Just out of curiosity what is the correct/proper material to use.

I guess that just using screws to balance the final assembly is the easiest approach too to making it run smooth. I do motorcycle wheels vertically and just apply stick on weights but a horizontal balance would likely be best for this application. Peppercorn, Is this a good approach in your opinion? https://abieneman.wordpress.com/2011/06/13/simple-wheel-balancing-jig/

Just out of curiosity what is the correct/proper material to use.

Villager nailed it, Fiberglass.....you can buy the two part mix right from Canadian tire...mix in fiberglass cloth and you will have a pretty much impervious to weather stator, I dont know of any failures when mixed right. It really is the way to go in my opinion, I am just doing these this way cause I have done fiberglass before and like trying different things...only way to learn! Though I have to say I really like building them this way where you wrap your mag wire right on to the stator form and cast it. I should have thought of it sooner...I had that one that will be powering my yard lights done in a hour. I will be using Fiberglass one more time though.

That is a unfinished stator, and the coils are as big as my hand and over a pound of copper in each coil, because that will be used for serious power (roughly 5000-6000 watt peak) I will use the product I know works, I dont want to goof around on a large project as a misstake gets expensive.

Knuckle I think that is a great idea...I hadnt really nailed how I was going to balance my magnet disks.. I was thinking of balancing the disk on the point of a nail held in a vice to see what side was heaviest, but I like that idea better, I think I will use that to get close.
Doing things verticaly works ok on lower rpm things maybe up to 500-600 rpm, like your wheels or windmill blades, and is a easy way to do it.

Great stuff! I recently bought an aluminum wheel balancer on sale, from princess auto, and was thinking of adapting its cone to anything else.... like your stator. So, am i picturing this right, knuckle?...insert screws into the outer edge of the disc...on the edge, or the face? (could also beef up under each screw with washers or wire-solder for weight?

The further out the weight , the greater the influence. The horizontal balance works better overall but using the vertical afterward should also be done and sharing the differences is how to achieve a perfect balance if you have the patience for such tedious work. You can likely imagine the effects caused by each way of testing and see the guesswork required to obtain the perfect balance.

The higher the rpm, the better balanced the component has to be to reduce wear. The magnets can use the teeter technique to evenly distribute from off center, but the vertical still requires doing to balance for effect of gravity. That is why most tire machines and flywheel machines do the vertical test as it proves stability of the axis it is destined to perform in. Here is a simple vertical balance trick https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTjnA1-LAcI I made a similar stand that does both tires and boat props after I re-weld them. The trick is to have a shaft it turns freely on. I use the wheel axle to do bike rims and the tire turns freely on the wheels bearings. If the bearing grease is too thick the bearings at the mount will spin instead. Props have to have a shaft with a tight fit to achieve a decent balance as the diameter is smaller and therefore the balance is more critical or vibration will be noted at high rpm. (I also use this same stand to true spokes wheels too like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCQtuGfz3c8 .)

You can also remove material to achieve balance and this technique is usually used in flywheels by drilling holes at the highest point. This is mainly because they don't want weights coming loose and flying off. The inserting of screws was just a simple idea and should stay in. The various sizes they come in makes this a simple fix but anything can be used as long as you trust it to stay there.

Great stuff! I recently bought an aluminum wheel balancer on sale, from princess auto, and was thinking of adapting its cone to anything else.... like your stator.

That stator (stationary) does not rotate. it will be stationary thus how it got its name (I think), the part that will rotate will be my steel disk with the magnets on it.

Now I dont like youtube vids due to the bs in most, but this guy knows what he is doing casting one with fiberglass https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rB8Bfoat2M ...the otherpower guys used to build these but frankly I dont think hardly anyone is building wind turbines anymore..once the price of solar panels fell a couple years ago, its just imposible to justify the cost of building one anymore.

This is indeed a unique build and I like what you've accomplished. I figured that this might even be a time to mention that I do have a machine shop and although your are along ways away, I might be of use for some mods to make this build work smoothly. If you have some ideas that I can maybe help you on, let me know.

What do you have in mind with this upon completion? Is this gonna be on a wind turbine or rigged to a gennie somehow? What is the maximum rpm this might run at?

villager wrote:
Great stuff! I recently bought an aluminum wheel balancer on sale, from princess auto, and was thinking of adapting its cone to anything else.... like your stator.

Peppercorn wrote:
"That stator (stationary) does not rotate. it will be stationary thus how it got its name (I think), the part that will rotate will be my steel disk with the magnets on it."

Yes, of course, the rotor i meant. How will you determine the correct spacing between the stator and rotor? trial and error?, with washers/spacers on the shaft?

What do you have in mind with this upon completion? Is this gonna be on a wind turbine or rigged to a gennie somehow? What is the maximum rpm this might run at?

