Maintenance

This little turbine has been working well and been up for about 9 months now. It semed a good time to get it down off the pole and repaint it before the wooden parts started to rot. The wooden stator mount was starting to dry out and definately needed some attention. On inspection, it was apparent that the blades had held up well although a new coat of varnish would not go amiss. The metal frame was starting to show signs of rust in places and was ready for repainting.

I had my willing helper do the varnishing while I did the painting although this time there had been a request for music-in-the-workplace. So one sunny Sunday afternoon, the whole machine was spruced up to the sound of the 'three little pigs' although we did stop when we got to the scary bit.

My littl girl did a great job and it was not long before it was time to raise the turbine again as it had been off the pole for a week now. That is when disaster struck. I had the turbine mounted on the end of the pole which was balanced on an upturned rubbish bin (as usual) while i reconnected the wiring. Then it fell off, landed on one blade and snapped it in 3. A few expletives were to escape my lips!

The blades have served me really well and now I've broken them by just being careless, especially after my 3 year-old had spent so much time varnishing them. I am very disappointed. They take a long time to make so it seems that my little turbine will be off-line for some time now. As it turns out, I had just finished the larger 200Watt turbine (although not painted) so it may be time to replace my 12 Watt machine for good and put it into retirement.

12 Watt Wind Turbine: RIP 22-06-2008