Dang,,,,I'm gonna HAVE to go see ole Les pretty quick,,,,he,,,he,,just gots lots of interestin stuff to sell or steal,,don't he,,??

  I been thinkin on them windmills for some time,,, Out here there used to be lots and lots of windmills all over the place but in the last 20-30 years they have phased em out and this year durin the Elk and Deer hunts,,,I did not see a single windmill that was complete or even been complete in a long time,,, I did see one that the tower seened to be complete but the fan was gone,,. Does anybody know why they went the way of the dinosauers? I mean,,they are free energy,,and all the wells out there are now got pumpjacks being run by small engines either gasoline or diesel,,,?????

But Farm Collector magazine that just came had story on windmill museum in Texas. An a 23 year old kid that already has a bunch and fixing more.

 Yeah,,Ray,,I was wonderin the same thing bout his REAL reason for wantin a windmill right before winter weather sets in,,,,,,,,,

 Thas the reason I was tryin to lure him out to catch his real reasons for wantin one of them things,,,,,,,,,maybe ole Les oughta hang loose a few days on sellin till we get the real drift of his reasons for lookin,,,, 

Well I been thinkin the past few day yer question Joe, an I don't know what he's up to neither. But the only thing that comes to mind is ole Hubert.

You see those boys like Tyler an Hubert been teasing ole Shameless you know. An ole Shameless can't get thet machine to drift that pretty all the way down to the great state of Georgia. An maybe this is the boost he's lookin for?

So I figure since I'm a fair man an would share my pretty with Tyler an Hubert, I'm gonna let ole Shameless have this windmill, cause I'm curious what he can do with it.

Shameless, it's a Baker mill. I've had it quite a long time. It's one I was gonna restore but never did. It'/s all here but disassembled, the new parts are here with assembly instructions but never put together. It's yours fer free if you want it.

Baker mills were around these parts but were not that common here. They were made over in Illinois, I think. The well companies back in the day mostly used what was manufactured locally, and the aeromotor  windmills were made in Nebraska so they were more common in these parts. You can tell the brand of a mill mostly by the shape of it's tail, An the Baker mill had a square tail. I wanted to erect this Baker mill mainly because it was different than what everybody else had. But this other mill came along that was ready to go, so the Baker mill just remained on the werk bench unassembled to this day.

Ray is correct, If you don't do the maintenence on the mill if will self destruct. It has oil in the crankcase. And once a year a climb has to be made up the 40 foot tower to change the oil. There is no combustion, so there is no contamination found in the oil, so it looks as fresh as the day you put it in. The reason you drain it is you will find water in the oil. Condensation that forms inside the head needs to be drained out. And for some reason it's always a quart low. I was told that if you continue to run it low on oil and eventually gets low on oil enough that it fails to lubricate the main shaft. And the shaft will crystallize and break, and the entire wheel will come off, plunging 40 feet to it's death.

The reason I installed the mill that I did is because of it's history. The mill I have came from the original site of the Mills County Pony Express station. All that was left of the station was a brick fireplace and chimney, as the rest of the structure had fallen down around it, and the mill. Today, none of it is left as the land was cleared and a new home was built there.

But when I took down the mill, and decommissioned the well, I observed something I had never seen before or since. I could tell this well was drilled by a merry-go-round. A horse drawn well machine that spun the machine around in circles by a team of horses. You could still see the swirl marks left in the sides of the well made by the machine. These was no casing. No bricks or anything to hold up the sidewalls of the well. The diameter was large. 40 inches across, and very deep 125 feet. It took a lot of gravel to fill. I dreamed of what it was like in its day, mail arriving by horse. I was saddened in a way, taking part in erasing history, as no future generations will ever know what took place here.

The mill at sunset looking west

 WOW,,Les,,thas a great shot of times gone by,,,it's too bad some of the things that just fade in the distance,,,,

  SDo,,it must of been the "hard work" of having to climb the tower to do maintenance on the gearbox,,what a couple of times a year,,,,huh,,??  But I agree most people do want the easy things in life,,but the cheap ones,,,,er,,,,UMmmmm,,,the frugal ones,,,yeah thas it,,the frugal people don't mind a little enjoyment and still climb the towers and,,,,and,,,save a few bucks,,,yeah,,,you won't see this guy stepping over a dollar to pick up a dime,,,,,,chit,,I'll pick em both up,,,,,,

beautiful shot!

http://s33.photobucket.com/user/Joecdeere/media/wndmll_zpscez7ztku.jpg.html" rel="nofollow">

I've seen windmills in Florida that were only 12 to 15' tall.

