Building a Windmill

Intro: Building a Windmill

First of all I want to apologize for my English writing skills - I am just an exchange student from Germany. This was a school project and I'd like to share it with you. If you want to rebuild this, Its the easiest to use your own measures.

Here's a video I made of my Windmill it didn't work 100% at that time, because I just had one hand but now it works properly)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFlojhyixjc

STEP 1: Some Machines You Might Need

Those are the machines I used

STEP 2: The Bottom

1. I started with making an 16 by 16 inch base plate.
2. I made an Octagon with an 0,5*0,5 in stick. length: 3 in with an 45° at the end. Glue/Nail them at the base plate
3 Add 8 10 in long vertical sticks which are cut at an 10° at the end. Glue/Nail them to the Octagon.
4. Cut an circle out of a thin piece of wood. the radius should be 3,5 in, but you better control that at your model. leave a small platform at one end of it. Glue/ Nail them on the top of your construction.

STEP 3: Top Part

Now it starts to get a bit complicated :)
1. Cut out of a thicker block an about 3*2*6 in block
2. Use the wooden thing I made to cut at 10° to make a hole at about 5 in from the bottom part hole shoul be 3/8 in.
3. Make the same block again.
4. Glue/Nail the first Block at the front of your platform.
5. Use a 3/8 Rod and stick it through your first hole.
6. Put the other block on the other side of the circle and mark the point, where the rod hits the block.
7. Drill a hole at 10° about 1/2 in deep.

STEP 4: Mechanics

the mechanical part looks hard but its easier than you thoght, I just show you the pictures because you might need different sizes
If you want my measures and how I did it just weite me a message or a comment :)

STEP 5:

Now the last part is to make your 4 wings.
1. Make a small square about 1*1 in
2. drill 5 holes to the half of it in it . 3/8 in
cut 4 0,75*0,75*8 in are the wing, cut holes at the end too.
3. Make 4 small rod parts to stick both parts together
4. Drill 8 1/8 in holes in each wing and stick 3 in long rods in those
5. cover all with thin wood. I havent finished the last 2 steps, i have to go to the hardeware shop and buy the missing parts:)
6. done.
7. have fun
(Update: Now I have finished all and i will also update a video of it soon)

Comments

[alcurb]

Very attractive piece. I have a redwood version that is not quite as nice as yours.

I have a couple suggestions that would help improve your instructable:

--It's good that you provide the dimensions in your text, but I suggest that you lay out the components with their dimensions on a plan, or better yet, a cutting template. Beginners would especially appreciate that.

--There are at least 5 photos that need to be rotated. Somehow they ended up laying on their sides.

[Tuba2]

A very nice project and fine job constructing your project.
I will look forward to viewing the video.
I hope you time in the U.S. has been and continues to be a positive one.
Your English is much better than many of the posts by native speakers so there is no need for any apologies.

[Nickmensch]

Hey the bottom circle has a radius of 1,5 in the 2 milling wheels a r of 0,5 in. I dont know the exact measurements of the cage, but thats easy to find out :) the head wheels are 1,5 in and 2,5 in (radius) and had 8 and 16 teeth. Hope this helped you ;)

[theamazingengineer]

Could you please leave me the measurements that you used, it would help with my project a lot. Thanks

[chicopluma]

Nice work, I built one once that worked with a motor, its a shame that I don´t keep it.