Here are a couple of
pictures from Pete Ganze. As you can see the "Ametek"
pivot can be used even with a large motor as long as you have a large
enough tail/vane to counter-balance it.
Pete has put some large
blades on his unit to capture the low wind speed he has at his location.
Here are a couple of pictures
from Bryan Rossel. He also managed to talk me out of some of my
prototype adaptor plates.
He didn't like having the
pivot bearing surface to be just a plain washer so he modified his unit to
accept a ball bearing. Even the slightest breeze makes this unit
turn into the wind. I'm not sure that a larger tail/vane would work
just as well.
Here are a couple of pictures
from Richard Kmett. Talk about fancy paint jobs!! I've never
seen anything quite like this.
Take note that Richard is
using an Ametek 99 motor. If you look close you will see that this
is mounted above the standard "Ametek" pivot on a special
adaptor plate. Richard managed to talk me out of a couple of my
prototypes.
Here
are some pictures sent in by one of my satisfied customers. Bob
Crowley. I'm happy to say there are now dozens and dozens of these
"Ametek Pivots" out in the world. And I do mean
world. I have sent some to Norway, Portugal, France, England, and
even Canada, not to mention the foreign country of California. (some
of those people are different, but that's what makes the world go round)
I
have to admit that Bob has a really good looking unit here. The tail
looks especially sharp. I would like him to use the "pipe
spacer" method to clamp the front adaptor plate to the pivot. I
think it would make it more rigid. He claims his stainless steel all
thread are very strong. I saw this picture first and thought his
"Genny" was balanced from that single wire. My first
thought was that his tail was way too light. After seeing the top
picture I realized that he had two wires holding it.
Hanging
the unit from a wire strung through the mast thru hole would be a good way
to check the balance of the tail verses the motor/blades. You could
then add or subtract weight from the tail to get the proper balance.
This does not have to be exact.
Alan
Brinkmann submitted this picture. He is using metal blades
with good success.
A
different windmill by Alan Brinkmann. Here he is using a two to one
gear and sprocket setup to increase the speed of his generator. Its
quite amazing just how creative some people can be.
Here
is a picture of one of my units prior to any weatherproofing.
Please note the pipe spacers. If you have pictures that you are
willing to share, I would love to post them here.