Windmills

Discussing windmills in another thread recently, got me to thinking about these photos from a few years ago that may be of interest to some.
We have 9 mills still in operation with wheel sizes from 8ft to 21ft.
The bearings in this Metters 14ft mill were completely worn, and rather than wear an expensive repair bill we decided to
run it to destruction, then replace it with a solar pump.
Sure enough, despite pouring copious amounts of oil into it, it eventually let go with catastrophic results.
It would have been easier to cut a couple of legs and let the whole show come crashing down but we spared the old girl that indignity and let her down gently.

Thats pretty cool, don't see too many of these smaller ones around here anymore, and the couple that are still standing aren't getting used for anything. They are building loads of these in my area though... https://apps.carleton.edu/reason_package/reason_4.0/www/images_local/60759.jpg

Nothing like water from a windmill and listening to one

Yair . . . .

Good stuff Queenslander. No doubt that old girl served you well.

It does seem the days of mills are numbered as it seems in most cases it is cheaper to run a down hole pump and panels . . . I did see one setup out from Charleville where they were running a pump jack from panels.

Cheers.

This happened five years ago but, given what I now know about f$&@;g solar pumps, I should have repaired the thing and pulled it back up.
On top of the initial purchase price, we have spent $2500 on a new control box, impeller, stator etc.
They say you are doing well to get 10 years out of a modern solar setup.
The Metters weren't a particularly good mill, but this one was 60 years old and there are plenty still working that are much older.
The pump jack idea has a lot of merit.
We once had a little Honda on a hugely oversized pump jack.
One you got it going, it would tick away at an idle, easily pumping 5000 gals on a tank of juice.

Yair . . .

That surprises me Queenslander . . .I had assumed the solar stuff was pretty good,
Before we got power here I pumped into an overhead tank to run trickle on a couple of acres of small crops and the Chinese piston pump and four panels and maximiser ran trouble free for five years.

A bloke down the back waters a few weaners from a bore of mine with a little Grundfoss submersible hanging on the cable and 3/4"garden hose. It only pumps from thirty feet with two small panels but it has been doing the job for ten years or so . . . from what you say it might be due to cark it.

There is no doubt windmills revolutionised the grazing industry and for the most part were durable and well engineered.

When we had the workshop in Karumba Wallace Logan bought us in a well worn Comet brass deep hole pump that he reckoned had been working down a hole on the headwaters of the Flinders for over forty years.

It was a difficult job to bore it and sleeve it and it cost him a mint. He was well pleased though as he could put it down the hole again with new pipe and it would see him out. He reckoned that even then (back in the 'eighties) it was getting difficult to find people who could tame and tie off a twenty five foot wheel and pull a pump . . . and I suppose that maintenance factor is one of the reasons solar is selling.

Cheers.

Mono pumps are giving us the most grief.
They were among the pioneers of solar pumping but, in my opinion, their modern gear is expensive and unreliable.
Grundfoss are much better, but the last two we have bought have been Chinese.
So far they've been very impressive, a third of the price and better performance as well.
In the past, one of the major drawbacks to running a mill was the need to constantly replace the gal. steel pipe column because of holes.
Now, we have rigid poly or even stainless steel pipe which have slashed maintenance requirements.
The only time I met Wallace Logan was in the mid eighties when he turned up at a store sale at Eidsvold and bought every pen of steers in the first row, some several hundred head.
You don't see that anymore.

windmills are pretty outdated huh?

Rozay said:

windmills are pretty outdated huh?

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Well, so am I but I'm still handy at times...

lantraxco said:

Well, so am I but I'm still handy at times...

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Well as a famous guy from the great white north would say: Red Green: "If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy."

That probably goes for a few of us here!

Great thread Queenslander. I find the old windmills fascinating. I would love to see photos of your other windmills. The big ones sound especially cool.

Give me a week OIH, would love to chat more about windmills, but have a bit on at the moment.
Cheers, Greg

I recently read my Grandfather's diaries (He started keeping them in 1957), he owned ranches in Arizona and New Mexico. He spent many hours pulling sucker-rods and pipe, repairing wheels, and working on gearboxes. He would feed and check cattle one day and work on windmills the next. He occasionally had a day off to do all of the other ranch work too. I don't have any pics though.

Queenslander said:

This happened five years ago but, given what I now know about f$&@;g solar pumps, I should have repaired the thing and pulled it back up.
On top of the initial purchase price, we have spent $2500 on a new control box, impeller, stator etc.
They say you are doing well to get 10 years out of a modern solar setup.
The Metters weren't a particularly good mill, but this one was 60 years old and there are plenty still working that are much older.
The pump jack idea has a lot of merit.
We once had a little Honda on a hugely oversized pump jack.
One you got it going, it would tick away at an idle, easily pumping 5000 gals on a tank of juice.

Click to expand...

Hi there Queenslander,

There's a lot of solar pumps getting installed in this neck of the woods, but what you said is true - they're replacing a mill that gave decades of trouble free service with something that most would agree is only going to last 10 years. Having said that, we're looking to replace one of our 15 mills that blew over in a storm with a solar pump, mainly because the dam it's on is deep (and going deeper next time it goes dry), and the mill won't suck from the bottom of the hole. Poor old Metters - did the fan droop too much and hit the platform? (I've seen that 12G somewhere before too!).

There's the odd windmill mechanic floating around - we're lucky enough to have one based locally, and I have heard of one from central QLD.

Cheers,

Scrub Basher.

hillbillywrench said:

I recently read my Grandfather's diaries (He started keeping them in 1957), he owned ranches in Arizona and New Mexico. He spent many hours pulling sucker-rods and pipe, repairing wheels, and working on gearboxes. He would feed and check cattle one day and work on windmills the next. He occasionally had a day off to do all of the other ranch work too. I don't have any pics though.

Click to expand...

That would be something to type up and post somewhere, or just scan them in on the computer. I would love to find something like that from one of my Grandparents.

On fathers side granddad was among other things a logger up in Minnesota and on mother side granddad was I believe a millwright who emigrated to the US from England just before WWI on the RMS Lusitania, before the Germans sunk her. As the USA was slow getting involved in that war he crossed the border into Canada to join the Canadian army. He passed long before I was born and dads dad passed when I was only 12 and lived half way across the country so I never really had much chance to know him. And now with both my parents gone little way to know any stories about them. Often the simple bits of information from the past can help you get an idea of what life was like back then.

I was doing a bit of maintenance to this mill recently and recalled this thread from a year ago.
This is our second biggest mill, a 20ft Comet D Pattern on about a 50ft tower.
The Comet mills all used hardwood crankshaft bearings lubricated by wicks from small reservoirs.
This one would be 80 years old and still in good order, only requires a little oil once a year.

Went to sleep many a nights listing to the squeak of an old aermotor. It's gone now and the last mill was an old 3 leg mill. High wind and got it.
Miss them

Yair . . .
It looking dry out your way Queenslander . . . its shaping up to be a shocker over here and I have heard down at Gayndah its even worse.

All the best and Cheers.

This is as bad as I've seen it at this time of the year, Scrub.
With only a couple of days of Summer left, we've only recorded 40mm (160pts) for the season.
This is the baby of the fleet, an 8ft Metters.
A geared mill running on whitemetal bearings, very similar, I believe, to the US style Aermotor.
This photo from today.

These, from better times.

If you haven't seen the news from California, google it up. These folks had a record drought going and prayed fer rain... they got it!