How to Generate Emergency Off Grid Power using a Car Alternator and an exercise bike.
This project goes into the build of a DIY pedal powered generator out of an old car alternator and a bike. This generator is useful for powering your devices and gadgets in case of an emergency or grid down scenario.
The materials you need to build this generator are bike, MDF for base plinth, magnetic trainer stand for bike, Alternator, drive belt, 12V battery, cable connectors, 12V socket, multimeter, screwdriver, insulation tape.
The rear end the bike and rest of the components are mounted on a one inch thick MDF board. This has a good amount of stability that keeps it away from moving around. We add an extension bit on the front. The extra height there just compensates for the fact that the back wheel is in a stand.
The alternator is mounted nice and secure onto the base using brackets. Bolts connect the alternator to the brackets and screw the brackets down to the base. Once you are pedaling, and you have got electrical load in the circuit, there is quite a bit of force pulling the alternator forwards. So it does need to be really securely bolted down.
Make sure that the wheel of the bike is in line with the alternator pulley .With any wheel, we have rim bed and the rim walls. Here what we need is a drive belt that fits purely in the rim bed. Make sure you measure the internal width of the rim bed .
Also measure the width and depth of the alternator pulley grooves and get a belt that fits accordingly . Also make sure you have got a belt that is long enough because a typical drive belt that is used in a car is not going to be long enough because it is only made to go around a pulley on the engine.
The car alternator used here has three wires coming out of them .It has a main power thick output wire, it supplies main power to the devices. Then there is two small cables, one for voltage sensing and the other for field coil ignition. The voltage sensing wire goes straight to the 12V lead acid battery in our case. To get the alternator generating power you first need to apply a small voltage through the field coil and that is because an alternator doesn’t have any permanent magnets in it.
The way that any generating device works is moving either electrical charges through a stationary magnetic field or moving a magnetic field around a charge. So the field coil inside the alternator is attached to the field coil ignition cable, and putting a voltage generates the magnetic field, which enables the alternator to generate power when you turn the shaft via the drive belt. You don’t need to keep applying a voltage to it as it’s running, because it will generate its own power. The negative from the alternator is connected to the negative of the battery.
The positive connection from the alternator is connected to the positive of the battery. The third connection coming from the alternator is the field coil activator .This is connected to a switch .The connection goes back to the alternator to active the field coil.
A standard cigarette lighter socket is connected to the battery terminals. It will draw power off the battery first, and once you start charging power, because the alternator is connected into that, it is going to draw it from the alternator, and the alternator will simultaneously power whatever is connected into that socket, and recharge the battery.
The alternator used here has voltage tolerance of 11 to 14V . A Modular splitter is connected to the cig power socket to charge multiple devices. Make sure that the plug comes with a fuse or whatever you plug in needs to be rated to the right power for what you are going to charge .
To run alternating current devices, we connect a 150W Power inverter to the circuit. The alternator actually generate alternating current. But its got a rectification circuitry built into it, which changes it to DC. The inverter changes the the DC output from the alternator to AC.
Finally ,we add a master switch that switches the battery on.The Power switch stops any drain from the battery through the field coil . The switch also connects the multi sockets that charges various devices. It isolates the battery from the circuit. It isolates the alternator from the circuit, and it isolates the remote switch and the battery from the field coil completely.
The AC generating device like an alternator have a minimum speed of operation in which they are stable. So do check for your alternator, what is the recommended minimum speed for it. If you spend it below that speed, what happens is because of the way it works, you get a periodically varying force which acts as a resistance to your pedaling.
- DIY Video: How to build a Band Sawmill from scratch in your backyard and save a lot of money. Step by step build instructions.
This video series shows the step by step build of a homemade Band Sawmill from scratch in your backyard.Harvesting and processing the wood that grows on your property is the dream of many homesteaders. The dream can be expensive (around $5k) because you need a sawmill in order to rip the wood and remove the bark.Instead of spending years saving up, you can spend less by building your own saw mill.it’s a tool you’ll use for years to come, and will more than pay for itself the first time you use it. Lumber isn’t cheap, and if you’ve got the natural resources and access to those resources, it makes the most sense to save money, time, and effort by using what you have available. - How to build a Simple Homemade Bandsaw Mill from Old Car Wheels
This project goes over the build of a simple Bandsaw from old car wheels .Car wheels are big and heavy, but in many ways, they are ideal for bandsaws. They are available everywhere cheaply. They have a rubber tire for the blade to sit on, and they have excellent bearings.
