Past Projects

A Guild rendezvous now going on involves building a windmill for the Mid-America Windmill Museum in Kendallville, Indiana, from the plans of the Robertson Post Windmill at Colonial Williamsburg. See our photos and reports from the field.

Leaders of this project are millwright Jim Kricker (of trebuchet and obelisk fame) from Rondout Woodworking, Nancy Bernstein of Amstutz Woodworking, Leon Buckwalter of Ischua Valley Timber Frames, and Dave Gaker of Timberframes, Ltd.

In traditional rendezvous fashion, Guild members will camp and work together to complete this unique structure, modeled after the first windmill in America, the Robertson Post Windmill in Colonial Williamsburg (see Jeff Zody's report that follows). Guild member Jeff Zody is the on-site coordinator, with Ed Levin of Paradigm Builders producing the working drawings.

Jeff has lined up co-sponsors to keep this a very low-cost event. Home stays with local residents and campsites (including RV sites) are available at no charge at a variety of locales near the worksite, including Bixler Lake Campground, the Museum, and a farmhouse donated for our use. The community will provide most lunches and dinners; you'll probably be on your own for breakfast.

Dreaming Creek Timber Frame Homes has pre-cut the 5,000-pound Great Post as well as some of the mortises for the windshaft. Rendezvous participants will mainly lay out, cut and assemble the "buck" or house frame, which sits on the post and encloses the works. If time allows we'll craft and assemble the remaining wooden machine parts. We've been working on some interesting solutions to problems associated with a very small frame built of very large timbers. Things will be tight: a 16-in. deep stick is never more than an arm's length away in the finished structure.

The current plan is to assemble the windmill's base and raise the Great Post by the first weekend, then cut and raise the buck by Thursday, June 1, with a few extra days on the back end for unexpected delays. The roof will be assembled on the ground and installed after the windshaft and brake wheel are dropped into the buck. Sounds like quite an adventure.

Participants do not need to attend the entire two-week event, but we need to know when you will be there so we can plan accordingly. Please write the Guild office or reach me (413-623-9926, will@tfguild.org) to reserve a spot and receive further specifics. This should be a highly educational event, and is one of the rare opportunities for a Guild project in the nation's heartland. -Will Beemer

Guild and museum member Jeff Zody as well as another museum member, Richard Hobson, went to Williamsburg in late October to scope out the project, get detailed photos, obtain answers about several mechanical areas of the mill, and to get a feeling for the project in general. His report follows. To read about the history of the Mid-America Windmill Museum, visit http://www.noblecan.org/~kpc/wind/post.html

The Mid-America Windmill museum specializes in restoring windmills, which you may view on the grounds. Above, the refurbished hand-hewn beam barn that serves as a gift shop and a display area for informational exhibits. Next to the barn is a windmill on a 50' tower.

We arrived in Williamsburg, Virginia, on Friday afternoon. Our first mission was to visit Bob Shortridge and the folks at Dreaming Creek Timber Frame Homes, who were hired by the museum to supply the timbers for the frame. Dreaming Creek has cut the Great post, cross trees, and quarter bars to size, but they have not yet cut the quarter bars to length as the Great post continues to shrink. We were unable to see the Great post because it is at a shop location further west. In our own mill project, we may need to leave the quarter bars long to allow for future shrinking of the post. Dreaming Creek will also rough out the windshaft. The remaining timbers are rough sawn.

We spent most of Saturday looking over the Robertson Post Windmill at Colonial Williamsburg. Unfortunately, we were not able to spend much time with Neil Black, one of the millers at Colonial Williamsburg and someone who is very knowledgeable in the areas of operating the mill and its mechanics.

The Great post base, cross trees, and quarter bars.

Planned meetings fell apart through no fault of his own. (Other employees who were to help cook and demonstrate failed to show up for work, and the whole hog he was to roast arrived frozen solid, not thawed as requested. The hog roast was intended to help feed the group of timber framers who were raising the frame for a kitchen.)

We caught Neil as he raced from one task to another. He would answer a couple questions and dash off to turn the hog or demonstrate for visitors. We certainly are grateful for all the trips he made up and down the windmill steps to help us. He stayed late, missing plans with his family, so he could finish roasting the hog and answer our questions. Many thanks to Neil!

We took several detailed photos of requested areas. The new wind shaft is installed. It will be ready to turn once the bearing caps are bolted down and they get a strong enough wind. It requires 10 to 15 mph wind speeds to turn the wind shaft. The original stones, which were about 54" across, have been replaced with smaller stones that are easier to turn and cost less.

Left: Brake wheel, brake band, wind shaft, sprattle beam and wallower. Right: Neck bearing, compass arms.

We were told the neck bearing runs steel to steel, but after reviewing the photos, we can see clearly that it is steel to wood. Possibly the neck bearing supports the sail end of the wind shaft through alternating steel and maple pieces let into the windshaft. This bearing area is steel to wood, not babbit to wood as called out in the plans.

This has not caused a problem on their mill, most likely because the mill does not run very much. They have not noticed any problems with the pillow block-style roller bearing on the tail end of the wind shaft. The bearing used is a self-aligning type.

The flashing for the wind shaft appears to be copper, but it would need to be changed for our project. The flashing tucks up under the siding and is over the breast beam at the bottom of the wind shaft. A 2" gap is open all around the wind shaft, thus allowing rain to blow/run in and lay in the neck bearing area.

Flashing at the wind shaft. Right: Front of building, showing the installation of the corner trim, which catches wind-blown water.

Possibly a round piece of flashing could be split and be secured to the wind shaft. A two-piece design, along with a piece secured to the wind shaft, would eliminate the large opening. The piece that is attached to the wind shaft would need to be behind the top half of flashing and be in front of the bottom half.

The wind shaft is the most troublesome piece on the mill. The old shaft was rotten in the mortises for the stocks and in the neck bearing area. Preventing water from lying in the "V" created by the wind shaft and stocks is impossible. This area will need to be studied and a decision made on how to protect this area. Good flashing design should solve the problem in the bearing area.

The siding as installed is a water trap. The trim boards on the corners are installed so that their front edge is forward of the front siding. This leaves a 90-degree inside corner. Should any paint be cracked, wind-driven rain would be forced into the corners and potentially rot the corner post. The siding installed laps only a small amount; this will need to be changed. These problem areas were mentioned in Derek Ogden's report on the mill.

A continuing problem with the frame seems to be the 20" x 20" crown tree bowing from the load it carries. The crown tree at the Colonial Williamsburg mill had steel added to the ends at the top forward edge, but does not appear to go the full length of the timber. Derek Ogden's report indicates that some structural timbers were left out of this mill when it was built.

Rotting of the cross trees would be next on the list of problem areas. A good preservative will be required in this area.

After spending more than a day in the mill at Colonial Williamsburg, I feel much more confident about building the mill. When all I had was drawings of the windmill and a lot of unfamiliar component names, it was beginning to seem overwhelming. After being inside the mill, I now know it is a small frame with a lot of large timbers really close together. A 16" or larger timber is never more than an arm's length away!

What a wonderful piece of work this will be for many people to see. A timber frame is great, but standing inside a timber framed machine is incredible! I feel that building a post windmill will make a terrific project. -- Jeff Zody

The Robertson Post Windmill, Colonial Williamsburg

contents
May 31 Report
May 31 Part 2
May 31 Part 3
May 31 Part 4
June 1 Report
June 2 Report
Final Report

Jeff Zody.