New guy in the U.P. of Michigan needs help

[Billt]

Hello, recently purchased 2-3 Aermotor towers and 2 motors of which only 1 is useable. I have 4 good, straight legs which are 20' 1/2" long. I assume that this is the top of a 33' or 40' tower. Lots of bracing and a few pieces bent. My question is can I just use the 4 20' pieces and build my tower with the braces that fit and just have a 20' tower? I can make extra bracing if need be
For years I have wanted a windmill on my property not to pump water but just to have functioning. I appreciate any help with my project! I do have some litature and drawings but pieces are just numbered on the prints and no measurements. Thanks again..Bill

[windybob]

Hey Bill welcome! The short answer is yes. I will now start the long answer....

You need to match the top of a tower with the windmill head. ( Yes, size matters). Look at all your windmill cast parts and see what letter is first on them. Either X...A...etc. On the case itself, (front) see what letter and number is on both. You can make your own tower, but save and use the top part, it is special to the Aermotor windmill. From there on down you can Add legs and girts, and X bracing, but keep all holes equally spaced on every part.
Stay tuned. Oh...pictures are helpful.

[mtblah]

welcome to the site Bill, its amazing the help & expertise you will find here !

what part of da UP ?

[Billt]

Thanks for the welcome! The head is X 602 and the fan seems to be a 8'. Started laying out the legs on garage floor today. Are bracing pieces on a angle and girts horizontal or the other way around? Everything seems to be to long and not very many holes in legs for bracing and girts, only 2 holes in legs. I have what are 2 different towers. Steps on second tower are different the aermotor. Also quite a few 1/4" rods with hooks on ends which I think go with second tower.
Am I correct assuming that the legs I want to use are the top of a taller tower?
Also according to the litature I have a 20' tower has 6' between legs. With the top fingers together my base is only 5' 4" on legs.
Will try to post pictures tomorrow. I live in Iron River. Trying to put this together in heated garage as we have 4" of snow on the ground already and temps in the teens at night! Again thanks for any and all help with this. Bill

[windybob]

Bill it's really hard to try to imagine what you have. We need to figure out what you have, so we can figure out what you need. Towers are built using a certain kind of pattern. Like, every 5 ft or so on the leg, you have a girt going from one leg to the next. Then between the girts, you have X braces.
The top of the tower has hardware to set the head on, that's why we need to know what head you have, so we can match the hardware to it.
Then you have anchors to go in the ground to tie the tower to. You can use leftover leg angle for these.

[larrychilton]

First of all, the Aermotor X - 602 was manufactured with a 6 ft. wheel, so if you have an 8 ft wheel, it is likely for some other windmill, possibly an A-602. X means 6 ft., A means 8ft, B means 10 ft and so on in Aermotor windmills.

Larry

[Billt]

Sorry about the error! After looking again it is a A 602.

[windybob]

The 602 was the earlier model. From 1916 to 1933 or thereabouts. It has babbitt bearings poured in the case. The next model, 702 had the babbitt bearings separate, and easily changeable.

[Ron Stauffer]

Bill

If your tower legs have one corner with the loop ladder rungs and is 20' lengths, it is prior to 1915 when Aermotor standardized their design and named them "Easy to Build Up". The earliest Aermotor towers were 30 & 40 etc. The top section was 20' .

Standardized Aermotor tower corner leg length is 13' 8" something and approx 7'
Here is a reference I did for the standardized towers:

aermotor tower dimensions.jpg

Prior to the standardized tower, the dimensions will be close but not the same as listed. Also, ladder rungs are longer than the standardized.

A standardized 21' Aermotor tower has a kink in the tower legs at the platform to make them a widespread. If you only use upper 20' section, the footprint will be half of what a 40' is, not what a standardized 21' is.

The bottom X brace on a standardized Aermotor tower is angle iron and not the split round rods. Standardized 27, 33 and 40 can be shortened more easily as the bottom X has holes for all 3 sizes. I have seen people shorten towers and use the round split rods to the ground. They don't look good and are not as strong.

The only other round rod Aermotor used prior to the standardized tower was the buttonhead rod in conjunction with the keyhole slot girts. Thankfully this was a limited use design that had a lot of issues.

The lower X braces on pre standardized towers have varying designs - straight angle with both ends rolled, twisted lower girt instead of the X, Xs that extended to the anchors, all 7' corner leg sections etc

You might have a hodge podge of towers? When you are done, you can decide if you can call it a "Easy to Build in the UP"...


Ron Stauffer
Montrose CO

[Billt]

Ron, thanks for the drawing. Thought I would make one of my project. I am still confused on the girts and X bracing. Have girts that I think go with this tower but they have bolt holes and slots that I think use the 1/4" rods that came with the pile of pieces. Also have X braces with the pinched ends. Also did get a stub tower but the pieces I would like to use has the stitching on top of legs.
Also confused on the top 3 holes drilled in corner of legs. I'm sure the 1 is for the platform but what are other 2 for? Hopefully my drawing makes sense. Thanks for your help. Bill

Hope the pics go through