Vintage Windmill and Wind Generator Forum

All,

Thank you for accepting me into this forum. I live in Colorado on a small hobby farm. I recently acquired an old windmill. I have attached pictures of it in the field were I got it from. I am going to restore it and put it up on my farm. I looks to be in pretty good shape and mostly all there. I need a little help identifying it. The most distinguishing feature I see on it is "Beatrice NEBR." It also say "6 Ft No 12." Is there anyway to tell its age? I have restored cars before but never a windmill. This will be a fun project! Any recommendations on where to find info to help restore it would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Larry.

Welcome to the forum.

I’m not very knowledgeable on Dempsters, although I have one and rebuilt another one. Someone should be able to help. Looks like a Baker tower.

CTXmiller, so Dempster is the manufacture? And Baker is the style of tower? I am completely new to windmills but learning quickly.

viewtopic.php?t=13
Follow this link on this forum. There is some downloads for Dempster catalogs.
There is parts lists and other info there.have fun restoring the # 12
Welcome to the forum and ask a lot of questions and have fun restoring the # 12.
Terry

fiegland wrote: ↑Tue Jun 28, 2022 9:30 pm CTXmiller, so Dempster is the manufacture? And Baker is the style of tower? I am completely new to windmills but learning quickly.

Semi-correct, Dempster manufactured windmill, but looks like a Baker manufactured tower. One can adapt another manufacturer’s tower to accommodate a different windmill by adapting the turntable and storm stay.

I’ve rebuilt one 6’ #12 before. There are easier windmill gearboxes than the #12 to rebuild, but with the advice and some of the threads on here (i.e. this forum), you can do it.

Larry , these guy's are an amazing source of information & help . The best part they do it freely at no charge .
They have " been there , done that " for more than a few years . Heed their advice .
Thank you Paul for keeping this site going .
Mike B

In my opinion, Dempster are probably more difficult than most. If you can learn to understand them, and rebuild them, then most others will come easier. That one appears to be from the 40s or 50s considering the square heads on everything, instead of hex. But I would need to see the front hubs, and inside the rear hub (spider) to look at the oil seal area. At least it looks for now like a rebuildable model. It's a standard 6 ft Model 12, that were the most popular and sold model from Dempster. Started in 1923 I think, or 22, it has gone through several changes since inception.

The tower is made by Baker Mfg, Home of the Monitor windmill brand. Evansville, Wisconsin is the home of that company. A hybrid unit of one brand mated with another is no big deal. There are probaly more hybrids than factory mated units here.

I have written quite a bit here on helping others work over those mills. I doubt they are all in one area though. It is quite a bit of writing, maybe you can do a search for Dempster, and save me more writing about the same thing.

If you have a mechanical background, I'm sure you can tackle this, albeit it is not a precision, high speed machine. It's a mass factory made gearbox by probably underpaid workers at the time (lol) but at least back then they had a quality control department. Original color is bright red as you may already know. Take pictures, make notes, and ask questions. You will also need a heapin' helpin' of patience. Parts are available, no problem.

windybob, thanks for the info. I will definitely search Dempster and read anything you have written about them on this forum. I am very mechanically inclined so am not too scared of tackling this. So, if I get pics of the front hubs and inside the rear hub (Spider) could we pin down a decade that it was made in? I got everything loaded and home last night. I took off the bonnet and found this nice field mouse nest inside. Need to do some cleaning of it tonight.

Those little guy's did impressive work !

Welcome to the forum Larry i can't help you with your Dempster never worked on one but I can cheer you on. Lots of knowledge on this forum don't be afraid to ask.