DIY Wind Turbine - Part 3 - Building the Blades

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If you have been following this blog from the beginning you will know that my plan was to fabricate the turbine blades from a length of waste guttering, and a second set from waste pipe which is thicker, the secondary pair will be used if the guttering blades are too flexible. I have completed the first set of blades, what follows is the procedure for producing the blades:

TOOLS AND MATERIALS:

You will require the following tools and materials in order to make your guttering turbine blades:

1. Electric saw - for cutting out the blade profile (hand saw will do but i found the guttering bends too much when you try and cut)

2. A flat boot lace - for tracing out the blade profile, must be longer than your blade.

3. A suitable permanent marker - for marking out the blade profile.

4. A tape measure or rule - for marking out your dimensions.

5. A length of plastic guttering / waste pipe - turbine blade material.

6. A sharp knife - for smoothing the cut edges of your blades.

7. A drill - for creating your mounting holes.

PROCEDURE:

Use the Blade Template image to better visualise the procedure, i have not dimensioned the image as you may want to play around with them on your own design. Looking back i should have taken pictures as i was making the blades as this would have made the procedure a little easier to follow, so next time i make a set i will do just that and update the blog...

1. Cut the guttering into 3 lengths (for a three blade turbine) of 660mm.

2. Measure 12cm around the circumference of the guttering at the one end and mark - this will be slot B.

3. Measure 5cm around the circumference of the guttering at the opposite end from the same edge and mark - this will be slot A.

4. Cut a very short slot at each of the marks just big enough for the lace to fit.

5. Tie a knot in one end of the boot lace and insert into one of the slots from the underside of the guttering, pull the lace tight along the length of the guttering and tie a knot at the next slot, insert the lace into the slot. You should now have a piece of guttering with the boot lace running tight along the underside of it from slot A to slot B.

6. Use your marker to trace along the edge of the boot lace, and then remove the lace.

7. Using your saw cut carefully along the marked line from slot A to slot B, keep the section that measures 5cm at the tip, this will become the blade.

8. Using your tape or rule mark half way between Slot B and the straight edge, and 10cm down along the cut edge which becomes point 2.

9. Mark a line parallel to the straight edge of your blade 5cm long, the end of this line will be point 1.

10. Join points 1 and 2 together.

11. Cut along the drawn line, and there you have your basic blade profile.

12. Tidy up the cut edges of the blade using your knive, by scraping off the burs, you can also smooth of any corners.

13. You can drill your holes to suite your turbine mounting, i recommend a minimum of 2 holes for fixing ( i only had enough room for two).

Blade Template - click for larger image

NOTE: For my first attempt at making the rest of the blades i used the first blade as a template, but due to the curvature of the plastic each blade when cutout became progressively wider. So i would advise that you mark out and cut each blade individually.

I used the procedure above to create the secondary set of blades, after cutting the length of the pipe i quartered it, and made a blade of 3 of the 4 quarters, hold on to the the fourth quarter in case you need to replace a damaged blade. For testing i will use the first set of blades though they do seem very flexible, for a permanent system i would not recommend using the guttering blades unless you can get guttering that is thicker than standard.

Here are some images of the finished blades, the fabrication time was approximately 1.5 hours:

DIY Wind Turbine Blades