Using big tools today

[johnsironsanctuary]

This is a series of photos taken in 2008 at the Spearville Kansas Windfarm project.

I still don't understand how you can fit a 3 ton hub on a 12" shaft when the hub is hanging on a cable 350 feet in the air without gouging the shaft.

http://www.slideshare.net/mobear410/spearville-wind-farm

Papaw, do you know anything about slideshare?

[Papaw]

No, I don't, but I got your email, and will see about getting this on Scribd for you, but since the link to Slideshare works, I don't know if it is necessary. I am also cautious since someone "owns" the rights to the photos.

Did you notice the left hand threads on the base mounting studs? I wonder why?

Also- did you Photoshop yourself into the picture of the man atop the unit? Pretty cool, but where is the safety equipment???

[johnsironsanctuary]

Thanks Papaw, yes, posting it now would be moot.  I searched for it and found the link when I went hunting for the documentation.  I would brag that the guy photoshopped in is me, but that would assume that I new how to use photoshop on a pdf. I suspect that the same mischiefmaker is responsible for flipping the photo of the threads. I worked with wind turbines in California quite a bit back in the 80's and 90's when I was a sales engineer for Hayes Brake. They were a lot smaller then, but 200 ft is still a long way up. I never did climb a tower. I left that to the young guys that were in better shape.

[Stoney]

Awesome and Cool johnsironsanctuary, I was fascinated by the big wind turbines when we were on the tractor ride in Illinois.  More interesting the nuclear power plant cooling towers we have around here.  I've always loved those Manitowoc cranes.

[johnsironsanctuary]

Thanks Stoney.  I have always had a thing for cranes. I guess it makes up for my ... short attention span. Up until about eight years ago, I had a 1926 Link Belt crawler crane. It ran and moved, but the boom was trashed in a windstorm. The story ended when my brother scrapped it without telling me.

[Stoney]

Wow it must be neat to have a crane.  We use a truck boom crane in a lot of our tree take downs.  At 66 that's the only way I can get up in the trees anymore.

[johnsironsanctuary]

Cool was hand crank starting an 831 cu. in. Waukesha 4 cyl.  Three quarter turns and it ran.

[rusty]

> Three quarter turns and it ran.

Back when fuel economy and emissions weren't the primary criteria in engine design, you could actualy design an engine that started....

ok, now, we know how that big metal monster arrived where you took the picture, but that's only half the story.....

The petunia thing didn't work out?

[johnsironsanctuary]

Yea Rusty, that about sums it up.