Salaki

Hi i'm a 6 grader and i need help with my science-fair project. I wanted to build a wind turbine but my school didnt have enough money to get me 120m of lead wire for me so if you have any tips for me how i could build one and please give me a fully guide i know it takes time to make a real guide but please i really need help and i'm not a professional and this is my first time so if you make a guide you should make it so even a 8 years old kid would understand. Please help me =) thanks

Salaki

could be both vertical wind turbine or horizontal and please also tell me what tools and materials i need and if you say something like plywood or some lead or wire please tell me the size in cm or mm or dm not with inches because im swedish and we dont use inch or foot here

Franknstein

what do you need 120m of lead wire for????

Funny, My Dad and I built one of these for my science fair project almost 15 years ago...

What we did was get an old alternator from a car, and built the entire structure from steel. It was shaped with three fan blades. And the main shaft was connected to the alternator with a rubber puller belt. When the wind hit the blades, it turned the shaft which turned the wheel on the shaft and then the alternator. The alternator was connected directly to the battery, and we connected a 12volt light to the battery with a switch.

Heres a basic diagram...


You will need to get a really straight steel shaft and mount it on bearings... a simpler solution I suppose would be to built this all on a much smaller scale... maybe build it with wood, and use a bicycle dynamo, you could even power a small fan with the circuit which would blow the turbine, and you will have 'perpetual motion - haha'... that could be cool... good luck!

Salaki

i found a website where i could make a savonius wind turbine that's what i needed the 120m lead wire for ^^ I gotta do it on my own because my dad doesn't know anything about these stuff and i think i will use a bicycle dynamo as you said but can you please explain how i could build one in one of the smaller scales with the bicycle dynamo ^^

Salaki

im not so smart ^^ im pretty dumb actually :P

Salaki

anybody else that knows something about this?? please post and help me get the price for science-fair my friends :P thanks in forehand

sam2

You dont give many details about what you want your project to do. Do you want it to put out "usable" power to run somthing or just to demonstrate the idea?
Get a small DC motor and a model airplane propeller, fit the propeller to the motor shaft and mount the motor on a stick. Mount the stick into a hole in a block of wood ( big enough so it wont tip over in high wind).

Run a wire from one motor terminal to a small ampmeter ( you can buy small analog meters for $5.00 on line) and from the ampmeter back to the motor(ampmeter in series).
Hook up a volt meter in parallel.( Look up series and parallel)

Put it in the wind, and you will get a reading on the volt meter(probably less than a volt) and one on the ampmeter( up to an amp for a small motor, enough to see on the ampmeter). It depends on the wind strength, prop diameter , motor size, and if you use a resistor in series to limit the current.

You can always use a resistor in series with the motor if the current gets to high. sam

sam2

Found this site: http://www.kidwind.org/pdfiles/basicinstv2.pdf
sam

Salaki

i want to put out usable power to light a LED or a bulb

sam2

This says it can light a bulb. http://www.kidwind.org/windshopfiles/shopgeared.html

These are low power and easy to build, but if you want more power,search the web. There are alot of sites for building your own turbine, but I think they are beyond your skill level.
sam
Here is a nice one that can light an LED http://www.re-energy.ca/pdf/wind-turbine.pdf and the measurments are metric.
And another: http://www.picoturbine.com/projectlist.htm Lots of info here. Not in metric ,but its easy to convert.

3v0

Could you please give the URL for that site.

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Salaki

Salaki

Sam the http://www.re-energy.ca/pdf/wind-turbine.pdf is what i was supposed to build and needed the 120m lead wires for,look at materials needed on that site then you'll understand

RODALCO

Good sources are old VCR's or Copier machines.

Look at the local inorganic rubbish collection.

Many of the steppermotors have permanent magnets in them and are multipole.

These will generate power at relative low speed to drive some LED's or a small lamp.

The mechanical part you have to design yourself and is quite likely to be the hardest part.

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There are more ways to get to Rome.

Electricity, Electric clocks, Meters and Trains are great.

sam2

You can find magnet wire cheap. http://www.bulkwire.com/magnet_wire.asp
That is the first place I looked and it was only $6.00 for more than you need.
sam
I have to commend your school system for a 6th grader who can write english so well.