Vintage Windmill and Wind Generator Forum

If you are going to take the tower apart to straighten it, why fart around with hauling it in one piece? Take a bunch of photos. Take a Sharpie and discretely label the parts. Take it apart and haul it on your truck.

If you want to reuse old mastpipe, check how straight it is. It's very common for them to get bent. After motor is off, take a hammer and tap the turntable cup up and remove it from mast. Lay a long straightedge along fat part of pipe, extending up next to skinny part. Straightedge should be paralle...

I think it's a good idea to install these wrap-around U bolts on the old style 503 hubs that didn't have the holes for straight U bolts... which I call NUB hubs (No U Bolt). Once in a while I see a NUB hub mill with nice tight spokes that worked the way Aermotor intended, but more often the spokes a...

I wish I had enough indoor storage space for this. Mine sit out in the weeds, piled on pallets that are returning to the earth.

Looking at the gear box I was thinking a Monitor, but it looks like this wheel would have clockwise rotation, and Monitors are CCW. I suspect it had the style of storm stay on the mast pipe that is held in the center by four bolts, and one or more of those bolts broke or wore and popped out of the s...

I explain how the governing system works and tell 'em the windmill is designed to govern itself in anything short of a hurricane, don't worry about it... but if you know there is a bad storm coming, it's a good idea to put the brake on. I tell 'em never ever even think of chaining or tying the wheel...

Post by billcobb » Sun Sep 01, 2019 9:32 am As a side question, how much of a gink would you try to straighten without an overlay patch? I snagged a corner of a tower with my hay mower. Looks terrible but not cracked or leaning tower of Pizza with too much extra cheese. I thought I might try to for...

Looks like an early pre standardized tower. Was it a 20 and 10 section? Judging from the lower X braces and the corner angle lap below the girts, I would guess it had the shorter steps? And it would not have had a standard footprint for replacing with a standardized tower? Ron Stauffer This is a 40...

One more after photo.

A couple of weeks ago I spent a day and a half straightening out this tower that had been somewhat pretzelized by a snow plow truck backing into it. Houlton before 1.jpg Houlton before 2.jpg Sorry I did not take any job-in-progress photos. Mike (the plow driver who was atoning for his error) and I d...