Good progress on KW Bus Project

 

OK, so if you know about KidWind, you know this is what we want for teachers to be able to do with their students. Assemble a KW Nacelle, with a 2 watt KW generator and gear train that is driven by a set of blades in a 4 m/s wind tunnel to produce electric power. Specifically a number of Joules in 30 seconds against a 30 ohm load. Normally the Joule out put is around 30-40 J in 30 seconds for beginning students. Experienced student teams are putting out ten times that, 300 to 400 Joules. For the record a joule of power is 1 watt of power for 1 second. Now IF, you are still reading this then by all means read on to learn what the KidWind Mobile Learning Laboratory is all about.

So if you want to do all this here is what you get now. A nice box for $150 from Vernier. Let me back up a bit. Since the 70’s I have been interested in renewable energy. Specifically making electricity from the wind (solar wasn’t even a possibility then). As a high school “shop” teacher I had all the tools and equipment for the subjects of the day, I taught, metals, welding, power mechanics and electricity. “Making electricity” was a “new” idea. The oil embargo when Jimmy Carter was president got people like me thinking. Plus building a wind turbine applied a lot of the skills and knowledge I taught in my classes.

I marched on building wind turbines, electric vehicles and solar hot water systems the educational system and students however were not interested at the time. Besides where would a students put any renewable energy skills to use?

Finally, after 15 years of planning, in 2015 EDP built a 95 MW wind farm in Seymour town ship in Darlington, WI ! It was time, I had never even heard about KidWind, but in 2017 (now retired) EDP sent me to Mike Arquin’s, Recharge Academy for a week in Fort Collins, CO. I was hooked! And here I am today building a bus that will bring to teachers the knowledge and equipment that took me over 8 years to learn. 

Sure you can get a box like this and plow through it on your own. But I can bring it, on the bus, to a teacher and get it done in a day or two so they can bring “The future of Renewable Energy” to their classes TODAY!

What’s in the BOX? Imagine any teacher getting this and then figuring it out…

Presently in Wisconsin we run 2 or 3 one day teacher training classes. Getting the site, date and teachers to all line up for 10-15 teachers and the trainers is a real challenge. From this “shotgun” approach hoping to get 5 or 6 teacher to put it into their classroom. Why not just take the training, on a bus, to the specific teacher that says I want to make Renewable Energy part of my curriculum for my students or a small group of interested students?

So here it is right off the notes on the white board. The McGyver activity that uses the wind to produce torque to raise a cup of washers. Students compete to design, build and test blades that will raise the greatest number of washers from the wind produced by a 20” box fan.  

And this is the start to bigger and better things. Designing, building and assembling a gear box. Designing, building and testing a set of blades to turn a 2 watt KidWind DC generator to light an LED and produce the Joules of electric power I mentioned at the start of this post.

The bus is taking shape, the alternator has been replaced. Two wind tunnels to test turbines have been built into the bus. A model work bench has been assembled and tested out with the McGyver activity. Storage units for supplies, tools and equipment have been researched.

The work bench/work area with storage units is next on my list and will be covered in my next post.

It is going to take a village of supporters to make this a reality. If you want to be a member of the village and learn more or be a supporter contact me, Dick Anderson in Darlington, WI or KidWind.org a 501c3 organization. 

    

 

KidWind Bus Project Begins

 What do you see?

If you said a small bus then you have told me what it IS. Please read on…

What I see is a vehicle that can be used to bring, to teachers, the knowledge and skills needed to design, build and test model wind turbines or solar PV systems to produce electricity from the wind and sun.

Why? The production of electricity from the wind and sun is here. To understand it we need to teach it in our schools. This will require the teaching of teachers first. How?

This bus when finished will be equipped with the necessary tools and materials to achieve this goal. 

How will it work? The teacher/s interested in learning the hands-on skills and knowledge to design, build and test a model wind turbine or PV solar system to produce electricity will schedule a mutually workable time and school or location for the bus and instructor (myself) to come and work with them.  Think of it like going on You Tube to learn something and then having the person making the You Tube video drive up with the equipment and materials to actually work with. 

The saying is, “I hear it I forget it, I see it I remember it, I do it I understand it.” 

