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I Forge Iron

Weather Vane


rlarkin

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Bout 2 years ago, my neighbor, who is a concrete contractor, poured a 5' by 30' sidewalk for me at no charge.
Been trying to figure out how to start paying him back.
He recently built a 10' octogonal aviary for some morning doves that were given to his wife. I think this will be an appropriate start.
No blacksmithing involved, but it is metal. About 4' tip to tail.
They haven't seen it yet, and it still needs paint.
What do you think?
weathervane.jpg

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Lovely! Are you going to black it or color it some? Post a pic installed please!

I grew up with neighbors like you, I just wish they were more frequently found! It's not that I don't like my current neighbors, but some go out further than others, which makes everybody more happy to help.

Phil

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He knows what I am doing, she doesn't. He wants it black to silhouette in the sky.

I am in the country. We all have about 6 acres. Everybody has everybody's gate code, and most have keys.
For neighborhood nite out, we have a pizza bash. One neighbor has a outdoor wood fired brick oven. In august we did about 75 pizza till 11:00 pm.
This Saturday we are having a "DOG". Dutch Oven Gathering. EVERYBODY cooks. Usually around 30 different foods. And EVERYBODY gets full.
I let my neighbor run their horses on my front pasture, for free. Looks cool for me, and I don't have any vet or feed bills.

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From experience it is wise to balance the vane so what is up wind counter balances down wind . this is a bit of a problem do to needing more area down wind , but if you do the vane will twitch and realign with the smallest wind direction changes . This means thin metal down wind and leads up wind but is worth doing

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From experience it is wise to balance the vane so what is up wind counter balances down wind .


I assume you are talking about weight balance.
The birds are cut from 24 gauge sheet. The support rods are 3/16" pencil, slit 1/2", and brazed on the birds.
The nose is a 1/2" sq., 1/8" wall, rail baluster with the basket in the middle that I cannibalized from a display at work.
I cut half the baluster off, attached the pivot and the birds, and made a jig to check it.
I kept adding weld to the nose and shaping the point until the balance was perfect.

Wind test so far have shown very smooth and consistent action.
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