Making a Wind Vane

By Rick Jacks

It occurred to me earlier this summer that the pier could use a wind vane large enough to see from a decent way out. Airplane pilots benefit from runway windsocks; boat pilots can benefit from having a wind indicator at their landing dock, as well. I checked with Capt. Emma to make sure she'd be O.K. with it, as the pier is part of her realm. Her only request was that it didn't need to be taken down each day.

A wind vane appears to be a simple contrivance, and in fact, it is. It has only four parts: vane, post, pivot pin, and safety mechanism to keep the vane from flying off. The challenge is to have everything perfectly balanced and plumb. Kevin kindly supplied a plank of White Spruce for the vane, a billet of White Oak for the post, and a 5/16 inch bronze rod for the pivot pin. That plank of Spruce had some gnarly, contrary grain leading me to wonder if Kevin was, once again, acting as the architect of a "learning experience".

I decided on a canoe paddle shape for the vane. I had first seen this design thirty years ago atop "Dynamite" Payson's shop in South Thomaston. I also made one for my shop in New Jersey, which flew for 15 years. I didn't want to wing it as far as shape and proportion went so I used a store-bought canoe paddle's lines, which I up-sized by 10%.

The pivot point needs to be forward of the center of gravity by X amount. It's a critical distance, balancing vane alignment power against friction in the pivot bearing. In the above photo, you see a "poor man's wind tunnel" blowing over a scale model of the paddle/vane perched atop an ice pick. This allowed me to experiment with different pivot distances. It also showed me I had to remove the hand swell at the end of the loom as it was too much adverse windage keeping the vane from aligning with the wind.

The pivot pin hole in the vane had to be bored absolutely perpendicular to the long axis and the hole in the post that receives the pivot pin needed to be absolutely parallel with its long axis. This meant that I needed holding devices for the vane on the drill press and a boring jig for the post.

I created a bearing for the vane to rotate atop the pivot pin by filling an oversized hole with WEST SYSTEM 105/205 epoxy thickened with high-density filler and graphite powder. This was re-bored 1/64 inch over the pin diameter.

The vane and post were coated with penetrating epoxy. The post received two topcoats of oil-based enamel and the vane received five coats of spar varnish. As I had never done any painted lettering before, I made a hand-drawn template which I then pricked holes along all the letters edges. I taped this to the vane blade and using a cheesecloth pouch filled with chalk dust tamped over all the holes. When the template was carefully removed an outline of the letters provided boundaries for my brush. I had once seen an old-time boat lettering person use this process many years ago. I think for a first attempt it turned out alright.

The final job was to mount everything on the old wooden post at the end of the pier. I was surprised by (and thankful for) how many people were concerned for my safety with this. I guess I'm starting to look my years. I lopped off the top several feet, getting rid of that ugly, broken electrical fixture, and used a power plane to create a landing for the post that was as close to plumb as I could make it. I fastened it home with 5/8 inch lag bolts.

Mounting the vane atop the pivot pin was a bit exciting as was the final job of inserting the cotter pin for the safety mechanism. This project once again reminded me that because the design of something is "simple" doesn't mean it's "easy" to construct. I hope everyone finds the wind vane a pleasing addition to our wonderful waterfront.