Scrapheap Challenge - building a windmill


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Scrapheap Challenge is a TV programme, where two teams compete over two days to build, and then use, a device to satisfy a challenge set by the programme makers. (In the USA, the programme appears as Junkyard Wars).

The fourth programme in the third series, aired on UK television at 6pm, 8th October 2000 on Channel 4, gave the two teams the challenge of building a windmill.

The Challenge

Build a windmill to power a coffee grinder, with the winning team being the one which grinds the most in an hour. The site for the test is Beachy Head, a windswept cliff on the English south coast.

The Teams

The two competing teams are
  1. Manic Mechanics, (with Jim Barr as their expert) who build a horizontal axis device
  2. Techno Teachers, (with Giles Peterson as their expert) who build a vertical axis device

Although the programme has already aired in the UK, if you haven't seen it yet I wont spoil it by giving away the result (though you can find it here if you really want to know).

What I will reveal is


Building windmills from scrap parts


Scrapyard Challenge Links



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Last updated 03/03/2017 Text and images © Mark Berry, 1997-2017 -