10' Wind Turbine construction, Carving the

blades
 Carving the Blades

The blades are perhaps the Homebrew

most important part of our Wind Power by
wind turbine - they are the Dan Bartmann
‘engine’ that drives our and Dan
generator. These wind Fink.The best
book out there
turbine blades have a simple about building
airfoil and when finished and flying do-it-
they’ll look (and work) a bit yourself wind
like airplane wings. This turbines. We
design is a simple one. It’s a know, because
we wrote it!
compromise we made Order it from our
keeping the following things Online Store
in mind: efficiency, strength, HERE.
cost and availability of
This page is one of a series that were
materials, and ease of
construction. the nucleus for our new
book,Homebrew Wind Power
Before you start a few terms
should be defined. The 'tip' .
of the blade is the end that's Everything here is pretty much correct, and
at the very outer diameter - you can build a successful, reliable and quiet
farthest away from the 10 foot diameter wind turbine from the free
alternator. The ‘front’ of the information on these pages.
blade is the surface that faces
towards the wind, it’s flat But--please note that as of January 1,
and angled a bit. The ‘back’ 2009 we are no longer updating these free
of the blade is facing away plans here!
from the wind and it’s
rounded in shape. The ‘Root’ We have made numerous postings on
is the inside of the blade, our Discussion Board about things we do
closest to the hub and the differently from this wind turbine design
alternator. The ‘Leading now, and our book Homebrew Wind
Edge’ is the edge of the Power goes into much more detail about all
blade that gets there first (if aspects of building wind turbines from
it were an airplane wing then scratch, including revisions to this page. The
the leading edge is the front new blog for our
of the wing). The ‘trailing book, HomebrewWind.com, is where you'll
edge’ is the edge is the edge find our latest updates, thoughts, corrections
of the blade that gets there of errors in the book, rants, raves, CAD
last (if it were an airplane drawings, videos, and random bits about
wing it would be the back building wind turbines.
edge of the wing). The
‘Pitch’ of the blade is the angle between the surface of the front of the
blade, and the plane of the blade’s rotation. It changes over the length of
the blade. The Chord of the blade is the width (the distance between the
leading edge and the trailing edge) and it gets less (the blade gets
 narrower) as the diameter gets larger. The thickness of the blade is the
thickness at the ‘fattest’ point in the airfoil.

The simplest material to build your blades from is common pine, or fir 2 x
8 lumber. Typically a planed 2 x 8 is 7.5 inches wide and 1.5” thick, so the
plan is based upon that. Pine and fir have good strength to weight
characteristics. Very hard, or very soft woods should be avoided. The very
best choice is probably clear (knot free) Sitka Spruce, but it’s expensive
and hard to find. Most lumber yards have perfectly acceptable material.
Generally you should use conifers although the very lightest ones might be
too weak. I would avoid Redwood. The wood should be dry and as knot
free as possible. Often times we build ours from laminated Red Western
Cedar 2 x4’s, but that adds an extra step and it’s not necessary - but it does
make for a strong, lightweight blade. Whatever you find, you need 3
boards about 7.5 inches wide, 1.5 inches thick and 60 inches (5 feet) long. 

There are a variety of tools you could use. A draw knife is almost a must
have. Chisels, hammers, sand paper, planes and other wood
working/carving tools are handy. Some of the work at the beginning of the
project involves removing large pieces of the board and a band saw is very
useful - but not necessary. A hand held power planer is nice but hand
planes work almost as well and they’re much quieter and more peaceful to
work with. This whole project can be done fairly easily with hand tools
only.

The instructions will describe how to carve a single blade. You need to
make three of them. We suggest you make all three at one time rather than
making one at a time. There are several operations involved, it’s better to
do one operation to each blade and work them all along together, they’ll
come out more alike that way. If you perform an operation on one blade…
do it to the other two before you move along to the next step.

Find a some lumber!

(For all the CAD images on this page right click on them, and select 'veiw
image' to see the full sized drawing)

Start with three 2 x 8 boards, 7.5 inches wide, 1.5 inches thick and 60
inches (5 feet) long. Hopefully its free (or mostly free of knots). Try to
pick lumber with nice straight grain, the more vertical the better.

Cut out the shape of the blades

 Pictured above is the shape of the blades. You can see how the blade is
tapered. At the tip (radius = 60 inches) its 3 inches wide. At the half way
point (Radius = 30 inches) it’s 6 inches wide. Draw a line between those
two points and extend it to where it meets the edge of the board (this will
be somewhere around radius 14 inches but it can vary depending on the
width of your lumber) . You can either make a template and trace it onto
all three blades, or just lay it out on one blade and cut out the profile, then
trace it to the other three. Cut out the blades with a band saw, circular saw
or whatever you happen to have available.
Pictured above is detail of the root of the blade. This drawing will help you
with the layout. You need a 120 deg angle at the root so all three blades fit
together tightly. Lay this out on all three blades and cut them out.

