I'm looking for some copper coils

[DaJe]

Despite my length of time here, and excessive amount of posts, I really had no idea where to put this. Yet again, here's another thread regarding me building a wind turbine. I pretty much have everything set, I'm just looking for some copper coils to use for the generator. Not sure exactly where to find some. Any ideas or information? I basically need some enamelled and bound coils of copper.

[Drum Thumper]

What size? I might have an idea or two.

[crenn]

Make them yourself! It's not too hard either!

[vastonecat]

how big a coil are we talking ? would it be something you might be able to get from an alternator? if so try a junk yard or repair shop .

[DaJe]

Not too big. The turbine I'm building basically has to fit within an 18 inch cube. So no taller than 18 inches in total, no wider, all that. The generator itself might be 4 inches in diameter, or so I've been thinking so far. So they shouldn't be really big.

[Drum Thumper]

I was going to originally suggest looking into electric guitar pickups, but that might get a bit costly. And the shape might not be right either. Your next best bet might be to cannibalize a small electric motor, since the basic principles are similar.

[DaJe]

I suppose either that or just buying some spools of wire and making my own coils seems like the best option right now.

[si-skyline]

cant you jsut strip the wire out of some wires?

[Trace]

A generator and Electric motor are, I believe, one in the same. A motor you pass current through, while a generator you spin and receive current from. I would think you could just find a correctly sized motor and use that as your generator...

[vastonecat]

Duh...Ima moron. I just realized what you meant by wind turbine (just finished reading Motorized madness and had his cooler on my mind.) so anyways if you have a handy junkyard nearby get an alternator and use it. just take out the rotor and put in some rare earth magnets ( be careful with these suckers as they are dangerous hard to get apart.) on a rotating axis. As long as the wind keeps up your in business. 3 turbines built along these lines should completely power a small house. I looked into it a couple of times but dont really think my association would put up with one above my house.