Hello all,
Well, today I finished up my windmill project! Not a little weekend project - atleast not when primarily doing it by oneself. I am sure many of you know much more about ponds and windmills than I, but thought Id post some of my project photos for anyone interested. Modifying Jeeps is a hobby of mine so posting and reading/seeing others builds is always fun for me so I thougth Id do the same thing with this mill.
First of all a windmill is very similar to an adult version erector set. It was a lot of work but very enjoyable. If you have pneumatic tools it will make the thousands of nuts and bolts go MUCH faster. I built the tower and fan at my home rather than at the pond site. This made things easier for me but the transport of a 24' tower was a little tricky.
This is how the Windmill looks when UPS drops it off. About 300lbs of little galvanized parts packed in 8 boxes.
Very few parts are the same - most are different lengths and are used in and for different sections, fortunately all were well labled. The directions were so-so but all in all it was not that difficult. I started building it in my garage and quickly realized that it needed to be moved out into my drive way.
After the tower I built the fan - not really difficult, just a pain to work with because of all the parts.
Once the tower and fan were complete I borrowed a flat bed and loaded everything up. I was not to worried about the length - I figured it would hang over the end of the traler without any problem, but I had not considered the width at the base. It measures about 10'-6" wide at the base. So I decided to transport it really early yesterday morning when fewer people would be on the road.
Here are a couple bad photos of the windmill loaded up.
Fortunately, the 18 mile tip went smoothly and I had no problems. I spent half my Saturday digging for and pouring the foundation along with a few other things. I measured and re-measured about 10 times before putting in the anchor pins into the concrete piers. If that would have been messed up it would have been a nightmare!
Today, I connected the fan to the pump and installed it to the top of the tower. I ran all the air lines, got the two diffusers ready by running the weighted air line into a plastic bucket with rocks in the bottom (keeps the bottom of the pond from getting stirred up when the difusser rests on the bottom and insures it lays flat.)
Fortunately my Father-in-law came by to help me stand this thing up. It is supposed to take 4-5 guys to stand so two is a lot better than 1. I figured two guys and a warn winch could do the job. It stood without a problem and fortunately my foundation measurements were right on. Within a few more hours I had the air lines connected and diffusers set. It was great to see the air flow even in a slight breeze. I don't know if one mill this size will make much of an impact on water quality in a pond this size (time will tell) but If nothing else, I like looking at it!
