How to Build a Wind Turbine Tower: Part One of Two - 65' Pole Tower | Missouri Wind and Solar

Join us in watching part one of our wind turbine tower build at our store location in Seymour, Missouri. We go over the elements of what makes a good wind turbine tower and how you can build your own to get started in small wind energy.
Part Two: • How to Build a Wind Tu...
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[@CrapPolice]

You're the first to show how to do a tower. Always great and new info from Missouri wind

[@MissouriWindandSolar]

Jason Brown did a really cool paint job on the tail and arms. Red , white and blue.

[@MissouriWindandSolar]

I will be long dead before rust would be any bother. But I did paint it white , looks better and I won't get dirty ever time I have to take it down. This Monday I will be lowering it down to finish it up and do another video.

[@MissouriWindandSolar]

Your right Charles. It is used for oil drilling and it's strong. Got it at Wheeler metal in Springfield, all used. The coupling ends are bigger then 2 " pipe, the actual pipe is less then 2" pipe, weird size. The tower is 65 foot all, was 66 feet but we cut of 1 foot to weld on the bottom for the gin pole.

[@dansshop]

Cool video. Some thoughts, and i know this film is 10 years old so...) I would not use schedule 80 pipe. My understanding is that the strength is related directly to wall thickness and to the cube of diameter. So same amount of steel half the thickness and twice the diameter (same weight) will be 4x stronger. So I usually use 10 or 12 gauge tubing. Also (I didn't used to do it this way but now I do).... it's nice to let the gin pole have it's own pivot. And... threading pipe together as a coupling system scares me. It's by far the weak link in the tower. But... it works!

[@MissouriWindandSolar]

Thanks Alan. It is a lot of work but worth it. I thought the pipe was in 30 foot lengths but there 32 foot 8 inches long. It is used oil drilling pipe and heavy as hell. When i tilt it down i will take a tape measure on it in the film and get a real length on it. I think it's actually 65 foot tall. Wyatt did all the welding .

[@richarddowner4292]

NICE it sticks with the theme of stars and stripes...

[@Doonit_hard_way_since_65]

7x7 is completely the wrong cable for something under this sort of loading. It should be 1x19. 7x7 stretches like crazy, and breaks far easier than same size 1x19. (that is why medium size sailing craft all run 1x19 SS for the shrouds/stays. And those turnbuckles are unsafe garbage that is not fit to hold a dog kennel up. The small one is investment cast soft steel with open eyes. The bigger one is an even worse design. That is a folded aluminium body with only about 1/2" of threads on each end... and unwelded eyes. You should use only forged, galvanized steel with a thread dia 4x the cable dia, and they should all be safety wired/hairpinned to keep them from backing off. They are cheap from some of the fishery supply vendors. Don't use that home-cheapo stuff, or you are going to drop a pole on someone or something you would rather not have it fall on.

[@MissouriWindandSolar]

Schedule 40 works. My pipe is threaded and has couplings to put them together. The guy wires need to be 20 feet apart on 40. If you don't have threads then you will have to weld or find a pipe to use as a sleeve.

[@MissouriWindandSolar]

The one i am putting up has the old pmg. I will be testing all of our wind turbines on it.

[@ASCENSION4USALL]

Great video, thank you for sharing!!!!

[@MissouriWindandSolar]

I have just done part two of the tower video.

[@TurboA4]

Can you tell us how far the guy anchor points are from the base of the tower?

[@MissouriWindandSolar]

Thank you. It was fun building the tower but it was 95 degrees all the time we were working on it.

[@MissouriWindandSolar]

As long as your guy wires are done right and your anchors are good you have nothing to worry about. If mine falls down it will just lay down in an open field. I would not put it close enough to hit a building or house though. Can't stop a tornado if it wants to take it down.

[@ian57812]

Wow! thats some tower. Great video on how to build a wind turbine tower.Cant wait to see part 2. It sure is tall 64 ft thats turbine heven.

[@MissouriWindandSolar]

I hear ya. I have had our wind turbines on the roof only about 30 foot up. I am going to show the difference in wind power between 30 foot and 64 foot . I am setting up 2 anemometers side by side, one at about 25 foot and the other at 64 foot, same wind turbine.

[@richarddowner4292]

I love the new tale arms... stars and,,, o you should have some stripes in the cut outs... stars and stripes sweet.I see them on the tail but not on the tail arm.. great video.. thumbs up bud, love it. plus hollow pipe is stronger than a solid pipe. YES THAT IS A FACT...GREAT VIDEO. thank you Jeff..

[@markbuiltme]

link to part 2 would be nice

[@MissouriWindandSolar]

Well Ian, it was 95 degrees and humid ALL of the time we were working on it. Man i was burned out and wasn't thinking to straight. I made a bunch of mistakes while i was talking, maybe i am getting old. Anyway, i had 60 foot stuck in my head but the pipe was actually over 32 foot long. I will measure it again in the next film.

[@SkyMaxWind]

That's going to make a great test tower. There is a great deal of power in the wind at that height. Will you be doing a height comparison between the wind turbines on your roof and the one on your new tower ? It would look nice painted. Great job so far. James

[@MissouriWindandSolar]

Well part two is going to be done in the morning when it's in the 70's not 95 degree's. On part two I will give the full dimensions of cable , concrete depth, cable spacing etc. Going out to paint now.

[@MissouriWindandSolar]

The rebar was criss crossed before it went into the cement, it will never pull out.

