17 ft blades

[harley1782000]

Can someone give me the measurements for carving the 17ft wind turbine blades. I can't seem to find them.  After some fighting with my township and a lawyer involved I can finally get a turbine in the air.   

[dlenox]

Harley,

Take a look through my website, since your question was specifically pertaining to the blades the link is : http://www.briery.com/wind_turbine/blades.html, this is the profile that the Dan's used on the OtherPower.com website for their 17'er, and I followed it for making my blade set as well.

There is more stuff on my website if you are interested pertaining to my build of my 17'er.

Dan Lenox

[harley1782000]

I like the fiberglassing.  Could I just use regular pine then??  Since I will fiberglass them could I glue some boards together to get the size I need for the blades? 

Jim

[dlenox]

Jim,

In either case you can always glue up strips to make the blade blanks, just use good wood glue.

If you do put a layer of fiberglass on outside surfaces, use a squeegee to remove as much excess resin, and leave the tip surfaces bare so that if water were to penetrate into the core the rotational spin of the blades will allow the water to exit from the tips.  I'd also add some pigment to the resin this will help give it more UV protection.

Before glassing try to get the static weight of each of the blades as close as possible. You can compensate for a lighter blade by applying more resin or paint and easily add an ounce or two to get all blades the same weight.

Dan Lenox

[Seekscore]

What do you consider a good wood glue? There are so many options out there.

Mike

[freejuice]

Hi Mike,
 Good question...I'm getting ready to build a set of 17ft blades too.
I'm thinking about titebond 3, since they advertise it as waterproof. But someone ( I think it was Fabricator), said it sets up fast....about 10 mins or so. Somebody also mentioned Gorilla brand wood glue.
I saw a bottle of that stuff...maybe 16 ounces and it was about 6-7 bucks if i remember right, but a gallon of titebond 3 is about 24 bucks...much cheaper...and I would "guesstimate" it would take about a gallon for the 3 blades.
 I'm too P.O.'ed about Elmers wood glue, they sold out American workers and high-tailed it to China.
 All the best,
 Gavin

[harley1782000]

I am going to use Gorilla glue.  I have had excellent results with that stuff.  I have used it on stuff outside in the weather and it still keeps on holding.  Funny thing thou, my mom used it to put a tooth back in her false teeth plate.     It is still holding strong. LOL

[tanner0441]

Hi

For what its worth, we used to use Gorilla Glue for the woodwork on the boats I used to work on, it is a PU adhesive and foams very slightly so it will fill any small voids in the laminated blade sections.  It is definitely water proof, in fact it sometimes helped to wipe the glue on the one side of the joint and a damp cloth on the mating surface. I don't know what it is like under flexing and vibration loads though.

To remove the glue that squeezes out when it cures I used to use a craft knife blade dragged along the joints.  Once it had cured completely we gave it 24Hrs there seemed to be no problem laying GRP or poly ester resin or gel coat over it.

Brian

[dlenox]

Jim,

I used Titebond III, pretty good stuff I think that I used a bit over a half gallon total in laying up my blade blanks, lots of options available today.

I've used the Gorilla glue for spinning wheels that I make and it bonds well and expands to fill all voids.  When using polyurethane glues - just before glueing joints, run a damp rag over the wood where you are joining them.  The water helps activate the PU glue and makes it go off better.

Dan Lenox

[ghurd]

Funny thing thou, my mom used it to put a tooth back in her false teeth plate.     It is still holding strong. LOL

LOL.

I saw a small gas gennie with the muffler replaced with flex pipe to go outside.
The guy glued it onto the exhaust port with gorilla glue...  and it worked!
G-