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Wind vane

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Wind vane

Postby Lurker » 09 May 2021, 18:16

Decided that I would like a wind vane, has anyone built one?
Looking for ideas
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Re: Wind vane

Postby AJB Temple » 09 May 2021, 18:44

No, but I have looked into it quite a bit and a US friend of mine started a business selling them.

I didn't pursue it, despite have a wind corridor along our border, because you need a massive windmill to get any appreciable amount of power. Capital cost for something useful means payback period is immense. Unfortunately.
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Re: Wind vane

Postby Lurker » 09 May 2021, 19:39

I think you misunderstood , I want to make a wind direction indicator.
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Re: Wind vane

Postby sunnybob » 09 May 2021, 19:43

Like this one
https://www.alamy.com/an-old-ship-weath ... 43288.html

Its on the custom house roof in cardiff docks, driven past it many times.
Absolutely huge, ugly as sin. :lol: 8-)
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Re: Wind vane

Postby novocaine » 09 May 2021, 19:47

I made a copper one using the scrolls to cut it out.

I wanted a giant cock, but was told I was being inappropriate so we did a rooster instead. I'll see if I can find a picture, but don't hold you breath.

Hardest part was getting the balance right so it balanced on a point and moved freely.
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Re: Wind vane

Postby AJB Temple » 09 May 2021, 21:44

In the brief period when I was allowed to do metalwork at school, before serious subjects were enforced, I made a weather vane. (I did indeed misunderstand). It is still on my parent's shed. I like them. There was a brilliant cockerel on the vane of the church spire over the road from the family house when I was a kid. Go for it.
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Re: Wind vane

Postby Lurker » 09 May 2021, 22:28

I think I can sort the engineering of the spinny pointy bits
But I am at a loss for ideas of a way to make the cardinal points

By the way...... Why do weather vanes traditionally involve big cocks?
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Re: Wind vane

Postby toolsntat » 10 May 2021, 01:01

This one I found in an old joinery shop the other day seems to just sit on a spike. All copper with one side a thicker gauge. Been shot at a few times....
Cheers Andy
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Re: Wind vane

Postby sunnybob » 10 May 2021, 05:16

Lurker wrote:I think I can sort the engineering of the spinny pointy bits
But I am at a loss for ideas of a way to make the cardinal points

By the way...... Why do weather vanes traditionally involve big cocks?


Because it was a MAN's work :lol: 8-)

But seriously...... the shape of a cock is ideal for a wind vane. front to back isnt very long, so less balancing problems, but the tail can be big enough to overcome the beak resistance and therefore always swing into the wind.

Cut the letters out of copper sheet with tin snips.
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Re: Wind vane

Postby novocaine » 10 May 2021, 07:16

copper or aluminium and a jewlers saw if you don't have a scroll saw.

yes, they all balance on a point, but the secret is get the balance right, it needs to sit slightly noise heavy, otherwise, when the wind gets the back half it pushes it down slightly the bottom of the tube rubs. (I'm talking 2mm gap at the front to 4mm gap at the back, not a lot)

this is a secret only known to people who make them, I found it out by mistake. :lol:

it's also something you only find out after you've climbed down from the spire and come back to admire you handy work on a windy day, only to find it's pointing the wrong way. :lol:
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Re: Wind vane

Postby Lons » 10 May 2021, 09:24

I've thought about making a weather vane for years and never got around to it however I was planning fitting the support rod into bearings as I didn't realise they sat on a point so presumably bearings wouldn't work?
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Re: Wind vane

Postby novocaine » 10 May 2021, 09:26

Lons wrote:I've thought about making a weather vane for years and never got around to it however I was planning fitting the support rod into bearings as I didn't realise they sat on a point so presumably bearings wouldn't work?


bearings seize up, they also have a little bit of stiction to overcome in order to move, so the lightest of breezes may not turn the vane.
traditionally they sit on a spike but I guess if you are ok with bearings then crack on.
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Re: Wind vane

Postby Lurker » 10 May 2021, 10:01

I made one years ago using a rod and a tube, with a ball bearing sat ontop of the rod.