Dusty

I'm baffled... Some people go to great lengths to buy a beat up, tangled-up 80-year-old Aermotor from a farm, and restore it to use...

There's a gal in California who drives all over the midwest to buy up old 'mills... and she re-sells them for 5-6 grand...

Aermotor is still in business, selling the same product, yet updated with modern sealed bearings, in stronger castings, better alloys... but totally same look outside, and the whole kit starts well under 2 grand...

Now... windmill size and height is all pretty simple:  it's about how much wind you have available at a given elevation above ground... and how much WIND POWER you need in order to lift the volume of water, the distance (height) you require.

Florida windmills are low, because your water table is about ten inches below the ground... that doesn't take much power to make that lift.  In western Kansas, you're lifting over 300' from the Ogallala Aquifer in many places.  You may have lots of wind, but there's hills up high, so it might take more tower to make that reach.

Both Florida and Kansas have high wind.  Florida, though, has hurricane forces.  Best not to have a large windmill turbine for that... and a really strong furling mechanism... generally a manual override on the furler so you can just lock it down for a few weeks... but keeping the tower short keeps the structure strong.   in areas with tall trees (places in Iowa and Pennsylvania) having a tower tall enough to get the turbine above the treetops is mandatory... at least... if you're planning on actually pumping water.

 HMMmmm,,thas an interestin observation,,Les. One would think that one of the pieces has to be the sacrificial piece that is easier/ cheeper to be replaced. There has to be some wear from the constant friction,,but maybe there isn't any actual contact,,,?? Maybe, maybe,,maybe,,,,Chit I ain't a windmill guy,,I'm just very curious bout them things,,,just bein curious,,,

 I've just always liked the thought and idea of a windmill and since we do not have water or electricity  at the place up in the mountains,,,,I was just thinkin out loud,,,,,

 when I was still workin, and during the annual Shutdowns, I always got assigned to the 268' TCC tower that is WAY UP THERE,,,!!! The stairs ended at the halfway level and it was all ladder from there up to the top. Heights have never bothered me and is sure a beautiful sight of the whole town and then some from up there,,,,,Chit,,a 40' windmill would be a walk in the park for old Joe,,,,, 

Windmills frequently have TWO mechanisms that keep them from getting destroyed by excessive wind loads.  First on is a brake, the other, is a furler.

The brake holds the turbine in a stationary position.

The FURLER either turns the blades sideways to the wind, or releases the pitch of the flights, to stop motion.

The FURLER does all the work... the brake just keeps it from rattling and jogging the gearbox.

There's some windmills that use variable pitch control on their flights... they'll actually change the ratio, in order to manage working speed and torque... as wind speed increases, they reduce pitch to maintain constant speed, but in doing so, they're able to provide higher torque.

There are some windmills that don't use a variable pitch, but rather, just have two positions- working, and feathered.  In the feathered position, wind will not cause the turbine to spin.

Other things to know about windmills:

The wooden pump rod is wood, so that in the event that the well's hand-jack or sucker rod becomes bound, that the windmill gearbox won't become damaged... it will simply break the wooden rod.

There are 'clutches' in many varieties... that can be used to stop the well from pumping.  Typically, when water isn't needed.  I've seen floats rigged to the furler (to knock down the turbine's operation when a water tank was full), and I've seen some that just disengaged the sucker rod, while the turbine kept spinning.

The coolest setups, are when a windmill lifts from well to an elevated tank, providing running water in a farm.  My grandfather's farm had such a system-  cistern was actually buried in the top of a hill, about 40 feet above the farmhouse.  They had running water in the house... since 1880... and a copper heating loop around the jacket of the woodburning stove... so hot and cold running water... and drains in the house to the septic tank down the hill another 30 feet...

Old tech rocks!  ;-)

I'm certain you've seen pictures of pitch-shifting turbines, you just didn't see them in motion and recognize what they were doing!!!  ;-)

http://www.shattuckwindmillmuseum.org/" rel="nofollow - http://www.shattuckwindmillmuseum.org/

Look at the photo on the right... they're lifting a turbine... but in the background is a pitch-shifting turbine, in the fully-furled position.

here's another picture of it furled:

http://www.shattuckwindmillmuseum.org/history.htm

Very nice pic, thanks for posting it Les. 

I always wonder if you could mount an alternator on one and hook it to a bank of batteries.  Seemed like it could be a good source of power.   Around here the Amish will work on them for you.  Story I was told was they take off their shoes and climb barefoot.  Climbing one wouldn't bother me tho, I have a full body harness for climbing, and am a certified climber.

I see short ones around here.  They have an air pump on them and the hose goes into a pond to aerate it.  There is one nearby and it looks like it works.