Hebridean Windvane
Posted: Sun Dec 28, 2014 11:14 pm28 December 2014
With my plans to go around the block it had become obvious from comments of friends, already half way round, that I was going to need a wind vane steering system.
Over the last few years I have visited many windvane sites and as the cost of the commercial products became clear I started to concentrate on the home built variety. I investigated all the commonly visited web sites and did a fair bit of reading. From time to time I made the decision that this one or the other was going to be the one I would build but I never did really start. Even as late October this year I was talking to a person about his home made windvane and preparing drawings to build a copy.
Then I picked up the September copy of the English sailing magazine, Practical Boat Owner [www.pbo.co.uk]. The article that caught my eye was about a new design of home built windvane called the Hebridean Windvane. I then found the web site of John Fleming [www.windvaneselfsteering.co.uk] the designer, and gleaned what information I could. I decided that there was enough information to reverse engineer the windvane, but most importantly, it would be cheap and quick to build. I decided not to import the components from the Hebridean web site as this would have cost over one thousand dollars plus assembly costs. It took me about two weeks to prepare the required drawings and material list. While I thought I had the design down pat, I was to discover as I built the windvane that some information was not as evident as I thought and it took careful reading and viewing of photographs and videos to extract the information.
Looking at my stock of timber I discovered some Blue Gum that I had had for some 20 years, so it was well seasoned. With some Tasmanian Oak I had, as well as buying a 2 m length of Pacific Teak flooring for the pendulum vane, there would be enough timber to build the windvane. .
My first action was to get all the timber dressed at the Laurieton Men's Shed so I could begin construction. The first part built was the main frame, which I made of three parts to be laminated and screwed together. The pendulum blade was reduced using an electric planner. I have changed the original design of the wings to make them easier to construct. I have spent about 16 hours doing the woodwork so far.
Next I made up the stainless steel parts to my designs as the original seemed to be fussy in some cases. I welded the main pivot block [originally bolted together] but didn't quite get this part right so I had several goes at drilling the right size holes giving me four alternatives. I didn't realize the cost of some drills [the one I needed, but didn't buy, cost $50!] and if building a seconded windvane would use slightly smaller SS pivot rod, luckily the Laurieton Men's Shed had the laths to reduce the pivot rod. I have spent about 4 hours on the steel work.
At present I am constructing the upper vane part, but this will require the expertise of the Laurieton Men's Shed laths again to complete [around the 12th Jan 2015].
In the mean time I will be gluing and preparing the wood parts for painting, completing the final bits of SS fittings and assembling the finish components of the windvane. Mounting the windvane on Seaka is still in development but it will be mounted using SS tube and Bimini fittings. I am trying to lighten the weight of the fitting as the Pacific Teak is fairly heavy.
So far I have spent around $150 on timber, stainless steel bits and pieces including fixings, $120 on paint and glue and $100 on rigging parts. Final costs should be under $500 plus my labour.
For extra photos go to my blog at [www.sailblogs.com/member/seaka] and select More Photos to see all the photos.
Don't forget to like the site at the top, look for the g+ symbol.
With my plans to go around the block it had become obvious from comments of friends, already half way round, that I was going to need a wind vane steering system.
- First examples.jpg (385.38 KiB) Viewed 3031 times
Over the last few years I have visited many windvane sites and as the cost of the commercial products became clear I started to concentrate on the home built variety. I investigated all the commonly visited web sites and did a fair bit of reading. From time to time I made the decision that this one or the other was going to be the one I would build but I never did really start. Even as late October this year I was talking to a person about his home made windvane and preparing drawings to build a copy.
Then I picked up the September copy of the English sailing magazine, Practical Boat Owner [www.pbo.co.uk]. The article that caught my eye was about a new design of home built windvane called the Hebridean Windvane. I then found the web site of John Fleming [www.windvaneselfsteering.co.uk] the designer, and gleaned what information I could. I decided that there was enough information to reverse engineer the windvane, but most importantly, it would be cheap and quick to build. I decided not to import the components from the Hebridean web site as this would have cost over one thousand dollars plus assembly costs. It took me about two weeks to prepare the required drawings and material list. While I thought I had the design down pat, I was to discover as I built the windvane that some information was not as evident as I thought and it took careful reading and viewing of photographs and videos to extract the information.
Looking at my stock of timber I discovered some Blue Gum that I had had for some 20 years, so it was well seasoned. With some Tasmanian Oak I had, as well as buying a 2 m length of Pacific Teak flooring for the pendulum vane, there would be enough timber to build the windvane. .
My first action was to get all the timber dressed at the Laurieton Men's Shed so I could begin construction. The first part built was the main frame, which I made of three parts to be laminated and screwed together. The pendulum blade was reduced using an electric planner. I have changed the original design of the wings to make them easier to construct. I have spent about 16 hours doing the woodwork so far.
Next I made up the stainless steel parts to my designs as the original seemed to be fussy in some cases. I welded the main pivot block [originally bolted together] but didn't quite get this part right so I had several goes at drilling the right size holes giving me four alternatives. I didn't realize the cost of some drills [the one I needed, but didn't buy, cost $50!] and if building a seconded windvane would use slightly smaller SS pivot rod, luckily the Laurieton Men's Shed had the laths to reduce the pivot rod. I have spent about 4 hours on the steel work.
At present I am constructing the upper vane part, but this will require the expertise of the Laurieton Men's Shed laths again to complete [around the 12th Jan 2015].
In the mean time I will be gluing and preparing the wood parts for painting, completing the final bits of SS fittings and assembling the finish components of the windvane. Mounting the windvane on Seaka is still in development but it will be mounted using SS tube and Bimini fittings. I am trying to lighten the weight of the fitting as the Pacific Teak is fairly heavy.
- Side position of WV in use..jpg (210.59 KiB) Viewed 3031 times
So far I have spent around $150 on timber, stainless steel bits and pieces including fixings, $120 on paint and glue and $100 on rigging parts. Final costs should be under $500 plus my labour.
For extra photos go to my blog at [www.sailblogs.com/member/seaka] and select More Photos to see all the photos.
Don't forget to like the site at the top, look for the g+ symbol.
