Week 3: theturbinator

Can you feel it?  A crisp breeze runs across the tips of the meadow up to your face.

Sit still and let the chill of fall tickle you as you watch the sky.  The blushing horizon

melts to bold darkness, looming over you with its black star-freckled face.  And you are alive.

Come with us.  

Part 1: Windmill takes a turn for the worst! ...or... no turn at all

Sad to say our beautifully built, followed the the online plans, sturdy windmill is not turning out as well as we had hoped.  If we had access to consistent gale force winds maybe it would be ideal. We plan to put a new spin on the blade design in the future but till then we will give what we have a whirl. ;-)

        We were able to simulate hurricane force winds with this fan and it spun fairly well!

The wind sounds louder than it was.  Honest.

It really wasn't that bad and we do have some cool ideas about other blade designs.  Including using all natural elements and sheet tin.  Both materials are commonly found in developing nations.   

Here is how we made it:

     Paul cut out a plywood doughnut while Caleb and John Cannaday made the rest of the blades.

   

Next we bolted the blades to a plastic wheel using the the plywood doughnut and six small scrap PVC sections:

The Turbinator strikes again!

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After working on the turbine we broke for supper and took a little dip in the river.  That water gets just a little colder every week... but we get more and more used to just plunging in, so it evens out.

Part 2:  Cob Dance and Power of Hotness (continued)

Cob Dance 

Caleb was flying solo on this mission but didn't mind

having more elbow room to do the dance. 

"It is nice to not have too many Engineers in the

kitchen." He says with a smile as he slaps a ball

of cob on to the Sawdust stove.

If the cob dries enough we should be able to test

our new Sawdust stove out next week!

The Power of Hotness: or "The Solar Story and The Project of the Peltier Junctions (pardon my french)." (continued)

Paul, the bright man that he is, rigged up both of 

these solar cooking contraptions. The one on the left

is made from an emergency blanket, cardboard, and

tape. The one on the right is made from tinfoil , 

cardboard, and tape.

"Ya got ta get 'em out of the Shadows Paul!"

We will be exploring the realms of solar cooking

over the next few weeks so this is just a glimpse of 

what is to come... Our goal is to boil a small pot of 

water in under 15 minuets using only heat from the sun.

Paul tested out different sections of a rocket stove for

ideal P.J. locations. (see Week 2 for more details) 

Lighting the fire proved to be the hardest part!

Thanks for coming with us!  You really should see the

 stars out there!  God is awesome!

-Next week we hope to fire up the Sawdust stove

and start another of Caleb's projects involving 

natural adhesives.  So, stick with us!

Lots of dogs howling in the distaince... Kinda freaked us out.