I’ve done a search here without any luck. Has anyone used a Shapeoko to carve wind turbine blades? Or, seen any projects?
Thank you
Folks have done RC wings as well as a prop nut to blow milling debris away from a Shapeoko — a wind turbine shouldn’t be an issue — should be the same as any other 3D CAM job.
Not quite a wind turbine, and done on a Nomad not a Shapeoko, but this little project from @Vince.Fab might be of interest:
For wind turbine blades I guess the challenge would be the material (which one?) and workholding (probably need to carve a jig / negative of the blade to carve the flip side), and being careful that the final piece is balanced
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Are you planning to machine the entire blade from a solid wood or produce ribs and spars on the CNC and then produce a skin from a tensioned fabric or composite layer?
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Thank you for the reference.
Liam, I was planning to mill from solid wood, but the rib construction you brought up adds possibilities. Thank you
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It’s just drying out a bit faster on one side, it will be fine 
Perhaps it was meant to be in the wood mouldings rack?
It’s probably less important for a turbine, maybe heavier is better, but for a wing aerofoil the weight is a major target. It’s pretty common to cut ribs and then fill the gaps with a light foam type material which can be shaved down to profile and then apply a resin and fibre skin.
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Too funny! That seems typical of 'L’s
I’m liking this approach. If you’ve had experience with this or a good reference source, I would much appreciate hearing. Thanks so much
Perhaps some of the tools for aircraft (incl. models) design would help?
https://wiki.shapeoko.com/index.php/CAD#Aircraft_.28incl._models.29
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As Will says, the aerofoil shaping is the most important part, it used to be that you had to buy a kit or plans but now software and standard profiles seem to be easier to come by. Bear in mind that a turbine blade has more in common with a prop or fan than a standard wing as the airspeed varies from near zero to max along the length which doesn’t happen on the wing of a plane (or rather, it is generally considered an undesirable condition).
It’s been a few years but from what I remember of kit builds with friends -
Here’s a lightweight wood structure which looks familiar, this guy is ‘sheeting’ the wing in thin balsa, I’ve seen cloth and resin used on top of this for strength, also filling the gaps with foam and then lightweight fabric & resin skins, just make sure the resin isn’t a solvent for the foam core you use 
This gent has some things to say about fabric coverings
Glue on and shrink films seem to have become more common
And here’s some folks using hot wire to cut foam between wooden rib formers
HTH
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Depending on the performance requirements and complexity of your design, I think a ribbed build might add complexity. I think, if I were to be building only one, I would cold mold it. I would machine lightweight core material, then laminate and bag it. If it was to be reproduced, I would machine a plug or tool.
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Thanks everyone for all the great info!
And the contemporary price for that custom formed blade is way more than its worth!
I always ask when I go in, how the skis look today.
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Haha! That’s true. I’ve seen them at Lowe’s!
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