Fixing windmills

sandhiller · Jun 2, 2024

The bullshit of the world sure seems far away from up here.

Wish the problems were as easy to fix as this tailbone

powdahound76 · Jun 2, 2024

There is a feller over west of you, on 71 between Scottsbluff and Chadron with a lot of em.

He might know a thing or two if you have questions or need parts.
Kinda famous with the 7 in a circle. Looks like he has a start with 3-4 on another arrangment.

Was pretty sure when I saw you were the OP, and glad this wasnt about those useless piece of crap commie windmills.

sandhiller · Jun 2, 2024

powdahound76 said:
There is a feller over west of you, on 71 between Scottsbluff and Chadron with a lot of em.

He might know a thing or two if you have questions or need parts.
Kinda famous with the 7 in a circle. Looks like he has a start with 3-4 on another arrangment.

Was pretty sure when I saw you were the OP, and glad this wasnt about those useless piece of crap commie windmills.

Yeah, we have managed to keep the wind turbine farm scam out of Cherry Co, but it is an ongoing battle.

The pushers make the sleaziest of used camel salesmen (a class generally populated by politicians) look like the Pope.

We have the land and they want it, been going on since the beginning of time.

Mudburner · Jun 2, 2024

Years ago I went to a knap-in near Stuart, Nebraska. A short drive away to the west, at Long Pine, is a deep natural drainage that goes into the Niobrara river. South of 20 it goes down into a ravine where people have vacation homes.

In prehistoric times, it would have been an ideal place to camp, summer or winter... he showed me the exact spot where he found a cache of 101 stone paleo points. The points were all very large pre-forms, spear points, knives, etc. Worth a fortune...

That country is amazingly beautiful. The knap-in host dug a small one gallon hole in his yard, and it filled up with ground water almost immediately because of the Ogalalla Aquifer.

Since I am from the midwest, I have never been in a more foreign-looking place: no trees.

ironman56 · Jun 2, 2024

There used to be a good windmill man near my father's place at florance texas , but he passed a while back , Billy Cooper IIRC his business card said , lover, fighter ,wild bull rider and a Purdy good windmill man, I always thought that was cool as shit , RIP Mr Cooper.

Haney · Jun 2, 2024

powdahound76 said:
Was pretty sure when I saw you were the OP, and glad this wasnt about those useless piece of crap commie windmills.

Please educate yourself on the subject if you are going to cry about something that you don't agree with .

powdahound76 · Jun 2, 2024

It may be yer month Haney, and shut up.
The men are talkin.

sandhiller · Jun 2, 2024

Haney said:
Please educate yourself on the subject if you are going to cry about something that you don't agree with .

View attachment 8430522

I knew exactly what @powdahound76 was talkin about.

When you have to copy and paste from a google search, makes me think you aren't as familiar with both kinds as we are.

Schütze · Jun 2, 2024

Haney said:
Please educate yourself on the subject if you are going to cry about something that you don't agree with .

View attachment 8430522

What a retarded sheep you are… some windmills in the Nederland's older as this country where converted to power generators.

Of course, your ever changing “dei education system“ doesn’t know this.

Redmanss · Jun 2, 2024

NE 2 through the Sandhills is one of my favorite drives, a big reason being the hundreds of still functioning windmills out there. I have a lot of time out there working on the tracks; always peaceful, always friendly folks. I know the OP is a bit north of there, but when you're in that region it's all pretty similar.

Just don't try it in the snow, it gets absolutely brutal.

The wife wants a windmill on our land, purely for decorative reasons because I'll be damned if I'm drilling another 400+ ft deep well for a couple critters. I might dip my hand into that venture next summer, I'd like to just sit on the porch with a cool drink and watch it turn in the wind. There's some kits out there to fashion one up, but those heads wouldn't survive Wyoming.

S Roche · Jun 2, 2024

A guy a couple miles out of town just had his windmill brought up to working order. Ill check with him to see where he got the parts. I watched a show on PBS about a company in Lincoln that still handles new parts for windmills. Just cant remember....getting old.

hero's machine · Jun 2, 2024

I was watching my kid's baseball game and there's 47 units not turning during a 15mph blow. That's what....$100M not moving.

vh20 · Jun 3, 2024

Haney said:
Please educate yourself on the subject if you are going to cry about something that you don't agree with .

View attachment 8430522

Education is the key. But if this is your understanding of the subject, you are going to be eternally locked-out.

