The Boast Buster
5 foot diameter
Rotational Start and run at 2.7 Mph.

How the Boast Buster got its name.

(The comments on this page are simply my opinion based on what I have seen, read, and heard.)

Over the last couple of years I received several notes from my customers telling me to look at this ad and that ad on Ebay, and see this website and that one because someone was saying this and that about my rotors, yada yada yada, I think you get the picture.

I normally just ignore people bagging on my product while trying to make theirs sound better, but enough is enough!
Don't get me wrong I think it is great that the competition feels it must degrade the products that TLG Windpower is producing in order to make theirs sound better.  That tells me I must be doing something right.

My normal course of action when reading these comments was to think of the words on a T-Shirt that I had bought a while back.
But now that the renewable energy market is starting to boom we once again have everybody and their dog in their garage making wind generators, blades, mounts, etc.
It is like the 1980's all over again, everybody is an expert.   All this is well and good after all it is the American dream. But the American dream can be pursued without punching innocent bystanders in the nose. 
Until now I had not offered any rebuttal for what has been said I just smiled and thought of my T-shirt.
Just so you all know the Boast Buster was originally going to be named the Tri-Nado Express.

There are a few different reasons for the name change so I will break it up into a couple of sections.  No certain one carries any more weight than the other.

Part of the reason is due to a recent ebay ad where a person was selling the black carbon fiber sets.  The ad claimed that only thin tipped blades can break the magic 1500 rpm barrier.
What 1500 rpm barrier? (wanna read my T-shirt?) 
The Boast Buster turns close to 2800 rpm top end and it has 2 1/2 inch wide tips that don't flop around.
It also talks about how the blades can be bent and will snap right back, and if Aluminum bends it will stay that way and cause the rotor to be off balance.  yada yada yada...
Are they mentioning this as a feature since you can tell from a good distance if the wind is blowing by the noise coming from those flexible tips?

After reading all this hoopla I figured maybe it was time to get that set of carbon fiber blade off my shelf that had been sent to me a long time ago from a customers that replaced them with one of my rotors.

To make a fair comparison I ran both the black carbon fiber blades and the Boast Buster on the new TLG generator head on the test truck.
Click here to see the test truck / mobile wind tunnel.

With no load the black carbon fiber blades would not even turn my generator head until the wind got over 14 mph.
The Boast Buster starts turning the TLG head at 5 mph.

It took wind over 20 mph before the black carbon fiber blades had enough torque to produce over 1 amp into a 12 volt battery.
The Boast Buster produces 1 amp of output in half the wind the black carbon fiber blades needed. (10 mph) 
In winds above 20 mph the Boast Buster produces closer to 20 amps of output. 

If you browse Ebay I am sure you have seen these ads for the 5 foot black carbon fiber blades.
I cannot give you an Ebay ID for the seller because it seems the ID changes fairly often.  That has never made sense to me for someone that claims to have sold several thousand sets.  I would want to keep using the same ID on Ebay so I would have a huge feedback rating. 

These ads boast that the blades are "engineering perfection" (Now is a good time to read my T-shirt again) and about how fast they turn, telling you that speed is where its at and cupped metal blades or thin Aluminum blades can't produce the speed you need to make power. (yep my shirt comes to mind again)  

And that they have power that can not be stopped.  (Oh geezzz by all means read my T-shirt and if you own a set of these enjoy a good laugh!)
My question to that comment is; at what wind speed is that power reached?  Is that right before the roof of your house comes off?

However there is honesty in those ads.
They really are fast blades (on a ball bearing shaft with no load).

The truth of the matter is the black carbon fiber blades run almost twice as fast as the Boast Buster can on a ball bearing shaft.
But what I have not seen is this unstoppable power they boasted about.  

It goes back to what I have been saying all along "speed without horsepower is like putting perfume on a pig".

I will say this, you can buy the black carbon fiber blades for about 40 bucks and up, and the Boast Buster will cost you 230 bucks.
As with anything you get what you pay for.

If pictures say a thousand words see for yourself.

Click images for larger view


The 59" "engineering perfection" blades sitting on the Boast Buster.
You can see those thin tips curling in the sun.  ;)

Side by side the two lay, you can really see those flexible tips.
Which rotor do you think can produce unstoppable power?

This picture was sent to me by a Hornet owner.

I think that picture probably said enough about those blades.

Moving on to the next rotor that boasts to be better than Aluminum blades.

Another reason for the Boast Buster name is the ad on Ebay that was ran on the 5 foot high quality Douglas Fur blades (which you should know is a fancy word for a Pine tree)  I got a bunch of email when that one aired and found they too had made a bunch of (see my T-shirt comments). ;)

Dean Brooke from Florida, (also known as Ebay ID "ferocement") being the experimenter he is bought a set of them.  After a couple of hours running them he boxed them up and sent them to me asking what do I think can be done with these to make them safe to use.  He said he was afraid they would come apart because in a mild breeze they were rattling his 100 foot long chain link fence.

My opinion at a first glance is this; the only way to get any safe use out of this set up is to use them in a fireplace.
The hub is very cheezy, and it is not even on a 120 degree pattern so it could never balance!

This design uses a piece of water pipe with slits cut in it to slide over a 5/8" shaft and tightens down with a hose clamp in my opinion is just plain dangerous.
It is setups like this that gives us harsh ordinances against wind generators and with a hub like this we really can't blame any city council for not wanting a wind generators flying in the city.
In my opinion whoever made this hub cannot have much experience with the forces of wind.   This blade set will not be ran on my test truck because I do not want to risk my truck being destroyed when this hub disintegrates and throws the blades. 
In guessing I would say it would last a few seconds in winds of 40 plus.  But I would not want to be anywhere near once the wind got over 25 mph.  And that may be giving entirely too much trust in what little hub is there.

(Added 5-10-05 from Dean: the blades busted my stainless steal mount from all the vibration.)

See for yourself.

Click the images for larger view.


The almost assembled rotor with the front cover sitting on the screws so you get an idea of how it would look.

The pine tree blades lay in front of the Boast Buster for comparison.

The hub is numbered so you can tell which blade goes where.
If it were precise there would be no need for numbers.

The blades are screwed onto the hub with Deck Screws.
(DANGEROUS)

The wooden hub has a piece of water pipe screwed in the back of it.
(VERY DANGEROUS)

The water pipe is split to allow it to slide over a 5/8" shaft.
Notice the Hose Clamp that is supposed to secure the rotor to the shaft!
(EXTREMELY DANGEROUS)

I want to apologize if this page has offended anyone, I personally feel this is unprofessional on my part, but like I said enough is enough!
I have every confidence in the people that have enough gumption, desire, and skills to build a generator themselves that they can figure what will work and not work on their own.
On the other hand I am only human and I am tired of being punched in the nose when I haven't said a word about anyone's product (until now).
Please remember I didn't start this.  But I did think it would be fun to share my opinion and T-shirt with all of you.

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