Vintage Windmill and Wind Generator Forum

Justin do you also do wheel arms for other mills like challenge,FM, Stover ?

Windcatcher530 Dan wrote: ↑Wed May 01, 2024 8:13 am Justin do you also do wheel arms for other mills like challenge,FM, Stover ?

I don’t. I mainly do Aermotor parts, 6-12ft and towers.

So I've started working on this project again. In the last couple of weeks I've sand blasted the motor and painted it. Ive laid out my main tower plans. Im doing a 35ft tower with an 8'x8' base. I've also started the stub tower, so now I have a few questions.

#1. What size is the platform? Looks about 3'x3' to me based off pictures.

#2 I have a 10ft fan but I havent actually bolted it together to see if it's a true 10'. Is it 10' exactly? I need a measurement to fabricate my platform. I figure 5'6" from the center shaft should be plenty

#3. Do I really need the tail bone spring thing? I've seen them on Ebay, but why cant I make it fixed? I'm sure theres a reason, I just dont quite understand why

#4 Oiling. I dont have the bull gears. I dont see a reason why I cant fill the case with all about 3 gallons of oil to get the main shaft lubes.

#5. After I get the stub tower situated I'm starting the spokes. I'm just going to bend some 7/16 rod and then weld on some 7/16 bolts to the ends. But I've noticed they are at a slight angle to the spoke. What is that angle?

#6. Tower paint. What do you guys recommend for paint? I want the vintage galvanized look, but mine is new steel. I've looked into rustoleum cold galvanized paint but that seems to be for patching holes rather than new stuff

Kevin , in response to your question # 3 & 4 , if you want your windmill to run non stop wide open , dont install the tail spring , it is the speed govenor to keep the fan from spinng out of control , and , without the 2 bull gears you will not have internal oiling , so eveything will wear out really really fast . your choice .

My opinion is you do not want a mill to run wide open with no load. In my experience, no tailspring enables the tail and wheel to run parrallel, therefore closing the mill. The spring holds the tail open. Or at least on most mills. Not sure about a 10 footer, but the 6 and 8 footers we deal with are like that. A 6 ft mill runs around 100 rpm, with maybe 30 or so strokes a minute. 8 foots are slower. 10's would be slower yet. Platforms we make for our mills are around 32 inches. Wheels are usually close to measurements. A 10 ft would be 10 ft, but would certainly put the platform at least 5 1/2 ft below the wheel center. If you need to put a smaller service platform above that, keep it well within the area of the backside of the wheel. Fans do flex some.

If you skip the bullgears, and fill the case up, it will most likely leak all over the place. Use the bullgears to lift the oil and transfer it to the pinions, which will scraped off by the spout washer and deposited in the snout for the bearings. You could leave out the crosshead, or yoke, pitmans and oiler ring. If you have no topend items, you dont to get oil up there. What I did with mine, is to install all the items, but seal off the mastpipe nut to keep oil out of the mastpipe, because I don't have a pumprod in there to keep the yoke level. But I did put all the parts in the head in case I want to have a working sillouette on the tower.

The angle occurs when you bolt a spoke to the rail. If you want to pre-bend, then make a straight spoke, line it up with a rail, (band) and mark the spoke where to....and what angle to bend it. Then tweak it and re assemble it.

If you could run your item to a galvanizer, that would be the very best in the longrun. We use Van Sickle deluxe aluminum, but that is over already galvanized stock. Whatever you use, I would almost gaurantee you will need you ladder again to repaint whithin a few years. (if you want to keep it looking galvanized)

I you close the mill, but make the brake where it won't stop the wheel, you will still a lot of action from the mill. But even with bad weather coming, it will mostly turn slow. Or at least I do here. I have 2 that way. Several for customers also.

Thanks for the help guys. Answered my questions. I did not know the windmill had any sort of govenor. I'll have to find some better pictures of what I'm missing. As for oiling I figured it would just leak out but I wanted to ask anyways. I'll have to find some bull gears. Will any other models gears be compatible? I'll set a 3x3 platform 5 1/2 feet below the center line. Probably just paint the tower. Was hoping someone found a product that they liked.

most folks are at the trade fair. There has b een a LOT of discussion about paint. Try a search here up top for paint, cold galvanize, galvanizing paint, etc/ Only 10 ft 602 gears work.

So who's got the gears I need haha. I really doubt I'll find them. Might need to figure out another way to lubricate the main shaft. I guess I could climb up once a week and squirt some oil on them. There is definitely alot more to this windmill project than I thought.

I believe Steve Adams has the large gears you need I'll check with him today.