Wind Generator Shakes Boat

[donradclife]

Take the wind gen down in the cabin where there is no wind and spin it to see if all blades are perpendicular to the shaft so the tips track within 1/16", If they don't track, either the hub is cocked or the blades are not right--this needs to be fixed before you go on to the balancing.

Hold the shaft horizontal and and spin repeatedly in both directions to see if one blade always ends up down or if the direction reverses as the unit stops spinning. If your hub looks out of balance, swap blades around to see if it is the hub or the blades which are the issue. If it is the blades, trimming the heavy one with a sander is better and easier than adding tip weights. Adding weights to the hub is not going to fix the problem unless the hub is wildly out of balance.

[apogee1mars]

It sounds like a blade track problem from here. Get some different color crayons and wax up the very tip of the blades while mounted on the hub. Chuck the hub and spin up the blades to operational RPM so the plane of the blades are parallel to the work surface (table). Take a piece of any stiff 1/2" round stock that is longer than the height of the rotating blades when one end of the stock is on the work surface. Slowly advance the stock into the rotating tips making slight contact with all rotating tips. Look at the color transfer on the stock at point of impact and see if any of the blades are OUT OF TRACK. If not and all are balanced something is bent.

[Undadar]

Originally Posted by apogee1mars

Get some different color crayons and wax up the very tip of the blades while mounted on the hub. Chuck the hub and spin up the blades to operational RPM so the plane of the blades are parallel to the work surface (table). Take a piece of any stiff 1/2" round stock that is longer than the height of the rotating blades when one end of the stock is on the work surface. Slowly advance the stock into the rotating tips making slight contact with all rotating tips. Look at the color transfer on the stock at point of impact and see if any of the blades are OUT OF TRACK.

Excellent Tip!! Thanks for sharing that.

JdFinley.com | Sailing, software development, and life…
You can observe a lot just by watching.

[MacGyverRI]

Tire shops also use sticky lead weight tape for balancing motorcycle and aluminum car rims.