Vintage Windmill and Wind Generator Forum

I acquired a Monitor X (10’) with a 30’ tower a few weekends ago. It seems mostly complete and appears original to the tower. No bullets holes. According to the seller, it had been down for about 20 years or more at the sellers place. The seller purchased it, but never erected it.

I straighten the wheel arms, wheel and tower as well as shortened the tower to 20’ by removing the bottom section. Overall, it seems to be in good shape for its age. After some lubrication, the hub and gears turn with one hand.

Couple more photos

Nice mill CTXmiller i believe that's a pull in Mill.love open gear models

Michael, that green stuff growing on your monitor is called " patina "

What is the condition of the shafts and gears

Congratulations on your X. I have one. What amazed me is the blades for the ten ft X are bigger than the blades for my 11 1/2 ft Axtell Ever-oiled. They found out they didn't need all that metal to the center.

rockingjl wrote: Sun Oct 17, 2021 9:00 am What is the condition of the shafts and gears

Thanks

The two main shafts seem to be in great shape. The gears have a decade or two left in them as I’m only going to turn on this mill (once repaired) very infrequently.

The pitman needs to be welded back up. Needs a brass bushing in the bull gear for the pitman and I’m replacing several of the pins. The tailbone had been repaired previously, but I wouldn’t put it up with the tailbone repaired as was. The extra leg angle, after shorting the tower to 20’, was the same 2.5” as the tailbone so I made a replacement tailbone with the extra leg angle iron. I’d actually prefer the tower even shorter…like 12-14’, but I’ll leave it as is as that is the shortest I can get without cutting.

Dan - I have one other open gear and it is a Parish that I’m working on. Probably going to replace some of the grease plungers on the X with grease cups, when and where they will fit.

Mike - the green stuff (patina) we receive free from metal objects laying on the ground. You probably see a lot of that too.

Wayne - I have what I believe to be two Monitor sections also from a later 10’ mill. Those two sections are a few inches shorter than the X sections. So you’re right…less metal in the center and bigger spokes.

What does a platform for a Monitor tower look like for the gut buster corner steps? Like an Aermotor platform with the clipped corner? Thanks

Nice ,I do like the open gear mills .please keep posting as progress goes

I have a later Monitor tower with the steps next to a leg and it has a square platform, I do not know if it is original. I can post pictures this evening but I think it is different than what you have with the corner steps

CTXmiller. Nice find. Thanks for posting the pictures.