
Just raw and dry results every once in a while or also the back breaking journey that led there?

 

[brandnewb]

trivia update


so imagine someone working for the municipality.

 

[brandnewb]

I'll explain, as to not allow this thread to become a dumping ground of non related posts.

Unrelated to the turbine I have now met with said community paid workers.

grrrrrrr. reveling in their power.

I long for the days in where it was like... Is your arm stronger than mine? yes? then you take the lead, ill follow

I will see where this particular episode ends up but it is rather sad

 

[brandnewb]

s your arm stronger than mine?

I mean power and moral combined.
I do not want moraly corrupt people to highjack my premisse just because they have "stronger arms"

 

[brandnewb]

@justgary @curiouscarbon

just a heads up, no discourse required unless you feel you want to add something, which I would welcome.

PLA (3d print filament) seems no longer just for toys.
It's quite strong. Stronger than any other I know of except for PC. PC is notoriously expensive and hard to print with though so I am not even going to try and go there.

The UV and water resistant qualities PLA does not have can be dealt with just like we would do with wood.
At least that is my premise.

PLA for the win is my new motto

Sure it is no where near as strong as aluminum or even better yet steel. But for prototyping this is one's best bet. Maybe even the only bet needed in some scenarios.

Now because I am already predicting sub par results once I finally have some to share (yes, I am having printer issues slowing down the process.)
I am already contemplating picking up where I left off with the lift type blades I made. I can make more of them quite fast and low cost.
But then the turbine will be spinning at like 4 times faster than the wind speed and that will increase the stress on all components by only an actual engineer knows how many.

 

[brandnewb]

Also, I have not found yet a steel furnace yet. Anything I find does not mention the ability to melt steel.

Does anyone reading this have a suggestion on how to either buy or DIY a steel melting furnace.

For aluminum its readily available to buy. But I recently found out I have quite a bit of scrap steel laying around so I though use that to build this turbine.

 

[justgary]

Also, I have not found yet a steel furnace yet. Anything I find does not mention the ability to melt steel.

Does anyone reading this have a suggestion on how to either buy or DIY a steel melting furnace.

For aluminum its readily available to buy. But I recently found out I have quite a bit of scrap steel laying around so I though use that to build this turbine.

If you plan to cast aluminum, it is pretty simple, but you can get old castings for free. Don't use structural pieces for casting. Old boat engine parts, transmission housings, etc. work great. Just make sure they aren't magnesium before you throw them in the pot.

You can separate the men from the boys somewhere around bronze casting. You can do it with more heat than aluminum, but you'll want to be much more careful.

Casting iron takes even more heat, and gets fairly pesky also. It is easy to burn off additives that can help give you better quality.

Casting steel is pretty much for superman. Lots of heat and tedious balancing of additives to get steel at all. I suspect you meant you want to cast iron, not steel.

Start with aluminum from old castings. Make your own furnace with fire brick and mortar. Use a decent blower to get the heat up. My friend made his crucible from steel pipe with a welded bottom. It would last about maybe five pours before the molten aluminum ate through it.

 

[brandnewb]

If you plan to cast aluminum, it is pretty simple, but you can get old castings for free. Don't use structural pieces for casting. Old boat engine parts, transmission housings, etc. work great. Just make sure they aren't magnesium before you throw them in the pot.

You can separate the men from the boys somewhere around bronze casting. You can do it with more heat than aluminum, but you'll want to be much more careful.

Casting iron takes even more heat, and gets fairly pesky also. It is easy to burn off additives that can help give you better quality.

Casting steel is pretty much for superman. Lots of heat and tedious balancing of additives to get steel at all. I suspect you meant you want to cast iron, not steel.

Start with aluminum from old castings. Make your own furnace with fire brick and mortar. Use a decent blower to get the heat up. My friend made his crucible from steel pipe with a welded bottom. It would last about maybe five pours before the molten aluminum ate through it.

View attachment 133747

hahaha Gary, never turn your back to a furncace.

I am happy you are still alive. love you and hate to lose you.

 

[brandnewb]

Btw Gary, I meant to melt steel. Aluminium seems doable with off the shelf furnaces

 

[brandnewb]

So this all just made me remember this long time ago.

It was a brutal time. we had to hunt our own food as growing it was no longer an option.

Yes we had depleted our soil of any nutrients so we were left to the most primal of states.

But then Anthony Blinken swooped in and our future never looked bleak again.

I don't care if you are blue or red in fandom, but this Anthony dude does have some charisma going for him does not he?

