Vintage Windmill and Wind Generator Forum

Wow!
Now you really have me questioning the direction of rotation! I do not remember which way it turned before disassembly but thanks for pointing that out. I though I knew a few things about windmills, so it makes it a bit difficult to as the following questions.... How do you assemble a wheel to assure that it turns in the proper direction? Also, is clockwise the correct direction for rotation?
Thanks for the replies and information.
MOD 8

You can't change the direction of your F and W wheel.Your going to have to find the correct wheel and maybe the wheel arms too. That Mill is meant to run clock wise and not sure if it didn't hurt anything in the gear box. Has it been running backwards for a while?

Thanks Dan,
Do you know if certain mills run counter clockwise? Or is it standard that all mills run clockwise? I am sorry (and annoyed) that I cannot tell you which direction the mill was turning for the last 45 years! I did not see any damage, nor do I think anything was excessively worn inside the box besides the main wheel shaft and snout bearing. I will be posing pics on my thread in the project section soon about potentially getting a different wheel. I believe I have a Heller Aller wheel as it has 36 sails and is 8' but to me, needs A LOT of work.
Thanks,
MOD 8.

H/A mills turn CW. F and W mills CCW. I've changed the rotation of wheels before by altering the sail clips. You have an advantage already built in, due to the sails being on one side of the bands and the bands not going through the sails. I'm not telling you to do this, I'm just saying it can be done.

The Aermotor has a device that scrapes oil from the pinion and puts it in the snout area. To do this best, the mill turns the pinion oil up to the scraper on the spout washer. Apparently, it has been scraping just enough oil to survive. There are other areas that the correct rotation helps oil flow, however if the bearings are somewhat decent after 45 years, who am I to argue with success?

There were a handful of manufacturers that designed their mills to run counter clockwise but the majority of them ran clockwise. Your snout/bearing can be replaced not a hard job. But if you're shaft is worn you'll need to replace it which means removing the pinion gears. Keep us posted !!

Thanks to windybob and Dan for the replies. Super surprised to learn all of this new (to me) information from the experts and I appreciate it VERY much. I never paid attention to direction of rotation to my mill or any other windmill for that matter.... My dad has a Aeromotor on his farm but I am quite sure it has the correct wheel as the outer wheel ring runs through the sails, but you can guarantee that I will be checking that out now!

Also, on my Heller Aller the main wheel shaft and snout were quite worn which might be due to the reverse rotation? Between my grandfather and I it has had annual oil changes for many years but he did buy it from a salvage yard.

Removing the tapered pins from the pinion gears, ya that was neat/impossible... I have to get some more pics of that mess and I will keep you posted.

P.S. Should this discussion continue in the intro section or should it be moved to an alternate location? I am new here and want to follow the rules.

Thanks all,
MOD 8

Those pinion gear pins are tapered and only come out "Correct" one way. Or the hard way if you do it wrong .

Ahh yes, the tapered pins on the pinion gears...

The hard way? I think I may have done it the most difficult way possible known to mankind.

I did quite a bit of research on how to remove the pins before attempting to do it. Initial attempts included grinding the pins flush with the collar on the gear, grinding a air chisel tip to a custom size, excessive heat from oxyacetylene torches, hand held sledgehammer, etc. and nothing made them move. After repeated attempts with these methods I moved on to drilling which did not work either. Since I was out of options I utilized a sawzall and cut the shaft into pieces to remove it. It took about 20 -25 minutes per cut depending upon how sharp the blade was. I could have torched it out much quicker but I didn't have a extra shaft for measurement references for the holes that would have to be drilled in the new shaft.

The machinist that helped me with the project utilized the width of my sawzall blade and added that between each cut to determine where to locate the holes for the pinion gears, wheel hub, etc. The new shaft ended up being right on for proper gear alignment.

Pic of my dad taking a turn at running the sawzall, and the pile of pieces that came out of the box.

Well I've sure done that more than once. Sometimes it's the only way. Never really been in a H/A head, but I have some to work on. Fortunately many shafts are regular sizes, and not too much machine work.