Quote:
Originally Posted by bennelson
The other thing I am toying with is to build a small wind generator to recharge the car. The idea is NOT to build a windmill that would be a practical recharger for the car. Rather, it is simply to show that it can be done. You can power an electric car from wind, and can't do the same thing with a gas car.
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I'm not completely clear on that part. The idea is to show
- A non-operational (but potentially workable) proto-type of a portable wind powered generator for the car?
- That it's possible to use a fixed (home base) wind power generator to charge the car?
(Don't you want a scale model of what's actually needed, rather than some harf-arsed, non-functional, non-workable display?
- Something else?
Quote:
Originally Posted by bennelson
I am imagining a unit that could fold up to be carried inside the car. I would use a base of a flat piece of metal welded to a short piece of steel pipe perpendicular to it. I would just park one of the car tires on the plate, and then slide a longer section of pipe into the pipe on the base to make a simple tower, maybe 10 feet tall. (2 5-foot sections of pipe with a coupler would pack easy into the car)
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Assuming you meant #1 above, channel steel
has a much better strength to weight ratio than flat plate.
Weld a small flat plate to the open side at one end of a length of channel. Flat plate goes under tire. Closed end of channel faces up. Weld 6" length of pipe stub near but not at the other end of the channel. Call that the main leg. You'll need some sort to cross leg for lateral stability. Take another piece of channel approximately the same length as the first. Lay it across the first channel (closed side to closed side) to form a tee. Drill a hole though the two pieces so you can attach them. (This is a take apart base, rather than a fold-up. Use a wing nut or wing head bolt so no wrench is needed.) Cut a two or three inch piece of channel and weld it to the cross leg so that it prevents the leg from turning on the bolt while the cross leg is in use. Drill holes and weld nuts to far ends of cross leg. Weld large washers to the heads of bolts for adjustable feet for cross leg. Use sections of pipe for the mast as you've previously describe, but add gui-wires supports with turn buckles from top of the mast to the ends of the cross legs and to the car end of the main leg.