Wind Turbine Diary

6th June

Hello!  Good news for me today...  Got loads done on the turbine, and soon it will look like what it actually is supposed to be, which will be a moment of some enjoyment!  With all the steel cut and shaped, it was mostly a question of welding, some of it quite tricky.  With Dave Stewart's skilled help we got most of the work done in a little over 4 hours.  Not bad i reckon!

It's easiest to show what the process was using pictures.  Plus no-one reads these words anyway...  Voila:

Channel to support bearing hub, welded onto yaw bearing tube:

Dave just about to start welding:

Cooling the steel between welds:

Setting up the brackets (which will support the stator) for welding:

Me about to start a pretty shambolic weld:

The welded yaw bearing.  All that's needed is some grinding, cleaning, and painting:

A rubbish photo of the yaw bearing with tail fin pipe:

Brilliant days work, i'd say.  Next day, i need to make a hole for the bearing hub to slot in and be welded, and then drill the holes for the stator mounting and start assembling the alternator.  I'm not sure when this will happen, but it will need to be soon, because i'm moving to Cambridge in pretty much 2 weeks, and i want to be able to test the turbine before i leave.  Fingers crossed... Rob

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