Your homemade wind generator must be able to spin freely to face the wind at all times. The horizontal axis that the hub assembly sits on, must interact with the vertical axis of the tower in such a way that they are held secure, but will also spin to meet the wind direction.

You can use a simple bungee cord mounted between the pipe and the body of the generator to keep it from spinning around erratically and twisting up your charging wires. With a bit of plumbing supplies and some ABS (or PVC) pipe we can accomplish this goal quite quickly.

First we will assume that at the top of your tower is a vertical section of pipe. Your entire tower might be steel pipe that you have managed to find. Use at least 2 inch pipe for this purpose.

On top of this pipe, the wind generator assembly must sit, and be able to spin. We usually mount a simple flange assembly on the body of the wind generator for the pipe to fit into. Make sure that the flange holds at least 3 inches of the pipe from the tower, and that it will move easily. We do at times weld a 10 inch piece of pipe onto the flange for strength. It really depends on the wind generator size.

If you are building a wind generator more than 6 feet in blade diameter then add some more strength to the flange for safety.

The body of your homemade wind generator

First off locate a piece of ABS or PVC pipe that the DC motor would fit snugly into. This will depend on the size of the motor, but most will fit inside of a piece of 6 inch pipe quite nicely.

Cut the piece of pipe 2 inches longer than the DC motor. Next, you will fill the blade assembly end with a piece of wood with a hole cut in the centre so that the shaft of the motor can extend out. The shaft has to connect to the blade assembly eventually.

Before you put the DC motor inside this permanent weather shield you will need to attach the 3 inch flange to this piece of pipe. Keep the flange mount as close to the blade assembly as is practical. Consult with the Tilt-up assembly drawing below to make sure you get this part right.

Remember, the blade assembly is very heavy and you will want to balance the whole affair atop the pipe from the tower. A bit of experimentation will be necessary to achieve balance.

You should be able to find PVC fittings to reduce the 6 inch pipe that houses the DC motor down to a 3 inch pipe for the tail assembly. Attach the two together. A tail length of about 2 to 3 feet is quite adequate.

In our next post we will discuss how to build the tail.

If you want a complete blueprint on how to build a home made wind generator, check this site: Build a Homemade Wind Generator