Vintage Windmill and Wind Generator Forum

Mike
I also sent this to Joe.
I plan on having mine on display at the Shattuck trade fair in September.
I am not sure on the wood. someone cut the wheel for me and I put it together.
Terry

Any ideas who I can ask about the type of wood? Does someone make wheel sections for these they seem to be fairly common I've seen a few around here

Well the book says the arms are made of oak, but says nothing about the sails.

I found out that they were made of cypress. I can't find cypress anywhere so I found sheets of Baltic birch 1/4" with no knots in it which I think will be suitable. It will be painted anyways

Hope it works for you!

I've started making wheels if I have the pattern for cutting the spars. Cypress is it seems the wood of choice, but for me it is easier to get poplar. Steve in Ardmore told me about 1/4 inch poplar at Lowes and Home Depot. I can cut two blades out of one piece. I was able to get my local lumber yard to order 2 inch thick stock I can use to cut the spars. Supposed to pick up my order tomorrow. I am cutting the parts for a Duplex for Chuck at Tolar and spars for Steve in Ardmore. He wants to engineer a wood wheel for an 8 ft Dempster 12A. I am using a pattern for an 8 ft Eclipse to cut the spars.

Mike and Wayne,
I used poplar for everythinjg.Its a nice wood to work with,seems nice and strong.
I bought 2 x 10 x 10 foot from Windsor Plywood.Was able to get the most good
material from the bigger dimensions.
Mike are you going to make the spars yourself?
I made a jig to cut the slots for my Monitor and I imagine the Dempster is similar
Same compound angles only the spacing will be different .
When I do mine can make yours at the same time and bring them when I come to visit you
in the spring.

Hi Joe
I was gonna try the spars myself. I understand they are oak. I'm not sure if the slots have to be in a radius as the whole fin is on a curve, triangle know whatt I mean? I maybe should get them from you if your making some for yours anyhow
Mike

Hi Mike,
It is near impossible to get the slot cuts lined up without a jig.I tried doing them with a radial arm saw
and if they are out even a degree or two between the inner and outer rims the sails won`t line up.
I have a whole set of rims for 84 sails that I could not use after doing them on the saw.
If you use oak it should be white oak and not red.White does not have pores that need extra
care in sealing to prevent moisture entering.
It`s too bad about using red oak as I have about 100 board feet sitting around for years.
Joe

With jig the inner and outer rims are held in place in the same orientation
as they would be on the finished wheel section.The saw is capured in a slide
that is indexed for exact spacing so that each cut passes thru both rims on every pass.
I used a circular saw with a 8 and 1/4 inch stacked dado blade set with 60 degree tilt
and depth to match that on the sample rims.
Took awhile to get it set up but worth the effort.
Joe