Industrial Technology classes in public schools today have undergone a lot of change. When I was teaching in the 70’s it was call Shop class. Then Industrial Education, and now Industrial Tech. Likewise in preparing today’s teachers the skills and knowledge covered in preparing today’s “Shop” teacher has changed a lot. People have recognized that the skilled trades and the workers are very important. Technology changes rapidly and teachers need to keep up as it changes. I believe the time has come for this bus and the work that it will do has come. You cannot teach something you know nothing about.

The KidWind program started over 20 years ago and has facilitated over 1,200 in-person workshops. These trainings broaden educator’s knowledge of STEM topics and clean energy, explore project-based pedagogies, and provide details about participating in the KidWind Challenges. In addition, we provide classroom materials. We offer a variety of workshops depending on the goals of the participants. 

It is going to take a village of supporters to make this a reality. So if you are reading this and see what I “see” and want to learn more or be a supporter contact me, Dick Anderson in Darlington, WI or KidWind.org a 501c3 organization.

I look forward to hearing from like minded people like yourself that believe we need to teach about the future of clean renewable energy, today!

Thanks 

40 for 40 Gazebo finish. What do you see?

 I liked to ask my Building Trades  students this question, while holding up a piece of 2x4 “What do you see?” Instantly hands shot up and with confidence the answer given,  A 2x4! 

To which I responded, wrong. That’s what it is. I asked what do you see? Puzzled looks swept over the class. 

With that example in mind here is what I saw when Arnie showed up at my door at 7am in the morning last fall and wanted to know if I wanted some logs from a couple of pine trees that he was cutting down for a neighbor of mine.

Well not right away. It took a look at my latest issue of the Timber Framers guild magazine where I saw a picture of structures that were featured at the 2025 annual conference.

With the layout of the post holes location done and dug it was on to the next step.

This was a fun part of the process as I took the preassembled post and brace units and laid them out by the holes. I took this picture from the top of the treehouse that would overlook the gazebo when finished.

This would require the disassembly of the roof rafters to get to the rim joist to complete the top of the posts. An important point here is that would be to measure and record the exact height of the #1 rafter from the top of the rim joist. This would be key to the reassembly process.

Even though the rafters were numbered I carefully laid them out for reassembly.

Getting the posts stood up and tied together with the rim joist was trickier than I expected. I thought the scaffolding would do all the work and all I would have to do was set the rim on the mortises cut in rim pieces. I was a struggle but worked.

With the rim set and the posts plumb I set in place the first two rafters. Using my Charlie stick shown as the black disc supported on the 4x6 and double 2x4 bridging, with fingers crossed, I secured them in place. Because if this placement was wrong I would be in big trouble when it came to the last rafters holes lining up. 

To my pleasant surprise I went very well with a little help from my mini tractor.

This is the money shot for me.

I will have many hours of viewing time from above and below in the future.

What do you see?

Reassembly of 40 for 40 Gazebo

 

It has been a few months. The snow is gone and the frost is out of the ground. So it’s time to take the parts for the gazebo out of storage and put them up.

The first step is to locate the holes for the six posts. This was tricky but using the radius of the 12 foot diameter of the gazebo I located the center of each hole.

Taking the photos from the treehouse with the spiral stairs gives a nice perspective.

Getting the right depth so that the finished gazebo would be level required that the holes were different depths to compensate for the slope of the land.

After the hole depths were rough dug I placed a cement cookie into the holes that the legs of post could set on and I dialed in the levelness.

I used a laser level placed in the center of the hexagon and double checked it across the sides.

I set up and placed some scaffolding to provide support for the posts while I began setting them up. It also gave me a platform to work off from. 

This was going to be trickier than I thought. The center scaffolding would be used later when I put up the rafters. I planned for the outside scaffolding to be rolled around as I set the rim joists to tie a pair of post together. Unfortunately the wheels of the scaffolding lined up with the holes. I had to use a ladder in stead.

I forgot to mention that I needed to take apart the rafters that I put together last fall so that I could get at the rim joists. All parts were numbered and chisel marked. All I had to do was keep everything straight.

Well it was a struggle but I got the first four up and this stabilized things.

Success. So far so good.

Here you can see the treehouse in the back ground that allows for the overhead views. This will be very nice to look at when the rafters are put up.

With the rafters all laid out the reassembly of the roof can begin.

Peg Factory for the gazebo

 

Well for sure these guys are going to be of no help in making the wooden pegs that will be used to hold my gazebo together and I know why.

