Built in a day

They were surplus, and we can't get any more. We do

have other magnets that could be used with a little
adaptation of the design....check out NdFeB magnets
on our

This page is all about a rather silly, quick project where

in about 1 day I built a small wind generator using the
following items, and nothing else....
(1) Wood
(2) Copper wire
(3) Surplus Neodymium magnets
(4) Dirt
(5) 10" piece of 3/8" steel shaft
(6) Two bolts, but these are optional.
...and that's all, unless we count glue, and linseed oil
which I used for finishing. Initially the project started
out to simply be an alternator experiment. Once I had
the armature finished and a couple of the coils wound
on the stator, I realized it was definitely going to be a
successful one, so I decided to build it into a small wind
generator. Mostly simple tools were used, although a
band saw, wood lathe, and drill press came in pretty
handy.

Pictured above is one of the magnets I used. These are

surplus magnets from computer hard drives, one of
my favorites for alternator experiments. They are
about 1.75" long, 1.4" wide, and a quarter of an inch
thick. 8 of them will fit together to make a ring. We no
longer have these magnets in stock. They were surplus,
they are sold out, and we can't get any more. But this
design could easily be adapted to use different size or
shape NdFeB magnets.
Above you can see the armature for the alternator. I
simply laminated wood until I felt it was thick enough
to hold the magnets securely. After they were glued
together, I lathed the armature down to match the
diameter of a ring of 8 magnets, I cut a slot so the
magnets could be pressed/glued in. Epoxy is probably
the best glue for this. In the center I drilled a hole and
glued/pressed in the 3/8" diameter shaft. Keep in
mind, this alternator has 8 poles, and the magnets
must have alternating poles facing out.
Pictured above you see the wooden pillow block
bearings. I simply drilled a hole, slightly under 3/8"
diameter, and then using a gas stove, heated the shaft
to almost red hot, and forced it through the holes. This
makes for a good tight fit, and it serves to harden the
wood, and the inside of the holes has a layer of carbon,
which makes for a better bearing. These bearings are
from pine, certainly a harder wood would work much
better! In the top of the pillow blocks I drilled a small
hole so that the bearings could be oiled/greased. Once
the alternator was assembled, there was no play in the
shaft at all, and it turned freely. Even after several
hours of hard running, the bearings are holding up
well. It's interesting information, although I would
certainly encourage anybody building a windmill to use
steel ball bearings. I just did wooden ones for the sake
of fun, and simplicity. Odds are, on a slow running
machine, like a slow water wheel, wooden bearings,
properly made could last for years. This is actually a
high speed windmill and I should think these would
wear out quickly.
The stator, on which the coils are wound was cut from
two pieces of 2" X 4" lumber. The inner diameter is 1/2"
larger than that of the armature, and to the sides are
thin plywood pieces with holes drilled for winding the
coils. Inner diameter of the plywood pieces is only
slightly larger than the diameter of the armature. This
allowed for "hollow coils" into which I would have a
"dirt" core to attract the magnetic field through the
coils. These coils are wound with #22 AWG enameled
copper wire, each coil is 100 turns. The coils are wound
in opposite directions.
I dragged a magnet around in the dirt of my driveway,
so that it would attract the magnetite sand. Pictured
above you can see the pile I used, with a stack of
magnets demonstrating its magnetic properties.

The dirt was mixed with epoxy, so that I had a thick

paste. I simply spooned it inside the hollow space in
the stator. This makes for a reasonable core, and
although it does not work nearly as well as steel
laminates, it's much easier. Making steel laminates is a
nearly impossible task without significant time and
tooling. The magnetite paste does a good job of
attracting the magnetic field, and is non-conductive so
eddy currents are not a problem.

The completed alternator! I was real surprised by the

performance. I could easily spin it up with my fingers
to produce over 12 volts. Attaching a cordless drill to
the shaft, it would light up a 25 watt 12 volt light bulb
easily! Although this may not seem breath taking, I
thought it was, considering the simplicity of the
project! It was at this point I decided it deserved a
windmill for testing!
To stay with the "style" of the project I decided to build
the whole windmill out of wood, it's a fairly simple
design and should be self explanatory. It's glued and
pinned, with wooden dowels, no bolts are used except
to bolt the alternator on it. I cheated there.
The prop is wooden, made from 1" X 4" lumber. Each
blade is 3.5" wide at the base, 2.5" at the tip, and 2'
long, for a total diameter of 4 feet. The pitch of the
blade is 10 degrees at the hub, and 6 degrees at the
tip. The hub is simply made from 2" thick wood, and
glued to the shaft with epoxy. The blades are held on
by one small nut at the end of the shaft, and several
wooden pins. So far its held up well! Hope I never feel
like taking it apart, because it would be nearly
impossible...

So there it is, all finished up! I took it for a test drive in

the model A Ford. I didn't want to break it, so I never
took it over 25 miles per hour, but it seems to perform
well (considering). In a 25 mph wind it produces about
60 watts (5 amps into a 12 volt battery), so I think I can
give it an optimistic rating of 100 watts...not bad for a 1
day project made entirely of wood. Obviously, it's not
made to hold up over the long term, it was merely a
fun little test, but I think the alternator provides some
interesting data. I feel pretty sure now that with little
work one could definitely build a very useful alternator
completely from scratch. By simply increasing the
diameter some one could get a LOT more output from
a very similar machine. Of course, using better
bearings would be wise, but I like the use of wood,
because it is a material which is widely available, and
easily worked with the simplest of tools. Thanks for
dropping in and letting me show off this silly windmill!