HAWT Housing Build

Protection from the rain is essential so I decided to fabricate a fiberglass shell.

Using the Sherline mill to the max I decided to go with a symmetrical mold so I only had to mill one side saving time & materials.

Using my favorite 12lb tooling foam I 1st removed the lions share of the material with some wood chisels.

Next I went with 3 steps to get the finished mold half.

FYI: I always use the center of the blank and the top of the blank as 0, 0, 0, try it, it is far better than using the edges.

I made a longitudinal rough cut leaving 0.200" then a cross ways 1st finish, and then went back for a final very fine finish cut on the nose.

While the machine was running I made the mounting bracket and assembled it onto the generator with the fasteners facing down to limit leakage.

Fiber glass lay-up

A heavy coat of mold release wax and a slathering coat of mold release fluid.

1st piece lay-up

Three hours later, part-out
A little note on my methodology here:
After having milled amd made many molds in the past and given that there are only two parts needed from this mold I decided to do NO mold finishing. I did coat it with polyurethane but no sanding or finishing at all.

The reason for this approach is that after assembling the two half's there is a huge amount hand finishing and so the mold finishing in this case would have been time wasted. Also 12lb is so fragile and again I only need two parts.

Finished for now, in the spring I will fill and paint the surface.

More to come...