Vintage Windmill and Wind Generator Forum

I'm in north-central Florida about a half-hour north of Gainesville. The storm track shifted a lot further south than they had originally predicted and I barely even noticed the weather. 1/2 inch of rain, maybe 30 MPH gusts. We lost power for about 12 hours. If I hadn't been watching the news I ...

With Ian on the way, I thought I might ask the question that's been on my mind. Other than pulling the mill out of the wind, is there anything I need to do to get ready? Is there anything I even can do? And second question, I had to build my brake mechanism from scratch and I didn't quite get my ...

Alright, I actually remembered to grab some pictures when I got home. Too many to upload but you can access them here for a couple of weeks: https://www.dropbox.com/t/QgNZJb0Sztlvfu0q

See the attached diagram for how the parts interact with each other, the plunger rod, and the tower.

I'll try and get some additional photos for you. Do some searching on this forum though. I've seen several threads on on pull out swivels. If you've got to build something to work, and you aren't super concerned about it being a accurate part, so much as a useful part, I'm sure you can make ...

My Fairbanks Morse (made by Woodmanse?) spins counter clockwise. I didn't realize I was backwards to everyone else until I started comparing it to photos of other mills. Everything was on the other side! Any advantage one way or the other? I can't think of any.

Windy- Welcome back! I've got a bone to pick with you though! You didn't tell me we were in a race. I might have finished a long time ago had I known it was a contest.

Glad you are feeling better. It's nice to see you online again.

Ron- I think we have a winner. A few differences so maybe not a Midland, or maybe just an older model? That's really cool to figure out. It would be really neat to re-use it, but I'm afraid I might be asking for trouble trying to get it to play nice with other parts. Not to say that it couldn't be ...

Talk about finding a needle in a haystack! My property is part of what used to be 800-1,000 acres of farmland. Corn, hay, and watermelons. There actually was a windmill on the property but they tore it down with a bull dozer back in the 80s and bunched it up out in the woods. And then someone stole ...

hedgerow- are you the one with the towable lift and the boom arm attachment? I've lost track of what thread I saw that on. This rental was well built, and brand spanking new- 1 hour on the meter when I picked it up, 2.5 hours when I took it back. So zero slop in any pins. It still swayed like a ...