Sunday, January 6, 2013

Simple (and cheap) wind turbine tower from building materials
Unknown9:47 PM

Simple (and Cheap) wind turbine tower from building materials

If you need a wind turbine tower and the build budget is tight, this video should help. My tower cost about $30.00 and it's 25' tall.
The original idea came fro Mike Davis. (The guy is a THE DIY Wizard. See link below)
I followed Mikes advice, and modified the design to be adapted for my cedar deck. I decided to see if I could savage parts from a used building supply depot. The materials came from fencing, plumbing and electrical departments. I had noticed that  horizontal pipe used for the top/bottom of chain link fence. It fit nicely inside (with very little play) over top of a 1" galvanized metal EMT. If you look around, I'm sure you'll find some with minor dents for a $7 - $9 each for a 10' section.  I picked up about $30.00 worth of material and took it home.

So, for the stand, the feet are (2) 1" floor flanges, legs (2) 6" of pipe, (2) elbows, (2) 6" pipe, (1) T-intersection and about 36" of 1" pipe. The fencing pipe slips over the water pipe. Then depending on your height, the 1" EMT fits nicely inside and the fencing pipe. Then you alternate the lengths to create the tower. For guy wires, use the clamps in the fencing section for the ropes. Sounds complicated, but I'll see what I can find for pictures.

In an ideal situation, would takes 2 people to raise the tower. But, if you use a pulley and a heavy counter weight, 1 adult can do it. Just make sure to have your guy wires ready.

All the credit for the wonderful design goes to Mike Davis. He makes a ton of really cool projects. See his web site at http://www.mdpub.com/index.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=R0oFnk17zbE

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About The Author Scott Symmes Scotts career is based in the Graphic Design and the home finishing industry. Afterwork, he steps away from the computer and work on random projects. On weekends, Scott and his family head out to their small 420 sq. ft. cabin in the mountains to relax and test out DIY solar panels/wind tubines projects. In the year 2011, Scott combined his love "building Stuff" and a few videos to create a YouTube channel, cedarworkshop. After a few months, the channel had over 250 subscribers and was quite popular. A few months later a web site and Blog was added for more information. P.S. Scott is more of a "do-er" than a "talk-er", so the writting or grammer may not be the best. Thank you for your patience and feel free to comment or make suggestions. Enjoy! Facebook and Twitter