Take apart the brakes, the backplate , bearings and the stub axle out of the housing. Weld the stub axle onto an off cut of scaffolding.
So we now have two wheels, spinning on the ends of two straight lengths of steel.
We take some scrap angle iron pieces and make a rectangular frame for the mill. This form as the base of our mill.
In order to make the sliding mechanism, we take a scrap pipe and try to fit it onto a square iron pipe so it can slide in and out smoothly. This will be used for all adjustments. This is welded onto the frame.
A Steel plate is welded onto the sliding bars. This is for the engine to sit on. The engine will drive one of the car wheels
We mount the 11 HP Petrol Engine to steel plate and the tire is connected directly to the engine shaft through a drive belt.
The drive wheel is bolted on to the frame ,also added a lever for the engine mount which will act as a sort of clutch, tightening and slackening the belt when necessary.
We add two more pipes on the bottom of the frame and slid them to the support platform of the second wheel made from the same square box iron and some short sections which is part of the blade guide.
The second wheel has to be adjustable in a few different directions and has to be lined up with the first wheel so the blade stays on them both without running off the tires. To adjust the tension on the blade by moving the wheel away from the first one, we use a bottle screw.
The blade guides are made from cheap bearings. They needs to be adjustable so that the saw can cope with logs of different sizes. The blade guides help keep the blade straight as it goes through the log and also stops the plate being pushed off wheels
The band saw has to go up and down so that it can cut planks from a log. We make a simple frame to hold it. It has to fit inside vertical pieces of angle iron on the saw. The support frame is bolted onto to the saw by using a bracket which grip the uprights.
Couple of barn door pulleys are bolted onto the top of the support frame and the mill frame. A trailer winch is bolted on to the middle of the support frame. Using a 3mm wire and winch-pulley system, we can move the wheel frame up and down.
Two short pipes are added at the front and these hold up a guard which can be taken off when we need to get at the belt or the blade. If the blade snaps, the side guards should make sure that it heads down towards the ground and not up to the ceiling.
The saw is stationary and the log is moved through it using dolly trailers or rails.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3_dJayH6e6ibBd5sA6WgXO99zf2zBsUe - How to build a Simple Homemade Water Distiller that turns dirty water/salt water into clean fresh pure water
This project goes over the build of a Simple and cheap Homemade Stovetop Water Distiller.Turn your dirty,salt water into fresh drinking clean water fast.This setup is great for everyday or emergency use. Assembles/disassembles fast for easy portability.
The material needed to make this distiller are :
A teapot,10 feet copper coil, corrugated stainless steel or copper tube.
The water source coupling is connected to a foot and a half corrugated three quarter inch copper pipe that further reduces to the half inch and then this is a connected to a 10 foot roll a half inch copper tubing.
The three quarter inch threaded two half adapter is soldered to the 10 foot copper coil tubing. Bend the tube into a tight spiral.
A Stainless steel or copper foot and half corrugated pipe goes into the 10 feet twisted copper coil. The end of the corrugated pipe goes into tea pot or water source connector. A total of 12 feet of coil.
The steam rises without bringing any of the impurities along with it. The steam travels through the coils and slowly cools and condenses. It finally condenses back to its liquid form and drips out as clean water.
In order to make it even go faster, put some cold towels around the coil or even submerged in water. A little bit of aluminum foil over the top is kept and the copper tube is extended down a little bit into the glass jar. Everything stays completely tight the whole time.
You can make this distiller with that single corrugated copper tubing, but the more copper we add, the more time it has to condense down into purified liquid water. During the test,we have managed to acheive half a gallon in 2.5 hours.
You can use this on the stovetop, rocket stove campfire, even a parabolic concentrator like dish cooker. Anyway to get that water boiling, then just hook it up like this. Makes tons of clean water really fast.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoEn5kfpTYI
