When we found and bought our land a few years ago, the windmill and tower where already there. It had been destroyed in Hurricane Ivan. The sail was in twisted pieces and the mast was bent. The tower was hinged at the bottom, so with a little help from a local welding company with a boom truck we quickly had it laying sideways and easily worked on.
I found a local guy, a very senior fella, that was an accomplished Aermotor mechanic(by his own admission). He pulled the helmet and started checking serial numbers and stuff like the date of manufacture, May of 1936, at Aermotors then Chicago facility. He pronounced it a "Fine" mill and in good shape except for the missing sail, completely repairable. We negotiated a repair price and that was the last time I have ever been able to get in touch with him! In all fairness, it is a pretty tall tower, and he was pretty old with more than a few fried bluegill dinners under his ample coveralls.
The cost difference between repairing the old and buying a new mill solved the problem for me. Today I have a new cool functioning water pumping windmill and an antique mill sitting next to the pasture fence, waiting to be repaired.
All of the work was done on the ground with the tower down. The fully assembled mill/tower was raised by the guys with the boom truck. The attached pics will show "Bubba" servicing the mill with oil and securing the helmet immediately after standing the rig up. That earned him a pretty good tip since it kept me from having to climb the tower to do it!! OSHA would probably not approve of his methods but it worked for me.
After getting it up and connected we had several days of the calmest winds I can recall. And a WINDmill without wind is a huge metal sunflower, cool to look at but absolutely useless! Thankfully before coming back offshore the wind picked up and I was able to get a taste of sweet, cool well water!
