Greetings all
After over 2.5 years my 3m mill has died
Winds this afternoon gusting to 140km/hr finished off the rusting under the magnets and I lost all the magnets off a magnet rotor, quickly followed by all the blades as it oversped due to a sudden drop in loading (I think it was in that order anyway!!)
So I'm looking for new magnets as these 2x1x.5 from forcefieldmagnets just don't feel as good as they were (toasted maybe?). I'd prefer a better fixing method next time so I'd like to stay with the same size if I can but with a hole in them. The steel disks should clean up OK and I can then get them powder coated, I'll also get them banded with stainless as well.
The stator so far looks like it survived - its discoloured but continuity looks good - when I strip it I'll have a better idea as I can then check the conductance properly as well on the state of any contact with the magnet rotors.
The blades have had it of course but I was half way through carving a new set out of western red cedar anyway - at least they will look better than this:
Other damage is all repairable - the stub mast is bent but I have a spare, the tail fin is a bit knocked about but thats only a bit of plywood and the three phase cable is now about 1m shorter where the whole mill jump off the stub mast (from the impact of the blades I guess) but I'll have enough spare to reach the ground still once I re-thread it up the tower.
