Free Wooden Garden Windmill Plans

About: I've recently become an octogenarian, having enjoyed many DIY projects. I've greatly enjoyed designing and making a Model Garden Windmill and hope that it will inspire others to take up the challenge. More About johnmather4444 »

This elegant, sturdy and durable timber model garden windmill, with its shaft mounted in low cost miniature ball bearings rotates well, even in light wind conditions. The tips of the windmill sails give an overall height of 50 cm.

It can be made without access to a circular saw or bench drill. Just basic DIY skills are needed, together with tools such as a timber saw, hacksaw, mains or cordless drill, drill bits, workbench or vice, screw-driver and spanners.

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The requirement for only relatively small quantities of timber and other materials such as screws and nuts and a short length of thin metal bar results in a relatively inexpensive, but attractive, dynamic and durable garden feature.

Whilst the sequence of manufacture and assembly can be varied, the project naturally breaks down into distinct stages. The Step by Step schedule has been formulated on the basis that sub-assemblies will be made once the relevant components have been manufactured. This is not only straightforward, but probably more rewarding than manufacturing every individual item, before attempting to carry out any sub-assemblies.

The Tower Central Core, with its Upper and Lower Octagonal Platforms, provides structural strength for attaching the tower cover boards, the octagonal sloping roof and the assembly of the rotating shaft in bearings carrying the sails.

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The logically sequenced Step by Step Procedure set out here, is on the basis that the assembly and construction of the windmill will proceed alongside the manufacture of the various components, rather than after all components have been manufactured.

The relatively large number of individual Steps and detailed information is a result of intentionally aiming to produce clear instructions, to make the project as straightforward as possible, and of interest to the widest possible range of people. Some people will need little more than a glance at the photograph of the windmill, to be able to make one. Others will need only parts of the detailed Step by Step information, whilst some will be heavily dependent on the Step by Step fine details. It’s much easier to write a brief set of instructions, but in doing so, there is a high risk that people will experience problems and/or make mistakes.

There are some potential pitfalls which, by use of the carefully prepared documentation, should enable even people with limited DIY experience to avoid. Please bear this in mind, when perusing the information.

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2.8 m of 150 x 20 mm (or 18 mm minimum thickness) Planed All Round (PAR) board, either rectangular section or tongue and groove boarding (for Tower Cover Boards)

1 m of 100 x 20 mm (or 10 mm minimum thickness) Planed All Round (PAR) board, either rectangular section or tongue and groove boarding (for Sails)

0.2 m (off-cut length) of Planed All Round (PAR) spar of square section approx 60 mm x 60 mm (minimum 50 x 50 mm)

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2 pieces each approx. 250 x 30 x 2 mm flat steel or aluminium bar (or Flat Structural Restraint Strap available from Builders’ Merchants such as Travis Perkins)

· Octagonal shapes are easy to create using the information in the diagram. Note what the terms ‘Across Opposite Faces’, ‘Face Width’ and ‘Half Face Width’ mean. (The term ‘Across Flats’ is sometimes used instead of ‘Across Opposite Faces’.)

· Start by drawing two lines exactly at right angles to each other, by using a set square or other right-angled object.

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· Next draw a square whose centre coincides with the intersection of the two perpendicular lines. The length of each side of the square should be exactly the same as the distance across two opposite faces of the required octagon.

· On each side of the square, measure and mark on each side of the perpendicular centre line where it crosses the side of the square, a distance equal to the Half Face Width of the required octagon. These markings will represent the 8 corner positions of the octagon.

· The timber for the Octagonal platforms should be at least 25 mm thick – 30 mm would be better. The larger Lower Platform requires a timber width of at least 141 mm.

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· First, using the previous instructions for drawing octagonal shapes, mark out with fine pencil lines on the surface of the timber, the octagonal shapes, leaving a space of at least say 20 mm between the two octagonal shapes. You may wish to use one edge of the timber as one of the final 8 edges of the octagon, or you may prefer to draw the octagon clear of both edges of the timber.

· Before starting to cut the 8 edges, check that the face widths and distances across opposite faces, are all equal and as specified in the table of octagonal dimensions.

· Clamp the timber using a workbench or engineer’s vice and, one by one, cut the 8 edges of each octagon. It’s useful to do the cuts just a fraction outside the pencil lines, so that this very small excess can be carefully removed with a fairly course file. Don’t cut along the pencil line itself, because that would result in the octagon being too small. Aim to do the line of the cut so that it leaves the full length of the pencil line intact which can then be used as a guide for filing to finish off the octagon.

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· Whilst you should aim to achieve a cut which is perpendicular to the surface of the timber, it isn’t particularly important in this case, because of the tapered nature of the windmill tower. The only aspect which is critical is the upper surface of the octagon, because it is against the upper edges of each octagon that the Windmill Tower Cover Boards are in contact when fixed by screws. For this reason, mark in pencil on the upper surface of each octagon “UPPER SURFACE”, to remind you to have this surface uppermost when attaching the Octagons to the Tower Central Core member. (The upper surface of the finished octagon will be the surface on which you accurately marked out the octagonal shape.)

· The square cross section timber for the Tower Central Core needs to be approximately 60 x 60 mm) with a minimum size of 50 x 50 mm and an absolute maximum size of 69 x 69.

· The central core of the tower needs to be very carefully cut to ensure that the sawn end faces are perpendicular to the four side faces of the block of timber.

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· If you don’t have access to such devices, you can either make a simple ‘perpendicular saw-cut jig’ (see Step 17) or attempt to achieve reasonable squareness and then use a coarse file on the saw-cut ends to make them perpendicular in both directions, but even then it’s not easy to achieve a surface which is both flat and perpendicular.

· I made a ‘perpendicular saw-cut jig’ (see photo’s for Step 17), which enabled me to make very good perpendicular cuts with a flat surface.

· Drill clearance holes in each octagon for the woodscrews and use a counter-sinking drill bit so that the screw heads lie below the surface of the octagon.

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· The two woodscrews (no shorter than 40 mm in length) should be approximately 15 mm from the centre of each octagon along a line joining two opposite corners of the octagon.

· The upper and lower octagonal platforms can now be secured to the vertical central core square cross section block, using two woodscrews at each end.

§ the face of each octagonal platform on which the octagonal shape was drawn in pencil and marked “UPPER SURFACE” is placed uppermost

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· Eight cover boards in total are required for the windmill tower, but as explained below, it is important that only FOUR boards are cut initially.

· Before cutting each board write in pencil on the surface on which the shape is drawn, “INSIDE SURFACE”, because it’s important that this carefully measured shape is the side of the board which fits against the edge face of the octagonal platform. However carefully you do the saw-cut, the other face of the board is likely to have slightly different dimensions, but this isn’t critical because the outside surface of each cover board is not in contact with anything else. The critical face is the one in contact with the octagonal platforms.

· Straightness of the long edges of the tapered boards is just as important as the width, because the two edges of each board butt up against an adjacent board.

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· First cut just one Cover Board and place it against the assembly of the Octagonal Platforms and the Tower Central Core, in a position where the board width exactly matches the width of the Upper and Lower Octagonal faces. Carefully check that the board projects above the Upper Octagonal Platform by at least 25 mm.

· If the above applies, then cut only THREE more boards, bearing all of

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