axial flux pma help

That is sweet thanks for sharing! I wish there were people like you guys near me to help me. That is a gear box on it correct? What ratio did you have to run? I would have to run about 2.7 times your ratio for the VAWT as you probably know. The power losses do to gear leverage I think I have learned I have to avoid. I am back to shooting now for maximizing performance at average winds speeds. There is new technology for turbines coming soon using MPPT anyway which you probably know more about than me but then you can run at really high voltages. That is when I bet the VAWT really takes off. My welds broke on my axle system once and the drums came tumbling down. I feel for you. I engineered no weld axles now. I think that eventually VAWT will be the way of the future. I know mine looks a little hillbilly but she is smooooooth for not being a precision machine. Lower speeds less dangers and maintenance issues. Quiet as a mouse. My axle system is the key feature of my turbine. It is self aligning. I am pretty confident I will get an acceptable matching motor for now until I go to an MPPT.

The gearbox was a common small engine PTO reducer type with a 6:1 ratio. All I did was re machine the end of the original geared crankshaft from the engine the gearbox came off of to fit over the shaft of a 2 HP 1800 RPM 120 VDC PM motor from a old electric floor polisher.

From there I just made an adapter alignment plate that allowed me to bolt the gearbox directly to the motor face and frame.



Given that the gearbox came off of a 12 HP Kohler gas engine it was plenty strong enough to work as a gear up system for the power levels I was working with. The gearbox was smooth and quiet plus being ran at a substantially reduced load I changed the oil in it from 80W90 gear lube to regular automatic transmission fluid which cut down on the internal power loss.

If you are thinking of going with a basic gearbox system this is about as simple and efficient as you will get using off the shelf parts and minimal machining work and non application specific parts.

This type of gearbox can be found just by doing a general search for these.

"Gear Reduction Engine" https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_od...70.l1313&_nkw=gear++reduction+engine&_sacat=0 "
or
"Smalll Engine Gearbox" https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_od...570.l1313&_nkw=small+engine+gearbox+&_sacat=0

They come in a number of different sizes from around 3 HP to 20+.

New they can run up to around $600 for the bigger aluminum ones but used cast iron ones like mine can get down to less than $40. However they come in two styles. One is a universal fit type that just slides over the engine crankshaft and the other are like mine that have the gear machined onto the crankshaft.

Lastly if you have a local scrap yard the odds are they will have a few of these around in their aluminum scrap section where they have all of the small aluminum lawn and garden engines. They are a very common small engine option that rarely ever wears out. With that route you may get the whole gearbox and related parts for less than $10.

I live in the heart of farm country. There is a big farm equipment commission sales yard where you can get that stuff pretty readily. I will look into it if I can't develop a direct drive motor for mine that works sufficiently. Thanks