It’s below zero today and there are several steps in the process of turning the 3/4” square stick at the top into a nice smooth 3/4” diameter wooden peg as shown on the bottom. Lets look at the steps…

So after ripping the wood for the peg into a 3/4” square you have to mark off the wood that you want to get rid of to make it round. You should also draw a bullseye on the end to give you an idea where the point should be.

Now take the peg blank over to your shaving horse (Don’t have a shaving horse? Make one. I did.) and using your draw knife to remove the unwanted corners and round the stick up a bit. Don’t forget to put a point on one end as shown here.

Now you are going to drive the rough shaved peg through the 1st sizing hole (red one) with a soft faced, heavy hammer. The 1st sizing hole is 7/8” diameter drilled through a 1/4” thick piece of steel.

This will reduce the peg to a rough 7/8” diameter.

Next drive the same peg through the green 2nd hole, the finish 3/4” diameter hole. This will take off  any remaining wood on the peg that is over 3/4” and smooth the surface out.

And there you have it. One down and 35 more to go…

Making these wooden pegs is going to be duck soup. That reminded me of my pet duct growing up.

Reciprocal rafter assembly

 

In my mind this is what the 12 five inch diameter 8 foot long fence posts will look like in a few days.

In case you’re wondering, like I did, this is the machine used by the people I got the untreated fence posts from looks like. Pretty wicked and very noisy when in operation.

With my fresh load of 12 tamerack fence posts loaded I could begin the process. 

I am not going to go into all the details for designing and calculating a reciprocal roof rafter. Spend a few hours on google and you can see how it is done. But I will say that if the idea of designing and laying out a truss for a hip rafter scares you then a reciprocal roof will be more difficult.

With the rim joists layed out and leveled the first rafter is put in place. The Charlie stick is in place and holding the rafter at the correct pitch angle for the roof. All this is based on the calculations using the diameter of the posts and the “Rummy” (look it up) distance used. 

All the posts were layed out. The lower end of the first rafter was tied to the rim with twine. Now the lay up could begin.
 

Posts would be added and tied to the rim. The last post, number 12, would be slid under the first post, number 1. This would require that the number 1 post be jacked up to allow this. Tricky…

Needless to say it did not go well on the first couple of tries. 

But after a few adjustments and fine tuning on the pitch and Charlie stick success was had. Doing all this with the posts 8 feet in the air at the top of the gazebo would be a real killer if you know what I mean!

The next day it was time to begin the steps to anchor the rafters in place. First the posts were secured to the rim joist with 10” GRK screws.

Now with the bottom ends secure I could drill the holes for the bolts that would lock in place the top ends of each rafter. This would require several steps for each hole and need to be repeated 12 times.

Each hole would need to be located so that it went through the center of both the top and bottom post it sits on. This was no small task and required several visual observations from different angles to make sure it was good. The drill guide used for the framing holes was a big help.

Several different drill bits and parts were used in the process as you can see. I “built” a work table to keep all these tools handy but still had to make many, many trips up and down the ladder and out of the frame squeezing between rafters to do it. 

Here is the small stud bolt that I put in the bottom of each post to help locate, and hold the correct position on the mating post below it during assembly. This stud bolt needed to be removed before I drilled or it would kill my 3/4” auger bit. 

Here are the steps I needed to do for each hole -

1 - Jack up post with handyman jack.

2 - Remove stud bolt.

3 - Lower post and remove jack

4 - Position drill guide and secure to post with GRK screws.

5 - Drill 3/4” hole through top and bottom post.

6 - Change to 2”diameter counter bore bit. 

7 - Counter bored 3/4” hole to match length of 3/4”dia.  12” long ready bolt. 

8 - Change to 15/16” dia. Bit.

9 - Enlarge 3/4”dia hole to 15/16” diameter.

10 - Install 3/4” bolt washers and nuts.

11 - Change back to 3/4” dia. Bit

- Repeat process.

I just had to remember to perform step #3 twelve times!

Well so much for that. #$@%!^&@ I remembered step #3  10 times and then sure enough drilled right into the stud bolt I forgot to remove. My mother would say it was enough to make a preacher swear.

 

And after all that here it is all bolted up. With all the posts and rafter numbered. Re-assembly when the ground thaws this spring should go well. Until then I’ll be working on making the pegs to put the frame together on the shaving horse.