That big one is the same as the link below. it will be producing significant power at 70-80 rpm, and no way would I want to see it go over 300, infact 200 should have it doing 4000 watts or there about. Its pretty much finished....so I dont need any machining but thanks for the offer. Despite how impressive this size looks, and works..I would absolutely advise someone to not even think of building one this size (I consider it a misstake) I cant even lift the blade assy by myself, the tail assy I can lift but its taller than I am, and a monster to wresle with, and even one mag disk at a time wears me out to handle...no good reason to build this. Not doing this for power as such but for electric heating.. I would only let it spool up in the winter, and it would be shut down in the summer.
http://www.otherpower.com/20page1.html

How will you determine the correct spacing between the stator and rotor? trial and error?, with washers/spacers on the shaft?

Yes pretty much, trial and error..maybe lots of error...I will likely mount the stator and mag disk as close together as practical first..fire it up and see where I am at..then go from there..

Knuckle if you have a machine shop think of motor conversions, way easier to construct, no rewiring needed, spin the rotor up in your lathe, machine it down, mill flat spots for your mags, cast the rotor in fiberglass, and spin the glass down in your lathe and reasemble...look for old 3 phase motors 4 pole 1800rpm, (6 pole better but hard to find) as large of hp as you can find in 240 volt. should be good for 12 or 24 volt batt bank charging,..you can use single phase motors but its not as good.

small motors are great as well if your making fun projects like that yard lighting I am doing with that stator.

Knuckle if you have a machine shop think of motor conversions, way easier to construct, no rewiring needed, spin the rotor up in your lathe, machine it down, mill flat spots for your mags, cast the rotor in fiberglass, and spin the glass down in your lathe and reasemble...look for old 3 phase motors 4 pole 1800rpm, (6 pole better but hard to find) as large of hp as you can find in 240 volt. should be good for 12 or 24 volt batt bank charging,..you can use single phase motors but its not as good.

small motors are great as well if your making fun projects like that yard lighting I am doing with that stator.

Seems like a good time to "parley there pardner" as I don't know how to utilize 3 phase motors and it seems you do.

I also just happen to have a couple of them kicking around as my shop is single phase only and they came with the Bridgeport Vertical mill and another with a commercial exhaust fan. The lathe (swings 18" without pulling the gap in case your interested) has a phase converter on it but the motor still won't start up if the lathe is in high gear range. I'll look at their tags tommorrow.

I'd like to see these blades that you mentioned too. Maybe put a pic up for us all to gander at sometime.

Yes hit me with the specs for those motors. As this is well off topic, and I dont think to many others have lathes or a interest to do something like this just pm me the specs and we will go from there, I will pm you a site by a guy just south of me who is flying a motor conversion, his site has lots of good pic's.
I havent taken a pic of those blades, I can if you wish, but unlike the nice wood ones in that link, mine are fiberglass and just white in colour..not much to look at really

I hope these pics are good enough peppercorn. If not, let me know

Set aside the bottom motor for now, looking at it, as constructed its not ideal, but likely could be by rewinding...I don't want to go there. That top one is perfect spec wise, and perfect in two ways, you have two options.
First as a wind turbine...I bet we could hit cut in voltage for 12 volts at Roughly 130-160 rpm going to depend a lot on the mags used.
Now the second way you could use this motor is as engine driven, I bet that could be turned into a 20 amp batt charger much as I am doing with my build.

What I need you to do is knock this unit apart. Lay the rotor on the table with a tape measure stretched out along side it so I can see the length, and how the rotor is constructed. I need a second pic looking through the stator so I can see the windings, and I need you to tell me what the inside diameter of the stator is (or diameter of the rotor).

When you knock this motor apart, at the end opposite to the output shaft there "should" be a thrust washer, maybe with a flat spring washer, note what order they are in for when you reassemble, they like to fall out of the end bell. Also tell me what voltage is this motor wired for.

Oh wait... I thought you said you had 3 phase motors.....that is single phase...I missed that when I first looked at your pic...that changes things....its not ideal.....hmmm. I have only done 3 phase ones...I don't really have a idea how this one will turn out....what the hell lets do it any way... go ahead and knock it apart.

earlier I had stared this thread with a 100hr run...I quit at that point, I was using gas from my stores and that was bought at over a buck a liter...the price had dropped a good bit and I can buy it now for 70 to 75 cents a liter so I continued running that unit..not continuous as I had before as one time when I wasn't home the unit fell off the table onto the deck, it must have hit upside down as there was a dent on the top of the gas tank, it bounced upright and kept running, even the plug did not fall out so it was still under load, I didnt want something happening when I am not here so I have only been firing it up when I am home..NEW TOTAL HRS= 750 I used to change the oil every 100hrs but since 500hrs I only have been topping it up, the stuff is black and ugly like tar, and thick like molasses (I am trying to stress it), I don't ever suggest you do this its really hard on the engine, I am just goofing around. I will empty it at the 800hr mark and put in some fresh oil. Food for thought....800hrs is 33 days running 24/7....The other fellow who was doing water pumping with his unit quit recording his run time once he got over 1000 hrs so I don't know where he is at hrs wise now but well north of that, and down the road from me is a fellow doing straight batt charging with his..he doesn't have enough panels so he runs his a lot, and he tells me he is coming up on 400 hrs for the year so far, a broken pull cord at roughly the 60 hr mark with his.