Sean the Nailer · Jun 3, 2024

Redmanss said:
NE 2 through the Sandhills is one of my favorite drives, a big reason being the hundreds of still functioning windmills out there. I have a lot of time out there working on the tracks; always peaceful, always friendly folks. I know the OP is a bit north of there, but when you're in that region it's all pretty similar.

Just don't try it in the snow, it gets absolutely brutal.

The wife wants a windmill on our land, purely for decorative reasons because I'll be damned if I'm drilling another 400+ ft deep well for a couple critters. I might dip my hand into that venture next summer, I'd like to just sit on the porch with a cool drink and watch it turn in the wind. There's some kits out there to fashion one up, but those heads wouldn't survive Wyoming.

We have a 'decorative' one here, mounted on one of our decks. Over the past decade or so, we've had quite a few compliments on it. I won't deny that I've thought a time-or-two about making it "do something" as opposed to just 'spin'.

But, there have always been far importanter jobs to get done in our short allotted time.

sirhrmechanic · Jun 3, 2024

sandhiller said:
The bullshit of the world sure seems far away from up here.

View attachment 8430460

View attachment 8430466
View attachment 8430467

Wish the problems were as easy to fix as this tailbone
View attachment 8430468

Proper windmills, even!

Not your newfangled Condor Cuisinarts!

Keep 'em working! They'll be useful long after the giant chinese plastic ones fall down and blow up.

Sirhr

45-90 · Jun 3, 2024

I used to live there as a kid, along the Niobrara River, we owned a mile and half of river frontage. Ran cattle and irrigated crops out of the river.
Ancestors, settled there in 1879, a few miles up river from the Ponca Reservation.
Back when kids drove tractors and trucks, long before they were 16 yrs old.
Every kid had access to unlocked guns.
And working all day, for no pay, was normal.
There were no hunting or fishing seasons,..do that whenever Dad gave you permission.
No law ever came around...didn’t need any.
Saw a county Sheriff deputy once in 10 yrs, driving around....no strangers came down those long gravel roads.
Don't live there anymore, just some find memories of me and my older brother playing in the Niobrara River whenever we got free time in the summer.
Here is a catfish caught out of the Niobrara in the 1950s.
But I still like open spaces..now there mountains, and canyons.
Fixing windmills...in solitude.

AngryKoala · Jun 3, 2024

Haney said:
Please educate yourself on the subject if you are going to cry about something that you don't agree with .

View attachment 8430522

Modern turbines are crap.

sandhiller · Jun 3, 2024

A fair piece west of where you grew up, and south of the Rosebud rez, but here is looking out my office window at the same river you grew up on

For the most part it is still the same as you remember growing up. Good place to raise kids the right way.

Riches are not only measured in money in the bank or toys in the garage.

oneshot86 · Jun 3, 2024

Redmanss said:
NE 2 through the Sandhills is one of my favorite drives, a big reason being the hundreds of still functioning windmills out there. I have a lot of time out there working on the tracks; always peaceful, always friendly folks. I know the OP is a bit north of there, but when you're in that region it's all pretty similar.

Just don't try it in the snow, it gets absolutely brutal.

The wife wants a windmill on our land, purely for decorative reasons because I'll be damned if I'm drilling another 400+ ft deep well for a couple critters. I might dip my hand into that venture next summer, I'd like to just sit on the porch with a cool drink and watch it turn in the wind. There's some kits out there to fashion one up, but those heads wouldn't survive Wyoming.

Find you a used aero motor mill.
I took down a 10ft mill 40ft tall a few years ago and have it here for me to repair paint and stand back up.
I'm not going to drill a well, but set it over a pond I'll make. The wind will drive the mill and it will pump water from the pond, fill the tank and flow back to the pond. I think the kids will love it

Redmanss · Jun 3, 2024

oneshot86 said:
Find you a used aero motor mill.
I took down a 10ft mill 40ft tall a few years ago and have it here for me to repair paint and stand back up.
I'm not going to drill a well, but set it over a pond I'll make. The wind will drive the mill and it will pump water from the pond, fill the tank and flow back to the pond. I think the kids will love it

Most of the used Aeros are way bigger (and more expensive) than I want to deal with. I’m more thinking about hitting the junkyards, finding a nice sized cooling fan from a Mack or Peterbilt and cobbling a homemade one together that way. A 3ft diameter blade is about the max size I want to attempt.

eagle0199 · Jun 3, 2024

I still remember visiting my great grandfather's farm in Mississippi. Had a working windmill that pumped water from a well into an elevated tank. When the water started overflowing the tank the adults heard the splash and sent us kids out to disengage the windmill. When water got low in the tank, reengage and pump till it was full. Nothing automatic about it.

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