First Failure

As long as I was out of the wind, I was able to do a little work today. When I got cold, I simply brought everything inside on the kitchen table. The wife was not happy about it but it could have been worse, I have rebuilt carburetors on it before.

I cut and installed the tail fin for the wind turbine plus mounted the motor and welded the swivel unit on (no, I didn't weld in the house). I was so close to seeing this thing run I decided to go ahead and cut and shape the 24" blades from a 8" PVC pipe my buddy dropped off the other night. He brought me four feet just in case I really messed up on the first set of blades. I drilled and attached the blades and called everyone outside for the show.

I do not have a tower for it yet so I just set it on the fence facing into the 10 to 15 mph North wind. I hooked up the volt meter and let the blades loose. Absolutely nothing. One of the kids asked when it was going to start moving, another laughed and blew on it and another asked if she could go back inside. I looked up at the window to see my wife just shaking her head. After scratching my own head and staring at this thing for a while I think I figured it out. The blades are to small. Tomorrow I am going to cut some wider ones. I sure am glad my buddy brought over extra pipe.