Tuesday, August 2, 2011

The turbine blades get glassed

Both blades now have a couple of coats of 3 oz fiberglass. One more coat and it'll be time to fill and sand them for the best finish I can manage. They're no work of art, but because of the CNC machined cores, and now having a little more experience with fiberglass, they're coming out significantly better than the first set.

Soon I'll be fitting these blades to the hub that held the prop blades for going directly downwind.



I built a new table for fabricating the turbine blades from the CNC cut foam cores. This part of the project moves back into my garage since it doesn't need the space for a 23' tall vehicle.

The foam cores are bonded to carbon windsurfing masts with epoxy resin before sanding and fiberglassing.