Thread: Rockhampton

Finally got onto the windmill in the second picture above... Was a fair bit to do to it, more then expected since the crane was there we did a few other things that needed doing...

Actually started a few weeks back, removed the old head and the tail had already fallen onto the ground sometime in the past few months.. While the crane was there we decided to pull the tower down onto the ground to make things easier... We replaced the old posts that hold the pipes above the bore with steel posts concreted in..

Putting the new head on proved to be harder then I thought... The tower is very old and a different angle to the more modern design (modern as in the 1930's rather then the 1910's) So the bottom guide and tower cap did not fit in their respective positions without some tower modifications, which involved cutting into the tower legs, bending them inwards and then welding the cut legs back up again... Then replacing the tower platform which might as well not have been there, or to put it another way, you did not stand on it .

The tower is back up vertical again (in the picture below the tower has just been lifted out of the way temporarily as we work around the bore).. Just has half a day left to put the head on it sometime next week... It is easy to get a bit nostalgic doing this sort of work in these places. Apparently my grandfather and his brother in law put this bore down in 1967 which would have only been a few years before he died.. It was a good day today...

Also been cutting timber out of iron bark trees that got blown over... Have got a fair stockpile to cut up into posts.. I will get a pic of them tomorrow..

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Originally Posted by .RC.

It was a good day today...

Well actually, should point out one incident that happened...

My father and I while waiting for more help to arrive were putting the platform onto the tower, which at that stage was on the ground, when my father went to get something and told me to come over and look at this... Over at the bore there was a quite large brown snake, not a harmless variety either...

So my father got the bright idea, rather then dong the snake, we would relocate it, so with long handles shovel in hand he went to shoo the snake off towards the creek direction.. Things did not go to plan, when the snake decided to go the other way and crawl into my crane truck..

He thought it was a wonderful joke... I did not really see the funny side of it, as I was the one who had to hop into the rusty cab with many snake sized hidey spots to drive it away a bit so we could dig away all the silt that had accumulated around the bore site...

Of course I was also told with great laughter to get the albino snake out to scare the other snake away...

Looking good .RC, I had wondered how the mill that you had repaired last year had survived the blow, but I hadn't gotten around to asking you about it. I take it that it did survive and all is well with it now. Did the fan on the mill pictured above, come down in the wind, and if so did it bring the rest of the head with it? You mentioned previously that it was pretty well stuffed, but was it rebuildable or was it well beyond economic repair. If the whole head came down in the breeze, I'm guessing that it would have been well smashed up by the sudden stop. I hope that you have one of those good, well paying jobs that our mate Joe was speaking of, (or alternatively that your wife is a merchant banker), so that the expenses in repairing the farm infrastructure, is just a trifling bit of small change. Good luck with the finishing touches next week. Cheers and all the best,
Rob

As they what ever.

Originally Posted by Ropetangler

Looking good .RC, I had wondered how the mill that you had repaired last year had survived the blow,

We did not suffer much damage to any of our mills... One lost a sail and another snapped a wood rod which is a 40mmX40mm piece of square timber that connects the mill head to the steel rod that goes down the bore.. That was it... It was just other people that seemed to suffer major damage.. And even then it seems to be a pretty small percentage....

Did the fan on the mill pictured above, come down in the wind, and if so did it bring the rest of the head with it? You mentioned previously that it was pretty well stuffed, but was it rebuildable or was it well beyond economic repair. If the whole head came down in the breeze, I'm guessing that it would have been well smashed up by the sudden stop.

Yes it got ripped off in one piece... What I suspect happened is the very top section is held on by twelve bolts... I suspect most of them were missing as there was no way that could have been ripped off otherwise.. I had not been up there to check it out before the cyclone as it being the neighbours and they had their mills serviced by a different person.. The wheel is stuffed, but the head itself could be rebuilt.. it uses babbit bearings that have to be poured into place.. In this day and age though with so few people using windmills, it is usually cheaper to buy a more modern (post 1952) second hand one that uses replaceable bearings..

I hope that you have one of those good, well paying jobs that our mate Joe was speaking of, (or alternatively that your wife is a merchant banker), so that the expenses in repairing the farm infrastructure, is just a trifling bit of small change. Good luck with the finishing touches next week. Cheers and all the best,
Rob

yes I did a face palm when I heard that on the news.. These politicians on every side, right, left, up and down are so far removed from reality it is scary...

Done and done....

You know it is a professional job, by the large amount of overspray on the ground when I spray painted the wheel and tail


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Nice to see it done .RC.

Ross

It looks like you were just in time to give the birds a drink there Richard. You could have used a drop sheet there because the next thing you know there will be a drought, and the only grass you have will be covered in 2 pack silver frost. I was thinking that the Hiab Truck could do with some mud guards, but then it occurred to me that you may not get much mud up there, just dust or a couple of metres of fast flowing water.
Real good work on the old mill RC, I'd hate to think what it would cost to get the nearest contractor out to do a job like that, enough to take the grin off Joes face if he had to pay the bill I'll bet.
Rob