Posted by Too_Many_Tools on August 28, 2005, 10:49 pm
Using a pencil allows electrically conductive particles of graphite to
drift about the cabin in zero gravity...not a good thing when you are
living inside hundreds of electrical systems whose performance your
life depends on.
TMT
Posted by JoeSixPack on August 28, 2005, 11:14 pm
> Using a pencil allows electrically conductive particles of graphite to
> drift about the cabin in zero gravity...not a good thing when you are
> living inside hundreds of electrical systems whose performance your
> life depends on.
How about a big purple crayon?
Posted by wmbjk on August 29, 2005, 3:43 pm
wrote:
>> Actually, he's following the advice of experts. His plan is smart,
>> workable, and affordable. All he asked for was specific advice about
>> minimizing the cost of a tower. The fact is that if he's so inclined,
>> a trip to a good scrap yard and a Saturday's work will have him
>> collecting useful data.
>>
>Reminiscent of NASA spending millions to develop a ballpoint pen to work in
>zero gravity, when a pencil would have worked just fine.
Yes, scrap pipe and angle iron - the material of choice for all things
NASA. If only we could get them to read your posts. With all the
wisdom and the savings they could probably have a hydrogen-powered
ship on Mars by next Tuesday.
Wayne
Posted by WhyMe on September 1, 2005, 8:39 pm
wrote:
>wrote:
>>Thank you everyone who gave advice. I really need some! ;-)
>>
>>OK. I should build a tall tower that would hold the turbine and use it
>>to test the wind. But I'm looking for a cheap way to get a *fair*
>>reading of the wind where I live. I can't afford to lose money on
>>something that isn't feasable where I am. I already have looked at the
>>wind maps for my general area, 10-11 mph 5.5-6 m/s at 30 meters and
>>12-13 mph 5.5-13.4 m/s at 50 meters. But I want to log the information
>>at my site which is at the top of a hill. I bought a wind data logger
>>from http://www.inspeed.com the $99 PC connected data logger. If I put
>>up a temporary tower of 1 section of 20 foot pipe would that give me a
>>reasonable reading of the wind power on my land? I know the higher up
>>you go the more power and more stable the wind is. I just need to
>>satisfy myself that it is feasible where I live to install a wind
>>turbine.
>If you want to build a cheap temporary tower, here's one way - a
>hinged base, one stick of 2" schedule 40, and one stick of 1.5"
>schedule 40. That would give you 42'. Free standing will be bendy but
>OK, some guy wires would be nice at about the 30' level. Ideally you'd
>sleeve and weld the sticks together, but for temporary you can
>probably get away with using a threaded coupling and a bushing. A
>steel conduit-coupling might be better than a cast pipe-coupling. You
>could use angle iron (perhaps 3"X3/8") for the base (set in concrete),
>one 1/2" bolt for the hinge pin, and another to lock the tower in the
>up position.
>Here's a photo of a similarly constructed windsock tower.
>http://citlink.net/~wmbjk/images/windsock.JPG Sock is 18"X96", pole is
>close to 30' tall. It only bends a little in a stiff wind. The brace
>at the bottom doesn't hold anything up, it's attached to a
>counterweight so that I can raise and lower the pole by myself.
>Concrete is about 18" in diameter, 36" deep. I dug most of the hole
>using a powered chisel, which should give you some idea of the ground
>hardness. Better to pour the concrete into the bare hole than to
>backfill against a bucket.
>Wayne
I'm going to go with this plan. If it turns out wind power is worth it
on my land I can use the 2" pipe for the wind turbine. Thanks for the
great idea.
Posted by Nick Hull on August 31, 2005, 9:13 am
> I bought a wind speed data logging kit to see if wind power is worth
> it for my area. I'd like to build a cheap temporary tower 40-60 feet
> high. My plan is to put the pipe in a 5 gallon bucket fill it with
> concrete and then bury the bucket in the earth. I would also use guy
> wires every 15-20 feet connected to screw in earth anchors. Could
> someone suggest what pipe I could use for this temporary tower? Is
> this a good plan for a temporary tower?
Since I have lots of 30-40' bamboo, I'd make a bamboo tower, much like
bamboo scaffolding.
--
Free men own guns, slaves don't
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> drift about the cabin in zero gravity...not a good thing when you are
> living inside hundreds of electrical systems whose performance your
> life depends on.