The wind vane from WinDIY is mounted at the end of the equipment carrier. It is intended to help always align the wind turbine in the direction of the wind.
How you can set up the wind vane is described in the following article.
Safety instructions
I know the following notes are always kind of annoying and seem unnecessary. Unfortunately, many people who knew "better" have lost eyes, fingers or other things due to carelessness or injured themselves. Data loss is almost negligible in comparison, but even these can be really annoying. Therefore, please take five minutes to read the safety instructions. Because even the coolest project is not worth injury or other trouble.
https://www.nerdiy.de/sicherheitshinweise/
Affiliate links/advertising links
The links to online shops listed here are so-called affiliate links. If you click on such an affiliate link and make a purchase via this link, Nerdiy.de will receive a commission from the relevant online shop or provider. The price does not change for you. If you make your purchases via these links, you support Nerdiy.de in being able to offer other useful projects in the future. 🙂
Requirements
Required tool:
Required material:
In the following list you will find all the parts you need to implement this article.
Collect required parts
Before you can start building the wind vane, you must of course first have all the necessary parts together. You can find a complete list of the materials and tools required above in the materials and tools list
In this picture you can see all the components needed to build the wind vane.
You can find the required STL files for printing here: https://github.com/Nerdiyde/WinDIY/tree/master/vane
I printed the parts with the following settings.
- Perimeter: 5
- Infill: 30%
The screws should preferably be made of stainless steel so that they do not rust due to moisture.
Assemble frame parts
The wind vane basically consists of a frame that is made from the same aluminum profile as was used, for example, in the WinDIY wing. Later, a cloth is clamped into it to give the wind more (or any) surface to attack.
For the first side of the frame you need the 14cm long aluminum profile, two M3x20 countersunk screws including nuts and the two “corner brackets”.
Now insert the aluminum profile into the first corner bracket as shown and drill through it with a 3mm drill - as shown one Side of the aluminum profile.
Now repeat this step...
...also with the other corner bracket.
You can then prepare both conrerBrackets with one screw each as shown below.
To do this, insert the screw through the screw hole as shown and...
…screws on one of the M3 nuts from the inside.
Then pull the screw including the screwed-on nut into the recess provided...
... and then insert the aluminum profile into the corner brackets as shown.
Now you can screw in the screws further. You should then clamp the aluminum profile inside.
For the next step you will need the two remaining aluminum profiles.
The longer one goes to the front (the right side in the picture) and the shorter one goes to the back.
Now repeat the steps as with the previous corner brackets...
...to fix the aluminum profiles here with one M3x20 screw each.
Other view.
Other view.
Other view.
Assemble base brackets
The base brackets later connect the long aluminum profiles to the equipment carrier.
The structure of the angled and vertical supports is almost identical. We'll start with the angled one here.
Now insert the first M3x20 countersunk screw through the angled bracket into the base as shown.
Close view of the inserted screw.
Now secure the screw on the other side with an M3 nut. The mother should lie in the recess shown.
Now repeat this for the remaining free screw holes.
When fully assembled, it should now look like this.
Test
The structure of the vertical holder is almost identical.
View of the screwed vertical bracket.
View of the two screwed brackets.
Another view of the two screwed brackets.
Assemble base brackets with frame
In this step, the previously constructed frame is connected to the brackets that have just been prepared.
Insert the prepared frame into the holders as shown.
The inserted aluminum profiles now have to be screwed to the brackets.
To do this you have to use the vertical and...
... also connect the angled bracket to the frame.
To do this, drill through the screw hole again (as is now almost common practice). one Side of the aluminum profile.
Repeat the same for the angled bracket.
As soon as the holes have been drilled in both aluminum profiles, you can clamp them as before using the remaining M3x20 screws including nuts.
Cut and insert sails
Your wind vane is now almost finished. In the last step, the sail is used, which is intended to give the wind a surface to attack.
To do this you need the parts shown
Close-up view of the parts needed.
Now place the frame on the fabric you want to use for the wind vane as shown.
I used a foil here that is also used for making kites. A normal plastic garbage bag should also work. 🙂
Now lightly trace the inner contour with a pen.
Close-up view of the traced contour.
Now you can cut out the shape of the wind vane based on the contour you recorded.
The printed corner brackets are now glued to the film as shown.
Repeat this for all corners.
Your sail should then look something like this.
Now you can test again whether the sail fits into the frame. The corner parts should be at least one cm away from the frame.
For the next step you now have to lay your sail down so that the glued corner parts are under the sail.
In this step you have to make the holes for the screws, which will later connect two corner parts per corner.
The easiest way to do this with plastic materials is to use a soldering iron.
Now repeat this for all the holes in the corner brackets.
Now you can place the matching counterpart of the respective corner bracket and use the M3x6 countersunk screws...
...and screw the M3 nuts on the opposite side.
If your sail does not yet fit 100%, you can now cut it a little more precisely.
This is what your finished sail could look like. 🙂
Cable ties are best suited to clamping the sail into the frame of the wind vane.
Now fix the sail in the frame with the cable ties as shown.
This works easiest if you have already mounted the frame on the equipment carrier.
By pulling the cable ties in the corners tighter, you can adjust the tension of the sail precisely.
It should hang tightly in the frame without wrinkles.
Remember to cut off the excess ends of the cable ties.
Once the sail is fully taut, your wind vane should look something like this.
Close view of a corner.
Close view of a corner.
Have fun with the project
I hope everything worked as described for you. If not or you have questions or suggestions please let me know in the comments. I will then add this to the article if necessary.
Ideas for new projects are always welcome. 🙂
PS Many of these projects - especially the hardware projects - cost a lot of time and money. Of course I do this because I enjoy it, but if you think it's cool that I share the information with you, I would be happy about a small donation to the coffee fund. 🙂
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