The owl flies .. weathervane finished

[RcRacer]

I finally finished welding and painting my weathervane project. But, unlike Cary fearlessly standing on the roof trusses of his new building, it took this chicken some time to work up the courage to do the mounting job.
I wonder if an owl's metal silhouette will scare any of it's natural enemies
The owl and the letters were cut on my Plasmacam. The directional arms and the arrow shaft are 3/8" square stock. The arrow is about 34" accross and the owl stands about 17" high. The spindle is fabricated using 5/8" round and 3/4" dia" x 1/8" DOM tubing. The rest of the tubing is 3/4 and 1" black pipe. The scrolls are 1/2" x 1/8" flat stock. The spindle was TIG welded and the rest was assembled with MIG.
Pic of weathervane on garage roof

[MAC702]

What's the convention for the letters? Is it designed so all letters are readable from a convenient direction of observation? I noticed the N is read when reading toward the center of the vane, and the E and S are read when reading away from the center of the vane.

Looks very nice!

[RcRacer]

Mac,
I'm not sure if there is a convention The letters are oriented "left to right". When you view them north -> south or east -> west from left to right, the letters are in their "normal direction. That's the way they seem to be on most weathervanes I have seen on commercial web sites.
Right after I mounted it on the roof, my wife made the same comment. My first thought was "sorry, I'm not going back up there!" I checked a few other weathervanes from different manufacturers, and they were oriented the same. That was a relief

Thanks for the compliment.

[RickSidebottom]

Fine job on that.

Very nice finish

[wldingfool]

That's pretty cool!
I'm planning on making a dragon weathervane myself.

[Sundown]

Originally Posted by wldingfool

That's pretty cool!
I'm planning on making a dragon weathervane myself.

OK, we will need a picture of that when you get it done .... dragons are cool, IMHO that is ....

RcRacer,

Nice job, bet micky M is running away from that as we speak ...

[steve nunn]

Has any one got a link to page that shows the bearing set up inside the tube? I tried and have been unable to find link anywhere.


RcRacer, your vane is excellant, looks very good. Have you put bearings inside you vane?

steve

[Mike W]

Steve, my commercial unit just has a taper on the bottom part and a matching taper on the top part. You can lift off the top.

[RcRacer]

I have seen several different variations on a weathervane spindle. One way is as Mike W describes with a tapered shaft. The other is to place a ball bearing inside the tube so that the tube ( with closed top ) sits on the ball bearing that sits on top of the spindle shaft. I made mine using a variation on the ball method. I will post pics and a diagram later this evening when I get on my home machine.

[RcRacer]

Here's a few pics of my spindle design.
I made the spindle out of 5/8" CR round stock. The balled end was turned in my lathe with a home made ball cutting tool.
Spindle bearing

The next pic shows the spindle parts being assembled. The bearing end of the 5/8" rod is welded into 7/8" DOM tubing with 1/8" wall.
Spindle parts

I edited this pic of the welded assembly to illustrate how the round stock sits in the tube.
Spindle with illustration

The final pi shows the top of the assembly pulled up slightly to show the spindle underneath.
Spindle exposed

I hope this helps

[steve nunn]

Thanks for that , thats great.

That answers the questions I had (well most of them ). Leaving:

do you grease the surfaces up to stop them rusting, or does that stop the vane from spinning?

Steve

[Tumbleweed]

I love your weathervane!!
Beautiful!!

I have wanted to put one on our house, but we live on the bluff of the mountain and I worry about lightening....and the weathervane acting as a lightening rod.

Is this a myth...or can this happen? TW

[RcRacer]

Originally Posted by steve nunn

Thanks for that , thats great.

That answers the questions I had (well most of them ). Leaving:

do you grease the surfaces up to stop them rusting, or does that stop the vane from spinning?

Steve

I used a fairly light viscosity grease with PTFE ( teflon ). It works in a wide range of temps and even though it is not that viscous, it klings to the metal and doesn't run. Just don't use a lithium or soap based grease. They are heavy and will add resistance.
My weathervane spins very easily. But, in addition to a good spindle and lubrication, having the center of gravity of the entire arrow assembly centered directly on the spindle helps tremendously. A properly positioned CG along with the majority of arrow's vertical surface area positioned to the rear of the arrow will allow the vane to move even in the slightest breeze.

[RcRacer]

Originally Posted by Tumbleweed

I love your weathervane!!
Beautiful!!

I have wanted to put one on our house, but we live on the bluff of the mountain and I worry about lightening....and the weathervane acting as a lightening rod.

Is this a myth...or can this happen? TW

I have read ( so take it for what it's worth ) that you should not ground the weathervane. It should therefore have the same potential as the building it is mounted on and should not attract lightning anymore than the building itself.

[MAC702]

Originally Posted by RcRacer

I have read ( so take it for what it's worth ) that you should not ground the weathervane. It should therefore have the same potential as the building it is mounted on and should not attract lightning anymore than the building itself.

The problem is that it is ON A BUILDING. Buildings already will be targets instead of the ground around them. So, in lighting-prone areas, especially for buildings that are higher than the ground/landscaping/trees nearby, you should have a lightning rod or two or a whole system. Your vane CAN act as one, even if not grounded. And if it's not grounded, it'll be bad when it does.