Windmills are back in fashion. Admittedly, it is more and more difficult to see them in nature, but you can find them more often in gardens. We will discuss in detail the construction of a classic Dutch windmill.
Once upon a time, windmills with huge wings were part of the landscape, especially coastal regions. Today they are rarely found in the landscape. The windmill as a garden ornament is doing today – just like it used to be – great impression, both with its impressive size (reaches over 1,70 m!), as well as an unusual structure. Its execution requires a lot of skill.
The Dutch windmill made by us is tapered towards the top, an octagonal load-bearing structure with a rotating cap placed on it, thanks to which the wings can adjust to the direction of the wind. Compared to a traditional windmill, a simple quadrangular structure with a saddle roof, the Dutch windmill has a much more complicated structure. In the original, it rests on the brick structure of the lower building, with a gallery running around it, made of an octagonal load-bearing structure covered with straw, boards or shingles, and a sheet-metal or shingled overlay with a wheel with wings.
We used waterproof plywood to make our windmill, from which we cut all the walls of the lower building. Platforms, boards and slats are made of red cedar - a wood resistant to weather conditions. Because this wood cannot be bought in the form of small elements, We bought wood for our structure in a warehouse with elements of garden architecture and cut it to the necessary dimensions with a table saw. We used a waterproof glue to connect the elements. Elements of the structure, wings and others covered with a layer of waterproof varnish.
The foundation is a pavement slab (at the top). The windmill attached to it with angles can be moved to the basement in winter.
The lighting of the windmill will be provided by an ordinary bicycle dynamo, driven by gear wheels (downstairs) – original complement to its wooden structure.
