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Windmill Kit, no longer supplied..  

 

Bearing Plate Assembly

Remove any burrs and rust from steelwork. We use a laser to cut the steel in the windmill kit. Lasercutting leaves a loose flaky metal layer on the cut edge, so use a wire brush to remove.



Using a g-clamp, clamp the bearing plate, front and rear bearing plates as shown, and weld together. The design of the parts makes it next to impossible to miss-align, but check all is square before welding.

  

Remember you can click on all the images to see full size.

Fully weld all corners. There may be some buckling from the heat of welding. If so use a vice and shifter/hammer to make the assembly square. The rear bearing plate is the most critical. The front bearing plate holds a floating bearing and housing, which will self adjust to any imperfections and therefore does not need to be square.

Click for full size

Drill a 4mm hole through the 16mm dia rod, approx 10mm from one end, This is the split pin hole to keep the tail in place.

Next clamp and weld the tail axle assembly to the bearing plate as shown.

You now have a finished bearing plate.




The platform can now be painted. Be sure to remove any welding slag or spikes first with a file/wire brush. I recommend a good quality metal paint such as KillRust.

Weld the 100mm and 1000mm long pipes to the tail bracket as shown. The windmill kit may be supplied with galvanised pipe, when welding galvanised pipe you should always grind the gal coating back to steel and only weld in a well ventilated area as the fumes are toxic. I recommend some sort of breathing air filtration.

Note. The 1000mm long pipe is NOT supplied with the windmill kit. The cost of transport for this length of tube far outweighed the actual cost of the pipe itself. You should be able to pick up a length of pipe for less than $10.

Some pipe has an internal seam that may need filling/drilling to allow the pipe to slide over the 16mm rod. Once in place the tail arm should swing freely.

 


Once the paint has dried you can bolt on the F&P stator

First grab a stator retaining plate and 6mm Bolts.

Next the stator and other retaining plate.


Click for full size

Tap the bearing into the stator.

 

Slide on the bearing plate. If this is too tight, remove the bearing from the stator and tap the bearing into the bearing plate until flush, then put back into stator as shown.

Place the bearing retainer plate. The "Gap" is to clear the welding on the platform.

Bolt the stator onto the platform as shown. Use lock washers and /or locktight.

 

Slide in the F&P drive shaft from the back. The front end of the shaft has the longer spline and will mesh with our propeller, the shorter back spline meshes with the F&P magnet hub.
Fit and tighten the shaft nut. Use Locktight to secure..
Slide the shaft forward as far as it will go.

The front bearing comes as two parts, the bearing and carrier. These need to be assembled, which is easy once you know how ( It took me a while to work it out!)

The bearing goes in from the back of the carrier. You need to pop the bearing in at right angles to the carrier, and align with the two slots.
Once in, rotate the bearing...
...untill it is home. A little grease will help and prevent rust.
Make sure the grub screws on the bearing are facing out, as shown.

Slide on the main bearing and bolt to the platform using the 12mm bolts, lock washers and bolts.

Tighten the 2 grub screws onto the shaft, and pump some grease into the grease nipple.

Test that the shaft spins freely. Temporarily screw on the F&P magnet hub. Check again that nothing is binding. Note - there will be a normal "cogging" as you spin the hub. Also be careful of the electrical connections as these will be live as you spin the hub. Remove the magnet hub.



Next - Propeller Blades