Bonus project - The Transporter

 

Good start to the morning. Amish neighbor Ike came over and pulled my trailer out of the snow. I am going to build up this trailer to transport the Mega Storm fan unit on. Interesting technology contrast in the  picture, wind turbine and his horses.

Just a few details to finish up before I tackle the trailer project. The 1/4" Lexan arrived and I need to cut the 48"x48" sheets to size. Had to build a support system to hold it while I cut it on the bandsaw.

 

The support system.

Wanted to make sure my head was in the game so I wrote the dimension on the sheet. The cost of this stuff made the cost of MDO look cheap. Good thing I did because you can see I measured and drew in a line on the left that would have cut the 45 - 3/4" height I needed. Could not believe I almost made this blunder.

Here you can see the Laxan sheet being held in the rabit with screws every 6".

Got some nice T-slotted track to make the turbine hold down system. The track is routed into the Platform that the Test Chamber sits on.

Like everything else for this project I had to modify the heads of 3/8" bolts so they would fit into the T-slots. Then these would be coupled with 6" long threaded rod.

Here you can see how the T-bolts and 1x2 cross bars lock down the typical KidWind tower. The system can be used to fit any design of tower base that can be thought of.

Now back to the Transporter project. I will re-deck the trailer and then mount a winch at the front. A fold up ramp will be added to the rear for loading. Next post should show the Mega Storm being practice loaded for transport. 

 

The Kids are going to love this

Took me about 30 minutes to roll this 12 foot long bad boy out and put the three pieces together. 

Just for fun I took a picture with the original 20" box fan and 42" barn fan used for KidWind turbine testing in the past.

So lets go through the steps in putting this together. First I rolled out the 72" Fan unit.

Before I could go any further I needed to attache the chicken wire to the hog panel. This smaller mesh would protect the fan blades from any blades that break off should there be a turbine failure.

Then there was the little detail of sealing the joints between the Connector and the Fan. This was accomplished by stapling a 1/2" foam backer rod to the edge of the 1/2" MDO plywood.

With the backer rod in place you can see how this will seal the hinge joint area.

Now I rolled in the Platform. The Platform has a 2x4 cleat on the back side that will catch the bottom side of the Connector when it is folded down. The cleat stops the bottom side from going to the ground. 

Now the bottom side has been lowered and attached to the Platform. The top can be raised up and the sides can be folded out where they will be attached to the angle iron stops.

With the Connector and Platform in place it is time to bring on the Test Chamber. The height of the Platform brings the surface level with the Connector edge. 

The Test Chamber is placed on top of the Platform ready to be inserted into the Connector.

When the Test Chamber is in place the draw clamps are latched and an air tight seal is made.

And then the sides and top of the Test Chamber can be unfolded.

And there you have it. One Variable High Speed wind tunnel ready to be powered up. I brought up Don Tuescher from Tuescher Electric that is doing the work on the frequency drive control system to see it. He sets a high bar on safety and professionalism and I wanted to live up to his standards. His control panel and the interlocking safety system is of the highest order. Making the control panel look good and safe with a LOTO protocol was a must. He and his team rose to the challenge and then some. More details and pictures on this to come. 

 

Assembling the pieces

 

Here you can see the Test Chamber folded up and being matched up to the Connector. I added two 2X4 legs to the top piece to stabilize the Test Chamber when it is folded up. These legs can be removed after the two sections have been mated up. Two handles have been added for control and two adjustable draw clamps on each side. When they are latched they hold the two parts together.

It may be hard to see but a 2X2 stop piece has been added to the 3 frame sides and a piece of weather stripping added for a good air seal. Remember the Test Chamber slides into the Connector and the 2X2 acts as a stop.

Installing this little piece of 2X4 had to be the most difficult part of this entire job. The piece acts a support ledge for the bottom piece of the Connector. If not for this piece the bottom would go to the floor. making assembly more difficult. Crawling into this 12" high space was no picnic for this senior citizen.

But here it is assembled in all it's glory. Twelve feet of pure KidWind fun.

Here is the view from the exhaust end of the wind tunnel with the blade screen in place.