 

[brandnewb]

small update. more of an attention seeker than and actual update.



turbine still standing.

But that is not a real feat to speak of as it has not been spinning ;(

I know sue me.

Fear not though. I am still very much on this case and my printer is limping on to be able to get to some spinning results.

 

[brandnewb]

If you plan to cast aluminum, it is pretty simple, but you can get old castings for free. Don't use structural pieces for casting. Old boat engine parts, transmission housings, etc. work great. Just make sure they aren't magnesium before you throw them in the pot.

You can separate the men from the boys somewhere around bronze casting. You can do it with more heat than aluminum, but you'll want to be much more careful.

Casting iron takes even more heat, and gets fairly pesky also. It is easy to burn off additives that can help give you better quality.

Casting steel is pretty much for superman. Lots of heat and tedious balancing of additives to get steel at all. I suspect you meant you want to cast iron, not steel.

Start with aluminum from old castings. Make your own furnace with fire brick and mortar. Use a decent blower to get the heat up. My friend made his crucible from steel pipe with a welded bottom. It would last about maybe five pours before the molten aluminum ate through it.

View attachment 133747

btw Gary, that is a mean furnace. from the looks of it DIYéd at that.

This charcoal you put in the bottom. I have mixed reviews regarding their necessity. What is your motivation putting those coals in?

 

[justgary]

btw Gary, that is a mean furnace. from the looks of it DIYéd at that.

This charcoal you put in the bottom. I have mixed reviews regarding their necessity. What is your motivation putting those coals in?

The charcoal is the fuel. Surround the crucible with coal, get it burning well, and add air from a blower. The air comes in through the pipe on the left.

As for melting steel, generally you would want to either weld structural stuff together or mill/turn a hunk into your desired shape.

 

[brandnewb]

The charcoal is the fuel. Surround the crucible with coal, get it burning well, and add air from a blower. The air comes in through the pipe on the left.

As for melting steel, generally you would want to either weld structural stuff together or mill/turn a hunk into your desired shape.

Ok, then I guess I need to go for a gas fueled solution, I have seen but one video that claims to be able to melt steel.
It's a rather complex setup but as far as I can tell it's not impossible.

I am just not sure if going that route makes any sense as I have a huge amount of aluminum available. And maybe that is strong enough so why then bother with melting steel?

 

[brandnewb]

here this is what I meant with my printer is limping.


look how the sensor thingy of the BL touch got whacked.

So I was upstairs in my bed room. Just trying to enjoy one of naps we should take more often.
Only to hear an unsettling sound coming from my office.

So I quickly jumped back into work mode and went downstairs. uggg... Only to find the BL touch sensory thingy draging around a print that was going on.

So now, each time I print I have to fine tune.

If someone has a suggestion a large build size printer that never fails I am all ears.

 

[justgary]

My CR-10S Pro has a capacitive sensor that stays out of the way and is very durable. Perhaps you can find one and fit it to your printer.

 

[brandnewb]

My CR-10S Pro has a capacitive sensor that stays out of the way and is very durable. Perhaps you can find one and fit it to your printer.

yes thank you Gary,

In the meantime I salvaged the BL touch from that ender 3 figuratively and literally I blew up months ago. So finding the right distance from the build plate is once again not too cumbersome.

However I find that I am tweaking way too much with flow rates to have the filament come out consistently. This is one of the limping aspects I have not showed yet.

So brothers and sisters. I am going to first change to a direct feed rather than a bowden feed as printing like this is just frustrating.

It serves as a warning as well to anyone interested in 3d printing. The cheaper the printer you buy the more you have to spend time on keeping it performing well.

 

[brandnewb]

small steps I take, small steps.

But yet witness a biblical prophesy come true that one day the magnet will inherit the earth.



the reason this test, and the eventual full scale magnet holder disk is 30mm high is because then it is strong, Only bendable by tiny amounts so I am confident I can through a lot at it.

But even better yet is this.



So that we get to fill it with iron powder to boost the magnetic field

'For the new readers amongst us. I am not only about small scale.

It just takes a lot of trail and error in this prototyping stage to get things where I need them to be.

Give it some time and then I will bring show time with small scale spinning results. And then we can extrapolate.

Aii!!

 

[brandnewb]

@curiouscarbon @justgary

if you already know how to make functional parts like my recent test then I am barking up the wrong tree

But in case you don't. I don't mind sharing my hours/days worth of fiddling. I have cracked to the code of "complex" slicing in the meantime.