How to Make a Windmill

Windmills are charming decorative features for any landscape plan. They conjure up images of wooden-shoed Dutch children and the heroic quest of Don Quixote. The windmill, once a common feature of European and American countryside, all but disappeared with the advent of rural electrification. Today, windmills are making a comeback as the graceful turbines that, like their older cousins, have begun to dot the countryside to provide energy once again. Build a windmill and declare your support for alternative energy.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Lumber or scaffolding
• Nails, screws and assorted hardware
• Head assembly
• Assorted axles, gears, nuts and bolts
• Canvas or metal sails

1. 
   American windmill. The metal "fantail" behind the blades turns the assembly into the wind.

   Pick a style of windmill. Fixed windmills, like the ones seen around the Mediterranean are built in areas where the wind blows almost always from one direction. The windmills we call "Dutch" and American farm windmills have blades, or "sails", mounted in assemblies that can rotate so the blades can always catch the wind. If your windmill is decorative only, you may want to avoid the extra equipment it takes to carry the extra load of a moveable head (top) assembly and use the design of your choice with a fixed head assembly.

2. 
   Fixed windmill on the island of Mykonos. Triangular sails are attached to the arms when the mill is in use.

   Choose a location for your windmill where it will have space and exposure to the wind. If you are building an American windmill, you'll need vertical space, unobstructed by wires and trees. A "Dutch" windmill that rotates will need space all around to accommodate the sails. A traditional fixed windmill will need space for the arms in one position only.

3. 
   Isometric of a Beebe windmill head assembly

   Build your windmill base of wood, metal, brick or stone. The head assembly is the critical part because the sails and fantail ride on it. American farm windmills have steel assemblies that are fairly compact. Older designs, like the Beebe mill shown above, located in Long Island, N.Y., use a wood axle, fantail and and wheels with iron or steel gears. Depending on the type of mill you're building, these components must be installed so that the blades, or sails, sit on an axle that turns a gear that meets another gear at a right angle. This gear will turn the axle that runs the mill or pump at the bottom of the mill. The little fantail in the Beebe mechanical drawing above functions as a governor, controlling the turns of the cap of the mill. The wheel that the fantail runs on should be attached to the inside of the mill itself while the head assembly rotates with the cap. Steel and reconditioned head assemblies are available on the net. Construction of a wood assembly is probably better left to experienced woodworkers.

4. Build your mill to meet your needs. Use solid steel blades for American farm windmills but larger "sails" of canvas draped over wooden blades for larger fixed and traditional mills. The traditional lattice sails of northern Europe are familiar as the "Dutch" windmills and the fixed Spanish windmills of Don Quixote. Tilt sails slightly to accept the wind needed to move the head assembly. Build only a lattice or arm for mills that will be decorative. Get some engineering help (which may be as close as your local home or farm store) to design and install a pump for aerating a pond or pumping water.

Tips & Warnings

• Remember that you are building your mill to support not only the weight of the sails but the "load" of the sails plus the wind. Your mill must be strong enough to withstand the forces of the strongest average winds that happen in your area. The Waupun, Wisconsin mill pictured above sustained a tornado several years ago with only minor damage.
• There is information on the web for building windmills. Serch using the words "build" and "windmills". There are also websites dedicated to building your own wind turbines to generate energy for your own use.
• Windmill building is a science as well as an art. Unless you're an engineer or machinist, buy some prepared plans and find a reliable source for precision parts.

Resources

• A grinding mill from England
• Windmills, parts and supplies
• Mediterranean windmill photos
• American windmill installation