[@MissouriWindandSolar]

I also told legalizeshemp420 to check out your tower. That's the one he wants, something hydraulic .

[@MissouriWindandSolar]

No, that was just a display stand. We do have a pipe that is going into the top.

[@philmidwestid]

Hi Jeff. With the concrete , 7 X 7 cable and misc. hardware including the 66' of pipe what was your final cost for your tower?

[@ian57812]

Yes you and me both. where i live i have to factor in salt corrosion in every nut and bolt. look forward to the next video seeing the winch and gin pole in action. I know setting up the guy wires especially on a 64 ft tower is tough and frustrating. It will be worth it. I love videos where real blood sweat and tears are involved not some bloke showing poodles his pet. real men do it with sweat and a bit of blood.

[@MissouriWindandSolar]

I messed up when i was talking, it's actually 65 foot. Each pipe is 33 foot long. We cut 1 foot off the bottom tower pipe so 65 foot. We should be running it up and down on Monday.

[@MissouriWindandSolar]

42 feet

[@MissouriWindandSolar]

Orlando Sanchez has a real nice hydraulic tilt up tower on his channel. Check it out, he did a nice job and tells you where to get the parts.

[@wabuminifarm3437]

Hay Jeff, I love the tower and thanks for making such a nice video of it :). I got so many questions tho, heh. ,,, I am also using your 9 blade 12 volt 1600 Raider wind turbine, I love it! !t works awesome for me. Is this turbine ( that your going to use on your 65 foot tower) using your newest PMG? Or the same one I am using? ,, I got more questions but I will ask them later :)

[@hayabusa3558]

Hi jeff ! What did you do to reduce 2" pipe to 1-1/2" to fit a mouting brackets ? Thanks

[@joewamsley8004]

I'm going to guess he dropped a bit of 1.5" in the 2" and welded it in place. If you can't weld you should be able to get away with a bolt.

[@billjones5178]

Why didn’t u use a 4wd pu or pu w winch to raise pole tower?

[@okaybrah388]

What is the distance of the guide wires

[@MattMoore517]

Hey Missouri wind and solar how do I put blades on a disassembled 60foot wind turbine? Much love and clean energy brother

[@MissouriWindandSolar]

Did you mean the wind turbine is up 60 feet and you want to put them up there ? If so the guys that cut tree's have a bucket truck that will go 70 feet.

[@ian57812]

I guess you can be forgiven 95 degrees would fry my brain out sitting on the couch drinking ice cold beer never mind putting up a 64ft wind turbine tower with 6 guy wires and a 30ft gin pole plus winch etc. You have done a fantastic job on the tower i take my hat off to you and the crew.Thats heavy duty steel pipe good for 100 yrs in your climate would worry about surface rust.

[@z1catfish]

better get a new bolt that is not a Grade 8 bolt its might be a grade 5, but not seeing three tick marks for a 5... Nice work.

[@thefaeryman]

can't find the schedule 80 pipe, only the schedule 40. how do you join the pipe ends and keep the whole length straight? john

[@kansasadventure1831]

Could have sworn he said he was using sch80 in this video but I can't find where. I'm digging through some oil field pipe now and it all appears to be sch 40. In an updated video on this tower they assume it's sch 40.

[@thefaeryman]

@@kansasadventure1831 you can use the sch 40, its the guy wires that support the tower's strength. maximum of 20 feet apart, not something to skimp on. checkout ham radio tower enthusiasts too for reference. but solar these days are far less expensive, more efficient and if you buy a pallet you can mount for the different seasons of the year for best angles. saw a large installation where the panels are mounted 6 feet above ground leaving the land for crops. the tower will need a large drop zone all around it incase the tower comes down in a storm, ample room for solar field. good luck

[@kansasadventure1831]

@thefaeryman with out trees my wind power would be half the price. In reality solar doesn't work at night like wind does.

[@thefaeryman]

@@kansasadventure1831 that's the theory, but excess power must go into a heater element load, the gen can't free spin, you can charge enough batteries for both sources. but when the batteries are fully charged the wind still blows. good luck, send me a video when you get set up.

[@ian57812]

I ment would NOT worry about surface rust good for a hundred years.

[@hayabusa3558]

Hi jeff ! I want to uild a tower for 30 foot . Could i use 1-1/2 pipe schedule 80 . I have 3 section of 10 foot pipe . Thanks please

[@MissouriWindandSolar]

NI Nguyen Sure you could, that's plenty strong.

[@sailcaptain]

Are you ever going to develop a VAWT? They are more efficient.

[@MissouriWindandSolar]

Sometime in the future we will

[@edwardseth1230]

Question: on the side of safety.. this turbine will be producing electricity.. so my question is would it be a requirement to add a ground wire for storm electric strikes.. if that happens someday?

[@MissouriWindandSolar]

Yes you could ground the tower.

[@joewamsley8004]

If you were to just jam that angle iron into the ground then put the concrete around it you'd be all set.

[@allglad]

Where to look for the pipe?

[@MissouriWindandSolar]

The schedule 40 pipe should be available at most hardware stores so you can get it locally.

[@joewamsley8004]

@@MissouriWindandSolar Did you find the schedule 80 was overkill with those wires?

[@jayh5175]

I obviously need more help ugh

[@newtechportugal]

Really dangerous ...

[@thegeneralstrike6747]

one word....Script!