Vintage Windmill and Wind Generator Forum

For all the states we ship to. Our own truck would not be feasible. The past two weeks we’ve shipped Rod to Pennsylvania Inadiana Montana and New Mexico. Along with places in Texas that are 200 miles away or more.

Bart,

Are you working at Nix Mfg in Stephenville, Tx? Thanks.

Jerry Barker

Jerry I am. Alan is my father in law. And Amy in the office is my wife.

May be a silly question, but humor a “newbie”. What would be the indication/benefits of using steel rod vs. fiberglass rod (or vice versa)? Weight? Cost? Durability? Thanks! Neat stuff!

The cost is much less. The fiberglass is a lighter rod. And the 7/16 rod does better in smaller diameter pipe like 1 1/4. And also just preference. I know guys that still like wood rod. But finding good wood rod now is pretty hard. The wood rod we made was very good rod. No knots or cross grain. It held up very good.

Thanks for the explanation!

Weight of a rod does Influence the pumping capacity. Here is a chart of pumping capacity that Baker has in his 702 book. In the left margin are my handwritten notes of the weight per stick.

I had one Arizona customer that I sold windmill parts to that sourced his own drop pipe erc. He used half inch import pipe for rod. In the first year he had thread's break three different times. It was around a 350 foot set. I talked him into trying wheatland tube to replace it. Before before he put it in, I told him to put a siliconun plug at each end to make it airtight. It was in 5 years now, nothing broke or needed releather to pull it to see if it stayed airtight. Half inch pipe weighs about 18 pounds per stick.


Ron Stauffer
Montrose CO

Ron do you deal much with airtight rod?

Bart, just rez work and they supply. In some ways I like it, other ways no. Setups with it need good wood pump pole to break as airtight doesnt bend or break. A jammed cylinder on Rez blew the whole side out of a new 16' motor.

We have been trying to figure out how to sell to the reservations.We have sold our fiberglass to Aermotor in the past that was for a rez. And have made airtight rod ends for a couple of companies selling them. We have just wondered about selling directly to the reservations. But have never known who to contact.