Would it dis-assemble and roll as planned? Yes indeed. After unclamping the Test Chamber I was able to roll it away. The clamps holding the Test Chamber to the Platform will be replaced with adjustable draw clamps soon. The Connector folded down and none of the clamps got in the way. The Test Chamber can be removed from the Platform and folded flat. Same goes for the platform. Then the two can be tied together with a ratchet strap and put on a furniture dolly for transport or storage.

Tomorrow I will roll the three parts, Fan with Connector, Platform and Test Chamber out in the driveway and make the assembly to see how it goes. Then it will be time to wire up the control panel and move some serious air!  

The Test Chamber

 

In the last post I had the Platform finished. The Platform is a level surface that is at the hight of the 4' opening in the Connector. The Test Chamber will sit on the Platform.

Following the plans for building a standard KW wind tunnel I first cut all the pieces to length.

For the assembly I use a Kreg tool to make the pocket holes for the screws. I highly recommend this method for assembly and worth the investment if you don't have one.

The hinges that hold the top on were inlet with a router so they sit flush to the surface. This way I did not need to notch the side pieces so that they clear the hinge spine when being closed.

Another change to the standard plans was for the side covering material but on the outside. The standard KW tunnel uses 4 mil clear plastic and this does just fine at 4 m/s wind velocity. However with the increase in wind velocity for this tunnel I will use 1/4" Lexan sheet material. I routed in a 1/4" deep rabbit on the inside of the sides. This will keep the side surface area smooth. And provide protection to by standards against blade failures. 

The top of the Test Chamber is made out of 3/4" MDO as I had a piece left over from the Platform. Assembly went well.

Hinges were attached on the inside of the pre-assembled sides. The frame was rotated so this could be done in the down position on the floor. The Test Chamber sides and top fold flat for easy transport and storage when not in use. 

Another big concern is for protecting the fan blades from any pieces of broken turbines. It has to be strong and fine mesh but not create a lot of resistance to the flow of the wind. My solution is to use a piece of cattle panel for strength and then cover it with chicken wire to make it fine mesh and not create a lot of wind resistance. It reminds me of the seen from the Blues Brother's movie when they are singing in the bar.

And then just when you least expect it you do this. On both sides no less. The draw clamp was supposed to clamp the top to the side. What a bone head move.

This way works a whole lot better.

And here we have the Test Chamber in place. Tomorrow I will be working to install gasket material on the joint connection areas to minimize any air leaks. Then I'll do some take down and assembly runs with it before we fire this bad boy up and get some wind velocity readings. 

 

 

The Platform

 

Here you can see a standard KW wind tunnel the has been raised up and plugged into the Connector. A solid Platform needs to be made to support it. That's todays project. Lets see how it goes.

So the next piece of the wind tunnel puzzle is the Platform. This part will allow the standard size KW wind tunnel to be raised up and centered in the wind stream from the 72" Mega Storm fan. No model for this just a sketch to go by. The Platform will strong and heavy being made out of 3/4" MDO plywood. It will also fold flat for shipping and storage.

After cutting all the necessary parts it was time for assembly. Here you can see the 2x2 pieces attached to the ends to allow for clearance of the sides when they are folded in. This is similar to the design of the Connector.

Oh and it was going so well. Every little thing counts. Here you can see that the side piece needs to be notched so as to clear the spine of the hinge when it closes. Good news is that now I know exactly where the notches need to go.

Not a big deal and a pretty easy fix.

Gees did not see this problem coming. The adjustable draw clamps that will hold the sides interfered with the hinge spine also. Had to move them. Lucky I tried the first one before I mounted all four.

So now the Platform has the lift wheels in place and is assembled.

No interference problems with the hinges and clamps.

There is a sequence that needs to be followed when folding down the sides so I may have to place numbers and notes to indicate that on the side pieces. Here the front and back have been folded and the first side covers them.

With the bottom folded up a ratchet strap will need to be put on to hold them in place so it can be put on a furniture dolly if you want to move it when folded for storage.

However, when the sides are down and clamped in place the casters can be raised and the Platform will be 3/4" off the floor. In this state it can be rolled into place. Once in place the Test chamber and Connector can be clamped together ready to go.

Just one more piece to go, the Test Chamber.