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Knowing the direction of the wind can be useful, because it is not for nothing that wind indicators – weathercocks – have long been installed on almost all roofs. There are very simple models – just an arrow that shows where the air flow is directed. There are whole works of art – three-dimensional layouts. We will talk further about how and from what to make a weather vane with our own hands.
What to make a weather vane
Wind direction indicators are made from a variety of materials. The main thing is that these materials are durable and well tolerated by weather influences. The following materials meet these conditions:
- Sheet steel with a thickness of 2 to 5 mm. A very durable weather vane is obtained, but it is difficult to work with such metal.
- Cink Steel. Volumetric wind direction indicators are made from this material. Two identical parts are connected, giving them some volume. Everything is fine with them, but it’s hard to paint – only powder paint and some automobiles adhere to galvanization quite reliably.
From galvanized steel, you can make volumetric weather vanes - Sheet aluminum from 2 mm thick. It is cut with scissors for metal, connections are made on rivets or bolts.
- Double-sided foil textolite. The material is infrequent, but fully meets the requirements. Easy to cut and paint well.
- Sheet plastic with a thickness of 4-5 mm. There can be so many problems with painting, but if you take the plastic of the desired color, then there is no need to paint it.
Some products are more like a work of art - Waterproof plywood. Cutting is very simple, only the ends will need to be additionally protected with impregnation, painted with paint in a couple of layers.
The most durable, of course, are metal weathervanes. But cutting sheet metal is a difficult task. Sheets are thinner – 2-3 mm, you can still try to cut them with a jigsaw with good quality files. And then, you have to stock them in large quantities. All other materials are cut with this tool with a bang.
Where to get or how to sketch
Sketches for a weather vane can be found with dimensions, or you can create from a suitable picture. To do this, any picture you like must be loaded into one of the photo editors, enlarged to the desired size and printed. This trick can be done with COREL.
Another option is to open the drawing in AutoCAD, outline the contours with half lines. Get the desired outline. It can be enlarged to the desired size.
If you are not very friendly with computer programs, you will have to work with your hands – draw a picture into small squares, then transfer it to paper on a large scale.
How to make a weather vane
Glue the finished sketch of the weather vane in natural size, printed on paper, onto a piece of material of the desired size. Transfer the contours to the material in any way possible. You can do this:
- With the help of a copier. This option will work with plywood, plastic and textolite.
- With the help of punching. This method is suitable for metal. We take a narrow chisel or a powerful awl, put the tip on the contour, hit the handle a couple of times with a hammer from above. The tip leaves a small dent in the metal. So we transfer the entire contour.
Some products are more like a work of art - With a drill and a drill. This method is suitable for any material. For metal, only stronger drills are needed. The drill needs a small diameter. We drill holes along the contour with a small step. Where the bends are sharper, we make holes more often – in order to more accurately transfer, where the lines are even or with a smooth bend, there may be few holes.
We restore the contour according to the marks. On some materials, this can be done with a pencil or marker, for metal – only with the help of the same punching.
Next, you need to cut out the body of the weather vane along the resulting contour. The tool for cutting the weather vane should be selected depending on the type of material. In most cases, a jigsaw is suitable. For softer materials, you can also use a hand file. For metal with a thickness of 2-3 mm, you can also try to cut out the weather vane with a hand saw or a jigsaw. True, it will take a long time. The metal is thicker, even the most powerful jigsaw will not take it. For such a case, you can use a welding machine, a large chisel. Straight and not very rounded sections, you can try to cut out the grinder.
After the “body” of the weather vane is cut out, the edges are processed to smoothness. To do this, use needle files, files, sandpaper. If there is a grinder, the process can be accelerated by placing grinding discs of different grain sizes.
How to make a swivel mechanism
In order for the weather vane to perform its actions, it must be fixed movably. And so that at the slightest wind it turns. To do this, the “body” of the weather vane itself is attached to a rod, and the lower part to the roof or chimney (if a weather vane is made, a chimney cap with a weather vane). These two parts are connected movably – using bearings or other similar connections.
With the help of a ball
You can find any bearing and weld two parts of the “holder” to it. You can make a rotary mechanism without a bearing, but with a ball of a suitable size or a cone.
For the manufacture of a rotary vane mechanism, you will need two metal pipes of different diameters or a pin of a smaller diameter and a larger pipe. Moreover, they must be selected so that one enters the other with a minimum gap (2-3 mm).
