Windmill
Built by Adrian Ashford in January 2009
The windmill in the 1954 № 6 outfit manual was the starting point for this model, which I recall building for one of our early exhibitions, as per instructions, with the addition of lights on the ends of the sails.
It’s an attractive model, but looking at it again, it appeared to be rather dumpy, so I simply made it taller by making the sides 12½” instead of the original 7½”.
Also, on real mills of this type, the main shaft carrying the sails is not horizontal but slopes downwards, from back to front. This has been achieved in this model simply by journalling the rear of the main shaft one hole lower.
The sails, making good use of part № 61 Windmill Sail, and illuminated with Elektrikit lamps, are driven by a cassette tape recorder motor, through a double reduction belt drive, the final drive being via a 15-tooth pinion and a 95-tooth gear. These are positioned on the shafts to achieve optimum mesh, as the final shaft is obviously not parallel with the pinion shaft.