Stainless tube size?

[Cornish JackParticipant @cornishjack]

[Cornish JackParticipant @cornishjack]

With the house rebuild nearing completion, I've decided to make a custom windvane. The 'vane' is a profile model of my old favourite the S&R Whirlwind 10. I've cut it out of an off-cut of dense foam facia 'boarding' and now need to make a bearing mount. Obvious material is stainless for salt resistance and I reckon that a piece of tubing could have two saw-cuts at right angles to each other and two opposite 'leaves' bent through 90 degs to attach to the underside and the other two support the body vertically. I can obtain a short length of 16mm od tube with 12 mm internal diameter … Can anyone see any obvious problems, please?

rgds

Bill

[davebParticipant @daveb17630]

It will probably work better if you fit a center drilled pad at the top of the tube and a point at the top of the rod, make the rod a free fit in the tube and grease well.

Dave

[julian atkinsParticipant @julianatkins58923]

hi bill,

i would make it out of copper, perhaps then suitably gilded? this is how weather vanes on Churches are made.

i have some 1 1/4" thickwall copper tube which you are welcome to a slice off if you fancy going down this route.

cheers,

julian

[Cornish JackParticipant @cornishjack]

daveb – thank you for your suggestion. I'm afraid that my remaining 80 year old brain cell can't quite visualise the set up I see my main problem as being the material and its relative narrowness with no obvious method of attaching a support spindle. Thank you also, Julian for your advice and very kind offer. Again, the insubstantial nature of the material makes it difficult to attach to the main support spindle. I suspect that I shall have to resort to Gorilla glue and something like my original idea. Once I can devise an attachment of some sort, the main mounting can be traditional.

To 'look the part', it will need to be painted in Rescue Yellow (?) but I have no idea if it is possible to apply paint to this type of fascia cladding and if so, what type would suit … such a simple idea, I thought!

rgds

Bill

[Gordon WParticipant @gordonw]

For the bearing just put a suitable size of ball in the tube and a dollop of grease, will last for years.

[pgk pgkParticipant @pgkpgk17461]

Re: painting it I turned this up on a search. **LINK**

Athough painting lexan suggests the rc car paints ought to work too.

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

My weathervane is a Cessna 185, it's mounted on a J pole (ex TV aerial), it rotates on the bearings and spindle from a bicycle peddle, it's been up there 3 years, rain, snow, and Canterbury gales, the propeller bearing wore out a year ago, that's fixed.

Ian S C

Edited By Ian S C on 14/12/2015 12:11:38

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