My current dilemma is making some stylish N,S,E &W.

Andy, is that vane potentially on the market? If yes please PM
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Re: Wind vane

Postby novocaine » 10 May 2021, 10:07

Lurker wrote:I made one years ago using a rod and a tube, with a ball bearing sat ontop of the rod.

My current dilemma is making some stylish N,S,E &W.

Andy, is that vane potentially on the market? If yes please PM


I can CNC you some in card. :) does it rain where you are? :lol:
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Re: Wind vane

Postby AJB Temple » 10 May 2021, 10:12

Annoyingly, this has given me some inspiration to make another one. Just thinking about designs.
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Re: Wind vane

Postby novocaine » 10 May 2021, 10:25

Funny enough, I'm now thinking of doing one for on the roof of the kids playhouse. :D you might have started a trend.
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Re: Wind vane

Postby 9fingers » 10 May 2021, 13:06

I improved the bearing on a wind vane I was given. It had the typical tube on the moving part and a spike of the static part.
Firstly a dollop of grease up the tube then a single ball bearing selected for a sliding fit in the tube, pushed into the grease and then fitted back on the spike.
Will spin freely like a good'un.

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Re: Wind vane

Postby AJB Temple » 10 May 2021, 13:22

That's a very good idea Bob. Did you use a cup shape rather than a point (which would wear fast I suppose) on the pin?

To be fair, the one I made for my parents is pretty old now and is just a pointy rod in a piece of metal drilled with the same angle as the point, then greased. It is just an arrow though, with NSEW markers on rods around it. Proper schoolboy stuff.
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Re: Wind vane

Postby 9fingers » 10 May 2021, 13:29

AJB Temple wrote:That's a very good idea Bob. Did you use a cup shape rather than a point (which would wear fast I suppose) on the pin?

To be fair, the one I made for my parents is pretty old now and is just a pointy rod in a piece of metal drilled with the same angle as the point, then greased. It is just an arrow though, with NSEW markers on rods around it. Proper schoolboy stuff.


It was a 5 minute improvement attempt at the time of fitting using a ball from my tobacco tin of said items.
I left the point as supplied on the original. Can't imagine significant wear unless living in tornado country :lol:

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Re: Wind vane

Postby Tiresias » 10 May 2021, 19:16

Humm. This is ours, down for repair, as it happens.

Simple tube over a point. No bearing as such. It sits on the top of the doocot, over the tennis court, hence the design. Still looks to me like a chap attempting to murder a chicken.

Copper at the top, iron below.

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Re: Wind vane

Postby Lons » 10 May 2021, 21:50

It looks more like a pigeon than a chicken and he's trying to bash it with a tennis racket. :shock:
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Re: Wind vane

Postby toolsntat » 14 May 2021, 09:03

Lurker wrote:I

Andy, is that vane potentially on the market? If yes please PM


Sorry to say it's not for sale Jim. I absolutely love it and now on a quest to find old photos of the Market Bosworth area to see if I can spot it ;) 8-)

There might still be a couple of others to do with fishing though. Hard to see but in the window line above and slightly to the right of the lathe there's a fisherman in a boat reeling in a fish. Sorry only picture I can find....

Cheers Andy
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Re: Wind vane

Postby Mike G » 14 May 2021, 13:18

Now THAT's what I call a workshop, Andy.
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Re: Wind vane

Postby NickM » 14 May 2021, 14:02

My wife bought me one. If I recall correctly, it was simply a tube over a pointed rod, but I think it may have had a ball bearing in it as well (i.e. a single ball on top of the point.
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Re: Wind vane

Postby droogs » 14 May 2021, 14:48

sunnybob wrote:
But seriously...... the shape of a cock is ideal for a wind vane. front to back isnt very long, so less balancing problems, but the tail can be big enough to overcome the beak resistance and therefore always swing into the wind.


Speak for yerself there SB :eusa-whistle:
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