Extending the blade spars

The blades are "done" and fiberglassed. They still need to be painted and sanded, but I decided to go ahead and extend the spars for mounting in our existing hub. Had I been a little smarter, I would have left them sticking out a bit further to begin with, but the extensions will really beef up the roots - so I don't mind.

Next I'll add the fiberglass sleeves over the spar roots so they slide perfectly into the hub and bearing races. After that we'll have to increase the gear size on the rear axle fairly substantially for the upwind runs. Then I'll add a chain guide up top to keep the chain from coming off the upper chain wheel (since it will now be running in the other direction), some minor trailer repair, and then head out to the runway at New Jerusalem on a windy day.

We're still shooting to do some unofficial runs in the next few weeks.

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.