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with ordinary pipe fittings—with a clockwise thread like all
other normal fittings. And it was just the combination of the
anti-clockwise rotation and the right-handed screw thread that per
definition resulted in the T-fitting “rotor hub” screwing itself loose
from the rotor shaft. This risk did not occur to me until one day
when I wanted to look into the efficiency of the rotor in hard wind.
Suddenly, as I was measuring and applying load to the rotor, the
torque of the shaft dropped drastically, and in one clear-sighted
moment I realised what was wrong. I was just in time to let go of
the measuring system and fall down behind the wagon before the
rotor screwed itself completely loose, executed a fine gyro-pirouette
and hit the wagon with a bang. Fortunately nothing hit me on my
head, but the rotor never made another run.
9.3
The Price of a Wind turbine Is One Krone
per Kilogram
The measured efficiency of the 3 m rotor seemed promising, and
backed by my experiments I began to build a real wind turbine in
the spring of 1977. This wind turbine should also have sail wings.
Although I had still some money left over from my months of work
during the previous year, I had far from enough money to build a
decent-sized wind turbine from new components, so like so many
other do-it-yourself wind turbine builders I had to use recycled
parts. That was no sacrifice, by the way, as it is a special pleasure
to track down second-hand parts that might be used in your
own project. I found most of the components at the local scrap
dealers, and I really felt a chill along my spine when suddenly
in a corner behind all the trash, I caught sight of something that
might be a candidate for part of the many systems of a wind
turbine—brake, yaw system, etc. The scrap yard price was almost
always fixed, 1 Krone per kilogram, so the price even of a do-it-
yourself wind turbine could, as a rule of thumb be determined
with great precision by weighing it. Owing to the military service
nothing much happened on my project from May 1977 to
February 1978. In return, quite a lot happened just after my
disbandment.
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