Simple Windmill As Decor

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Intro: Simple Windmill As Decor

Hi All,

In this instructable, I will share how I made this simple and elegant windmill decor for my home using coffee stirrer sticks. This project takes time and patience.

STEP 1: Tower Part 1

  • For the tower, we need a large piece of a cardboard
  • Draw a trapezium of 3"x 1.5" with a height of 12"
  • Cut 6 pieces of the trapezium, tee will be the walls
  • Cut 1.5", 3" and 2" hexagons as shown
  • Using paper tape, glue all wall pieces together, and use the hexagon pieces to give the right hexagonal shape
  • Leave the tower to dry for 2 hours

STEP 2: Wood Work

  • I used coffee stirrer sticks to cover the tower horizontally
  • I used a pliers to cut the sticks to size
  • And used PVA glue to stick it in place, one by one
  • To reduce wastage, I used smaller pieces together
  • Leave this to dry for 1 hour
  • I did not cover the base or the top of the tower
  • Also, stick additional sticks vertically on the edges to hide any gaps
  • Use paper tape to hold the sticks in place, where needed

STEP 3: Top

  • For the top, I made it in two parts
  • The bottom part was a 2" hexagon and walls of 1" height
  • Fols and glue the walls to make the bottom
  • The top cover is a hexagonal cone that is glued to the base
  • Drill a hole of 4mm, we will use this hole to mount the windmill blades
  • Cover each edge with wooden sticks as shown

STEP 4: Blades

  • Use a sharp knife and split the wooden sticks into thin sticks
  • We need about 12 thin sticks full length and several for the ribs of the blade
  • on a cardboard piece, stick the thin sticks (full length) separated by a gap of 0.5"
  • Now at a 0.5" gap, stick thin sticks vertically
  • Let this dry for 1 hour
  • I used a 3d printed part to lock all 4 blades together, as shown

STEP 5: Balcony

  • Using regular popsicle sticks, create a hexagon floor
  • Cut wooden 6 dowels of 1" length to make pillars
  • Superglue them in place and stick 6 thin sticks over them
  • Let it dry
  • Based on the final length, add more pillars
  • This is the only part where I had to use superglue

STEP 6: Door and Windows

  • on thin cardboard, stick small pieces of sticks to make doors and windows as shown
  • This cardboard is the same that we used to make the tower and the top
  • One can choose to do more details, by adding handles etc(using clay)

STEP 7: Assemble

  • Place the balcony over the tower,
  • Adjust its height, by removing the inner parts of the balcony
  • Stick the top on the tower using PVA glue
  • Fix the Windmill blade
  • Cover the windmill with varnish for protection
  • We are done. Place the windmill on a shelf and admire its beauty and your hard work

12 Comments

👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
I hope you win, but I think you will have a better chance of winning if you put it in the woodworking contest!!!!
I hope you win!!!!!!!
edit: spelling
Good work. I like the base and stairs.
Hello! Thanks for the interesting project. I did start working on my own version of this, but I'm stuck at creating the roof.. Could you please tell me how you did it? Thanks!
Hi, thanks, the roof is in two parts, bottom is a hexagon with tapered wall. So if you take 2" hexagon the wall is 1" ht and 1.5" at top and 2" at bottom.. top is a just a hexagonal cone. Let me know if you are able to do it. Else I will make a template that you can scale based on your need
Hi! Thanks for the answer, i ended up going a different route and cutting triangles for each part of the roof and sticking it to the hexagonal base, this worked better for me. Thank you!
Good to know. Do share an image.
Hello! Took a few days, but I'm now finished with this windmill that i made for my girlfriend. Here are some of the end pictures! Really enjoyed this instructable! Thanks for the tutorial!
I Jove this project! I am going to try to make one myself. Thank you for your hard work. 🥰
Thanks, please share when done
This looks like a fun make. your instructions are clear and I like the idea that it is easily adjustable. I think I will give it a go very soon. It will look cute among my plants. Thanks for sharing your clever idea.
Thanks, please feel free ask if you get stuck at any step

Waiting to see your version