Powermill in Wisconsin ID help please

[Windcatcher530 Dan]

Thank you sir i will check it out.

[windybob]

No problem. I think we would all like to match it up.

[gravel hill]

You folks are incredible! I'm just struck by the help you are giving me with this windmill adventure.
So today I hauled the wheel sections out and laid them on the ground...then took a handfull of nuts and bolts and clamp and put the wheel together...roughly together. Here's a surprise, the wheel is 13 feet in diameter. I measured it more than a couple times....odd that's its 13 feet....yes?
I also studied the mill head with my daughter's binoculars...pretty powerful ones. I think you guys are on the right track that, at one time, there were two shafts running through the head. And I found a couple of gears and and shaft. Some straight cut gears and one angle cut...like you would use to make the drive 90 degrees. It seems to me that perhaps the fan shaft had a open gear on it that drove another shaft that went through the mill head to drive the vertical lineshaft down the tower..? Once again I tried to use my phone with the binoculars to take pictures... I'll post those pics...not the greatest..but it's the best I have for now...I'm NOT climbing the tower..it will be a couple of months before we lay the tower down.

IMG_1890.JPG

IMG_1891.JPG

IMG_E1877.JPG

IMG_E1883.JPG

[windybob]

That wheel is incredibly beautiful. INteresting clips! Thanks a TON for the added pictures! Maybe we can glean a bit more info now. Does that look like a trap-door in the head to anyone else, or am I just losing it?

[windybob]

Sometimes on the leg(s) of the tower there is stencilling or writing. Usually above the ground a few feet.

You say you are NOT climbing that tower LOL but you signed off with a saying by John Wayne..........

[windybob]

If that's the original tail pin, that's unusual. A reference point for sure.

[Windcatcher530 Dan]

Gravel Hill two things. Is there part numbers on the gears.Also can you take close up pics of the ladder, cross braces, and girts on the tower.

[gravel hill]

yep...looks like a trap door on the head...
I've looked at the legs...so far no clues there...I will take pics of the tower though, tomorrow and look closer....ladder pics too.
I agree the tail pin looks like it belonged there. As the story goes my brother in law put the pipe and small pulley over the tail pin...then ran a wire from there to the house for a radio antenna...
I'll clean up the gears and look for numbers...
As for courage, I've always liked that quote...I ride horses...And if my wife caught me on that tower right now she'd kill me...beware of the farm girl's temper.. I've changed light bulbs on 300 foot smoke stacks for years. I think someday I'll be on that tower...
Thanks so much for all your effort folks...really appreciated!
God Bless.

[Windcatcher530 Dan]

Gravel Hill I'd bet the tailvane is around there somewhere cause if they took the time to take the wheel and shaft and gears off and keep them i can't see them getting rid of the tailvane. That would solve the mystery.

[windybob]

Oh! Ok, so that's a pipe slipped over the tailpin? I see. That explains why it's so tall. Because it does not look like that in the complete pictures.

I agree that if the wheel was so carefully taken down, the tail may be also. That would make sense. and yes! that would certainly solve it.