Zach Morgan spent several months working on a horizontal axis wind turbine senior project. He logged his activities, which included gathering supplies, searching for a motor at a junk yard, assembling parts like the pipe base and attaching the motor, and making blades out of PVC. Testing revealed the initial motor did not work, so Zach found a replacement on eBay. With the new motor installed, Zach finished the project by adding a larger base and testing energy production at different wind speeds. He brought the completed wind turbine to school to show his class.

1. Product Work Log
Zach Morgan
Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine
Date/Time: Activity: Comment/Suggestions:
January 7, 2012 First trip to Lowes to gather supplies.
12:00-2:00
2 hours
Commentary:
The bill at Lowes can add up quickly, I
hope this will be my only trip because I
already spent $30
Date/Time: Activity:
January 8, 2012 Drove to junk yard to search for a
8:00-12:00 usable motor.
4 hours
Commentary:
Dusty cars and weird smells aren’t my
thing. I hope I never have to take a
radiator fan out of a Saturn again.
Date/Time: Activity:
January 14, 20112 First day of assembly. Got my pipe
1:00-3:00 attached to my base, and tested to see
2 hours how well the nipple rotated.
Commentary:
Assembly went smoothly today, no
issues and the pipe looks good. It
should be sturdy enough to hold this
lightweight motor.

2. Date/Time: Activity: Comment/Suggestions:
January 29, 2012 Mounted pipe flange to 2x4 that will
5:00-6:00 serve as a mounting bracket. I
1 hour attempted to attach the motor.
Commentary:
It looks like zip ties won’t be enough to
hold the motor down while it is
spinning, I’ll have to come up with
something new.
Date/Time: Activity:
February 11, 2012 Mounted tail boom with tail, and
12:00-2:00 motor to the 2x4.
2 hours
Commentary:
It looks very good so far, now the only
thing left to do is make a flywheel and
blades.
Date/Time: Activity:
February 19, 2012 Cut PVC and shaped blades. Also
1:00-5:00 carved a flywheel using the already
6:00-7:00 existing fan blades.
5 hours
Commentary:
I had no idea that sanding the blades
would take this long, but I finally
managed to get the shape that I was
after.
Date/Time: Activity:
February 25, 2012 Mounted the blades to the flywheel
7:00-9:00 and attached it to the motor. Then tried
2 hours to balance the tail and the motor.
Commentary:
It’s very hard to balance two ends of a
very long metal channel. Especially
when one end is twice as heavy.

3. Date/Time: Activity: Comment/Suggestions:
March 3, 2012 Tested my wind turbine. Reached my
5:00-6:00 first problem, which is with the motor.
1 hour It does not produce any electricity in
low winds.
Commentary:
Unfortunately my first set back is with
the key element to my turbine. It looks
like I’m back at square one.
Date/Time: Activity:
March 4, 2012 Looking around EBay for a
4:00-5:00 replacement motor. With time running
March 5, 2012 out I need a motor guaranteed to work,
4:00-5:00 and I need it fast.
2 hours
Commentary:
Some motors are very expensive;
hopefully a cheap one will suit my
needs.
Date/Time: Activity:
March 15, 2012 New motor arrived in the mail, spent
4:00-5:00 some time testing it and it looks really
1 hour promising.
Commentary:
I think with this new motor round two
of my senior project will be a much
better success.
Date/Time: Activity:
March 17, 2012 Made a new mounting bracket for the
1:00-3:00 second motor. It looks stable, and
2 hours should keep it in place even in high
winds.
Commentary:
The new motor looks good, now I only

4. need to adapt my old flywheel to the
new motor axis.
Date/Time: Activity:
March 24, 2012 Finished my wind turbine today after
12:00- 4:00 mounting to=he newly adapted
4 hours flywheel and attaching a larger base to
the temporary stand. I finished up by
testing the amount of energy produced
at various speeds. Results were good.
Commentary:
The product is very heavy, I dread
Date/Time: having to transport this to school.
April 12, 2012
7:30-8:00 Activity:
3:30-4:00 Took my project to school today to
1 hour show my class and my project
facilitator.
Commentary:
My facilitator and my peers thought
highly of my wind generator.
Hopefully the judges will agree with
them.