Different Windmill Raising/ Tear Down Techniques

......when you need to get in the weeds.
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windybob
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Re: Different Windmill Raising/ Tear Down Techniques

Post by windybob »

Maybe sometime you could take a trip over there to look around. You know they sold a bunch locally. Until 1917. I'm sure there are plenty still standing. Right?
Call Dan Benjamin for parts. P M me for the phone number.
Kansas Rust Buzzard
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Re: Different Windmill Raising/ Tear Down Techniques

Post by Kansas Rust Buzzard »

You know, I got a friend that grew up there and knew the brothers who had Ottawa Mfgr. I have had him look high and low around Franklin County with no luck at all. About 10 years ago, I met a fellow from Garnett Kans. that showed me a picture of what looked like the main frame on a tower and said the barn right beside the windmill had the wheel in it. He was wanting some wagon wheel work done and we had a trade figured out, next thing I knew he had passed away and latter on I asked his family and they had no idea what I was talking about.

Oh, Windybob, you owe me for this! :D
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rocar-ks
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Re: Different Windmill Raising/ Tear Down Techniques

Post by rocar-ks »

Great pics! Lots of fun to study the snippets of past times they capture. This one puzzles me. Did Ottawa make a power mill? I see something coming down almost to ground level from the head and first pic has no indication of a well. Appears to be undisturbed sod. Doubt they stood up a mill on the farm for display. Drilling a well after the fact with obstruction overhead doesn't seem practical. Must be missing something.
Rod
Mister Ed
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Re: Different Windmill Raising/ Tear Down Techniques

Post by Mister Ed »

That is a really cool set of timeline pics. So a question on Ottawa, is this the same Ottawa that made hit & miss engines (particularly the log saws).
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Ed
JBarker
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Re: Different Windmill Raising/ Tear Down Techniques

Post by JBarker »

Kansas Rust Buzzard wrote: Tue Feb 26, 2019 5:15 pm Well, fiddle, those are not in order, I guess you can figure it out though.
awesome vintage pics. Thanks!!!
Jerry Barker
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farmhousewindmills@hotmail.com
Kansas Rust Buzzard
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Re: Different Windmill Raising/ Tear Down Techniques

Post by Kansas Rust Buzzard »

Mister Ed, yes, They made an amazing number of things but mostly sold locally. Those engines you see were mainly off their drag saws (drag saw) and they were most famous for the those, however they made visible gas pumps, scales, tin wear, stoves, contracted with Curtis Baldwin to make combines, lots of farm equipment, they were almost like Fairbanks Morse on a small scale. There was still some manufacturing there in the 40s but not the glory days had passed, they had changed to Warner by then. I have not been over there in 10 or 15 years but the facility was still fairly intact not too many years ago.
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windybob
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Re: Different Windmill Raising/ Tear Down Techniques

Post by windybob »

Aaron, nice picture, but wrong writing style. Maybe some had the plain block writing style, but in the first set of pics the script had a flowing flair to it. Look carefully, you'll see. My tail has the flowing style. I have about 1/2 of it, but the other half is lost to the ozone layer in the sky for good. I tried blowing up the picture and did see a few things I need, but the resolution keeps from getting it too large.

I can't believe there are none left! Or at least visible anyways. I called and talked to a lady in a historic center over there one time, and she said they didn't even have an Ottawa windmill at the historic center in Ottawa. If I ever find another, I will certainly keep them in mind. Just think....my retirement on the top of a tower somewhere in Kansas! LOL
Call Dan Benjamin for parts. P M me for the phone number.
Kansas Rust Buzzard
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Re: Different Windmill Raising/ Tear Down Techniques

Post by Kansas Rust Buzzard »

Hmm, hadn't noticed that, I will have to get out my file and see if I got another picture for you. If your ever in Ottawa check out their museum, its in the old stone depot, not big but a neat building. They have an Ottawa festival every year in the fall that is a meet and greet of Ottawa mfg enthusiast and engine collectors. I have never gone but might be a good place to find someone knowledgeable about the windmills? I had a guy show me pics of his collection once, literally hundreds and hundreds of items they made.
Ron Stauffer
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Re: Different Windmill Raising/ Tear Down Techniques

Post by Ron Stauffer »

A couple more comments on this topic:

Be very cognizant of where your work platform on those towable jib crane is in relation the potential of the mill to swivel. We had just finished pulling 600' of rod under a 16' when a storm came up. In watching the storm from the open barn door, we got to see a sudden opposing wind gust that rotated the furled mill about 180 degrees. The boom on the pump hoist rig was higher than the head and the swiveling mill's tail bone hit the boom with enough force to take the 15,000# truck out rigger off the ground 6 inches. Luckily no damage was done to either the tail bone or the truck boom.

Tom B's post on the official Aermotor hinge brackets at NMSU school was interesting. There were very similar brackets in use on the Navajo Reservation. So that explains a lot. The first we did work there we thought they would be a joy to use even tho their towers had pipe windows. Most mills there are 12, 14 or 16. On the rez their hinge brackets had less play than what is in Tom's pic. The major drawback is getting those big mills centered on the wells once they are tilted back up. They always moved when tilted down and back up. You could tell that no one tried to recenter them as the pump rods had worn through the majority of mast pipe bases.

Hinge on the rez:
DSCF1019.JPG
After hinging a few early on, we only hinged if we were pulling pipe and using the power tongs never just for rod. Their drill stem towers pipe windows were open to 15' which is noticeably easier than an Aermotor 13.5' pipe window.

If you are going to hinge, the key is to pull straight and vertical with a gin pole, loader, or crane pulling as vertical as you can get. This reduces the lateral pressure on the tower. Bigger mills are fun when they come over center being raised.

Ron Stauffer
Montrose CO
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Kansas Rust Buzzard
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Re: Different Windmill Raising/ Tear Down Techniques

Post by Kansas Rust Buzzard »

While talking about lifting windmills, this is out of a 1915 Catalog for Althouse Wheeler stuff.
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