Has anyone had any experience or know where I can find information
or plans to make weathervanes?
Thanks

Check out this link. After you click on it go down to the weather vanes

Downloadable Blacksmithing Books

IForgeIron.com > Lessons in Metalworking > Blacksmithing > LB0008 Reference materials and LB0008.0001 Reference Material may have information on weather vanes if you dig deep enough.

I know you should market them in pairs. Then people living opposite each other buy one each. Mine goes on your house and vice versa cos a weather vane on your own house is as much use as a chocolate swage block.

mmmmmmnnnnn.. chocolate swage block.......mnnnnn

but i gues your wright, unless you have a glass roof.. or roof windows (veluxes).... or perhaps a periscope up your chimey.. ok thats just silly.. :-)

ne seriously, the links you gave us LDW, are really nice, but most of thouse silouette's can't be made without lazer cutting.. and I don't know about the US, but around here thats expensive!
So I'm going for a simpler design witch i can cut out of some thin plate just using a electric hand figure saw, with a metal blade in it... it works, but you need to adjust your design, and finiche it with some hot rasping.
greetzz

Traditionally you put the weathervane on the barn, being the largest structure around, and took a look when you stepped out of the house.

In towns they went on churches or town halls; again generally the largest structures around.

Out here we don't use weather vanes we just watch to see which way the tumbleweeds are travelling.

don't have mutch tumble weeds over here, but one spot an ocasional plastic bag flying by,
... witch is pretty sad come to think of it.... good thing they outlawed throw away plastic bags since last month!
but if you don't have a large structure outside your house, you could also put one on a flag post or in the form of a sculpture of some kind..?

I started talking people into making them into a sculpture for the yard or garden, because you are right, the neighbour enjoys your artwork. They look good as a work of art in the yard. I have to scan it in so will gettoit later. I have an airplane I did before I had a digital camera I will post.

For detailed weather vanes you could cut them out with an oxy rig or band saw, for not so detailed work you could use an air or electric cut off wheel or a throatless shear or go hardcore old school use hammer and chisel. I have used all of these but now I do have a plasma cutter which is sweet because I can now cut any metal with just 1 method. I always cut my shapes bigger then the final size because I use 2 sides cut out the same and I found when I start dishing them out to give them shape you lose some size. When I weld the 2 sides together they now have depth. Once my steel sheet metal starts showing through the 2 feet of snow I am making an anvil shaped one for my new shop.

You could mount this is one on your own house and tell which way the wind blows by which windows were in the shade.

Willow AK, last friday. And no, I don't know how it's mounted or what kind of bearings it has.

Deb took a quick video and I'll post the link as soon as she puts it up.

Frosty

Just re-read this thread and missed some of it last time. A square, rounded and straight chisel work very efficiently cutting out metal up to about 1/8" thick on a treadle hammer. It takes two passes but it works great. Those patterns on my previous post only represent ideas. If you want to make one from copper, you can take two pieces of plywood and cut out the outline, you can then place bolt holes all the way around and bolt a piece of annealed copper within it. this way you can force it out to give it some depth. You have to create a right and left side then phos-copper or solder them together after trimming the edges. This was demonstrated by a very talented member of the MS Forge Council, I have not done it myself yet but am looking forward to giving it a try.

Something else along this line is to cut two matching pieces, weld them together along the edges with a small air fitting. Then inflate it with compressed air.

While I've never tried it I imagine thinning the sheets strategically would result in different features when inflating. Perhaps judicious use of a torch to soften the sheet would do the same.

Frosty

nice Idea frosty, but I don't thinks my welding is clean enough to inflate it :-/ , it would just be air blowing around and doing nothing more.. either way you would need some pretty tough air compressor for that!... or insert water, and a small explosive (thats how the rusians used to make metal body parts for militairy viehicle's), explosion forming! :-) sounds fun

ELizabeth Brim has done some inflated forgings, here someone replicates her technique, w/ pics:

Inflated Steel

I saw a demo where they inflated the sheetmetal form with a bicycle pump while it was in the propane forge---had a steel tube welded in in an unfortunate location. Worked pretty well though not as fast/easy as using a compressor

Thinking about this: for a weather vane, you could weld the air pipe in in a strategic location, inflate the form, and then use the air pipe as a pivot point for the vane!