Taper the thickness of the blade

As the blade gets narrower towards the tip it also gets thinner. The picture
above shows how to taper the thickness of the board. The top of the image
is the front of the blade and you don’t taper that part. All the material is
removed from the bottom of the blade. The edge view is looking at the
board from the leading edge, the ’end’ view shows the cross section of the
blade (white) and the scrap (darkened) at the tip, R= 30 inches and R= 12
inches. It’s better to be too thick than too thin at this point - be sure not to
get things too thin or the blade will be weakened. The dimensions we give
for thickness in the drawing are the absolute minimum.
 Getting the board thickness right with a band saw

A band saw is probably the best tool for cutting the board thickness. Give
yourself room for slop - don’t crowd the line. When cutting this with a
band saw its possible the board will not be perfectly square with the table
and it’s easy to get different thickness on one side than the other so give
yourself room! The band saw is useful for removing most of the scrap.
After that it’s best to finish the job with a hand plane or a power planer.
 Calipers work well for making sure you’ve got the thickness right
throughout the length and width of the blade. If you don’t have a band saw
the whole job can be done with a plane or planer (or even a draw knife) - it
just takes longer and makes more mess. When finished the back of the
blade should be smooth, and square with the sides.

Carve the pitch on the front of the blade

At the tip of the blade the pitch is about 3 deg. At the center (R=30 inches)
it’s about 6 deg. Near the root, where we stop carving it’s as steep as our
board will allow. The drawings do not discuss the angle of pitch,. Instead
they show the amount of wood that must be removed from the blade along
the trailing edge. The image might seem a bit confusing. In the image
(center, end view) you‘re looking at the leading edge of the blade, and the
darkened area is the material that must be removed from the trailing edge.
Turn your unfinished blade around so you’re looking at the trailing edge,
and measure down from the front of blade and make marks at R=12
inches, R=30 inches and at the tip(R=60 inches). At R=12 inches you’ll be
removing all but 1/8 inch of the wood from the board. (in other words the
pitch will be so steep here that it occupies almost the full board thickness,
you leave 1/8” only for a bit of strength). At R=30” you need to measure
down from the top of the board 5/8 inch. At the tip measure down 5/32”
and make your mark there. Then connect the dots and you’ll have a line
along the trailing edge of the blade to carve down to. To carve the pitch of
the blade you’ll be carving between two lines. One is the one you just
drew along the trailing edge, the other is the leading edge of the blade (the
corner between the front of the blade and the leading edge). Do not disturb
that corner of the board, but use it as a line. The ‘edge view’ images in the
picture show this fairly well.
 Curfing the blade with a saw and knocking out chunks with a chisel

Things get a little different as you approach the root. If you look at the
image the carving stops near the root of the blade, you need to draw a line
here as shown in the image past which you’ll not be carving anymore. The
exact shape and location of this is not critical, but it’s nice to make all
three blades the same. Best is to make a template for this and trace it onto
all three blades. As the carved surface approaches this line (near the root)
it will taper up to full board thickness.
 roughing out the front of the blade with a drawknife

Once you get started it should all seem fairly easy. A draw knife is a great
tool for removing lots of wood fast. A hand plane, or a power planer also
make pretty quick work of things. Near the root, where the carving is deep
and it tapers out into the thickness of the board it’s sometimes best to cut
lots of slots between the lines with a hand saw (one every inch or so) and
then remove the wood between the slots with a chisel and mallet. One
you‘ve carved down right to the line, smooth and flatten the surface with a
plane and/or sand paper. Use a straight edge between the leading and
trailing edges - the blade should be flat.

Carving the back of the blades

All that’s left to finish the job is to carve the airfoil profile on the back side
of the blades. As a rule the thickest part of the airfoil is always 1/3 of the
way back from the leading edge. (in other words, the blade is 3 inches
wide at the tip, so the fattest part of the airfoil will be one inch back from
the leading edge, at R=30 inches the blade is 6 inches wide so the fattest
part of the airfoil will be 2 inches back from the leading edge). Another
general rule is that the airfoil is about 1/8 as thick as it is wide. This ratio
changes gradually as you approach the root so that at near the root it’s
about 1/6 as thick as it is wide. This is not terribly critical so long as
you’re close, but you never want to be less than 1/8 as thick as you are
wide. At the tip the blade is 3 inches wide, so the thickest part of the airfoil
should be about 3/8 inch thick. Anything between about 3/8 inch and 1/2
inch will be OK at the tip, it should not be more or less than that though.
 working the back of the blade with a drawknife

A drawknife is a good tool for roughing out the back side of the blade. It
also moves along very quickly with a hand plane or a power planer.

carving the airfoil with a power planer

So turn the blade over so you’re looking at the back. At R=12 inches
measure back 1/3 of the way from the leading edge to the trailing edge (the
blade is 7.5 inches wide at this point so measure back 2.5 inches from the
leading edge) and mark it. Do the same thing at the tip (it’s 3 inches wide
so measure back 1 inch). Draw a straight line between the marks. This line
marks the thickest part of the airfoil and it should never be disturbed, it’s
the one place on the back of the blade where you’ll do no carving.
Between this line and the leading edge you need to carve a nice rounded
surface as shown in the ‘end views’ in the image. Between the line and the
trailing edge it could be slightly rounded but almost a flat surface. As with
all other steps, it’s best to do one operation to each blade so they come out
the same. I find that even a change in mood can affect your final work, so
it’s good work along all three blades at the same time. Once you have this
roughed out then finish it with sand paper. The leading edge of the blade
should be rounded . There should be no sharp surface between the front of
the blade and the back of the airfoil. As the airfoil approaches the root of
the blade (around R=12 inches) is should just taper out to the original
profile of the board. This area involves some concave surfaces which are
impossible to do with a plane. Best is to use a draw knife or a spoke shave.
The trailing edge should be brought down fairly thin (about 1/16 inch) and
fairly sharp. Ideally it should be very sharp, but you don’t want to make it
so thin that it’s very fragile. Now all you have left is to assemble the
blades. We’ll discuss that in the next section.