Well, better late than never...here's the update on the project as promised
These are the last two images of 'Mk I' taken before a rather unfortunate incident..
At this point, the cardboard blade-unit had been thoroughly covered in varnish to waterproof, then a layer of clay applied to take out the 'steps'
of the profile to give a smooth surface...this stage went as well as expected, with the clay adhering well and left to dry til
'leather-hard'...there were only very fine hairline cracks in the surface of the clay and could now be worked-on with pottery scrapers to give a
final almost glass-smooth surface to the touch...
This is the point where it all went horribly wrong...
To test the casting process of the blade surface before getting
really mucky with fibreglass and resin, I applied a layer of clingfilm over the
outside surface that was to be cast and used ModRoc (plaster-of-paris impregnated gauze bandage) to see how the final shape would look in fibreglass.
As it was a gloroiusly sunny and humid day, I left the whole thing sitting out in the sun to dry for a few hours whilst I went for a walk, and as I
was out on my wander a torrential summer-thunderstorm broke. By the time I got back, the whole thing was a sorry looking pile of sodden cardboard and
clay
and fit for nothing but the bin
'Annoyed' doesn't even begin to describe how I felt...and the OED now have plenty of newly-invented swear-words for their dictionary
Not to be defeated though, I've refined the design, and will be using the dual neodymium magnet-rotor alternator assembly from Hugh Piggott's HAWT
turbine design rather than drill-motors, and a wire-meshed rotor-blade design
thanks to all posters for their input too...watch this space!
