Homemade Wind Power-Part II

Take your two buckets and take the lids off and remove the handles. Now set one bucket upside down on your work bench and set the other bucket right side up on the bottom of that bucket so they are bottom to bottom. To make sure that they are aligned perfectly and remain that way while you are working, wrap a piece of duct tape around them. Now reach into the top bucket and drill eight equally spaced, three sixteenth or quarter inch holes around the bottoms about a half inch in from the sides. Next, attach the two buckets together using machine screws, washers and nuts in each hole. Next we need to find some vanes. These need to be about six inches wide and long enough to go the length of the smooth area of the double bucket. Something like uncorrugated galvanized roofing works well. Cut eight pieces to size, six inches wide by the correct length for your unit. Clamp the eight pieces together and drill six holes through the pile about one inch from one dege. These holes can be three sixteenth or quarter in holes. Now get yourself two heavier pieces of metal, (quarter inch or more), at least the length of the vanes. One at a time, put each vane between the two pieces and clamp in a vise. You will want the edge with the holes between the metal and you will want two inches of the vane between the plates with four inches sticking out. Bend each one of the vanes to a ninety degree angle. You now have eight pieces of bent sheet metal in an "L" shape, two inches by four inches. You have six holes in each vane and they should be spaced so that three holes are for each bucket. Before drilling the holes in the bucket, decide which way you want the bucket to turn. Our alternator will only produce electricity when spinning one way and will be ruined by spinning backward. You will need the vane unit to be spinning in the opposite direction of the alternator. If you alternator needs to turn clockwise, your vane unit needs to turn counter clockwise. The leg of each vane should be pointing in the opposite way you want the vane unit to turn. Now using the vanes a jigs, drill holes in the buckets and attach the vanes using machine screws, washers and lock nuts. Now you will need to bend the vanes some more. They need to be bent to about a forty-five degree angle over the two inch leg that is screwed to the bucket. The reason for not bending them all the way in the vise is that it makes them almost impossible to attach. All vanes should now be facing one way and be bent to the correct angle. You can now put the lid back onto the top bucket but leave the bottom lid off yet. To be continued.