A weather vane body is attached / welded to a wider pipe. And it is necessary to make sure that the upper part of the pipe is sealed. The down tube or pin is used to mount the cardinal pointer. It is she who is attached to the roof. Its upper part must also be welded or sealed.
If you do not have a welding machine in your arsenal, you can use wooden corks – they are tightly hammered into the pipe. For reliability, you can lubricate the walls with universal glue. But this option – with wooden plugs – cannot last too long. From frequent turns, the wood will be erased, so after a while the turning mechanism of the weather vane will have to be restored.
When assembling the weather vane, a ball from the bearing is placed on the installed pin, the weather vane body with a welded pipe is put on top. For smoother rotation, you can add oil to the mechanism. After that, we can assume that you have already made a weather vane with your own hands. True, it still needs to be fixed, and doing this is far from easy – working at height with a heavy and bulky product in your hands is another task.
with turned cone
If you couldn’t find a ball of the right size, but you know a turner or you can work with metal, you can carve a cone that will replace the ball.
The weather vane assembly scheme itself remains the same: we attach the body to the upper pipe, and fix the lower one on a pole, roof ridge, etc.
Finalization
In order for a metal weather vane to serve for a long time and at the same time have a presentable appearance, it is necessary to carefully paint it, having previously prepared the surface well. To begin with, with the help of sandpaper we remove rust, completely to bare metal. Then we cover it with an automotive primer (you can also use a rust converter). After drying, the primer can be painted.
We take paints for outdoor work. All automotive ones are great, but oil ones are also possible – such as hammer ones. They give an interesting effect. You can also try to paint with powder paints, but they require special conditions – high temperature. Otherwise, the coating will quickly fall off.
After applying the paint, leave the product to dry for two days, without touching it with your hands. Such paints dry for a long time (with the exception of powder ones), after “samples” stains remain. If the quality of painting suits you, you can install the weather vane in place.
Homemade weather vanes of varying complexity: photo reports
When making a do-it-yourself wind direction indicator, many questions arise. The design is simple, but there are many options. For example, a swivel assembly can be made in many different ways, not to mention the shape and dimensions of the body. Everyone chooses what he likes best. In order to form at least a general idea of uXNUMXbuXNUMXbhow you can make this device useful for a summer cottage or garden plot, we will give several examples of home-made weather vanes with step-by-step photos.
Based on a bearing from a VAZ pump
The bearing is taken from an old VAZ. Pipes were found according to the size of the bearing – one such, in which this bearing is included. In this pipe, we install a stopper so that the bearing does not fall inward, having installed it, we weld it. From pipes of smaller diameter we cook a cross, to which we then attach letters indicating the direction of the cardinal points.
We weld another piece of thin pipe to the top of the bearing. This will be the turning part, to which the body of the weather vane will then be attached. We weld two short pieces of pipe perpendicularly to this pin – we will weld the cut weather vane to them. To protect the bearing from moisture and dust, we use the boot from the tie rod, pulling it up before we started to weld the turntable.
A cat is cut out of an aluminum sheet 2 mm thick, the letters are made of galvanized steel. We will paint them from a spray can with bright red car enamel, a cat with black.
It remains only to weld / attach all the parts by assembling the weather vane.
A homemade metal weather vane on a bearing is ready. Can be installed on the roof.
The simplest weather vane in 5 minutes from improvised materials
When hunting, fishing or dacha, you may need a wind direction indicator. You can literally make a very simple model out of nothing. You will need:
- plastic or paper cup (preferably large capacity);
- thick wire (you can use aluminum or steel);
- plastic tie;
- washer with an inner diameter not less than the diameter of the wire.
The manufacturing process is very simple. First of all, carefully, without damaging the walls, remove the bottom. You can remove it from a paper cup, you will have to cut it off from a plastic one. Further, stepping back from the wider edge about a centimeter, we make two holes in the walls, located one opposite the other, we thread the wire. We bend one end of the wire – so that the wind indicator does not fall off.
On the opposite side – from below – we put a washer on the wire, raise it to the level of the glass, leaving a very small backlash (several millimeters). We take the screed, tighten it, fixing the washer at the desired level.
Actually everything, we made the simplest weather vane with our own hands. Of course, it is very short-lived, but a long service is not always needed. And to indicate where the wind is blowing, it will be correct.
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Photos of weather vanes and ideas for sketches
The most common themes for making a weather vane are a cat, a rooster, an eagle, a ship. They are the most common. There are many options and variations. But there are some very unusual ideas. Perhaps, looking at them, you will want something original.