Weather Vane - anyone ever make one?

[KMinAF]

I saw a really neat idea for a weather vane and would like to make one for myself. I am unsure on what is used for the pivot and I am also looking for tips on balancing and placement (so that it shows the right direction when the wind blows.)
I searched the internet but didn't find too many details on how they are constructed.
Hoping you guys might have suggestions and ideas.

 

[91bronc300]

Two different diameters of pipe and a ball bearing. Gary Huston (great YouTube channel) shows it at about 3:30 in this video.

 

[dadsEH]

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=109807

Here ya go.....

 

[KMinAF]

http://www.google.com/search?client...c.1.54.mobile-gws-hp..3.34.4411.3.nmMZ0Vz4OMM

I pretty much just used the title of your thread....

I've considered them often. I am going to make a very large one for a field. Five of them actually. From a certain road corner they will, when thw wind is just right, go from looking like five pieces of nothing to a giant sculpture.

I saw those as well but I was hoping for a little more detail. Also, this may sound like a dumb question but does the weather vane point where the wind is coming from or going to? Judging from the placement of the "decorative" pieces it seems they point where the wind is coming from

 

[zkling]

I've welded up a few custom ones for people. Here is what I remember
Traditionally the arrow points into the wind, somewhat counter intuitive.
You want the pointer to be weight balanced around the rotation point of where it meets the vertical shaft.
You want the point to be surface area balanced (what the wind catches) with a bias towards the side opposite of the pointing arrow. IIRC it is somewhere around 30/70 front to back or less. The wind pushes the surface with the larger area in the direction of the wind causing the pointer to point into the wind.

 

[chatofab]

I've welded up a few custom ones for people. Here is what I remember
Traditionally the arrow points into the wind, somewhat counter intuitive.
You want the pointer to be weight balanced around the rotation point of where it meets the vertical shaft.
You want the point to be surface area balanced (what the wind catches) with a bias towards the side opposite of the pointing arrow. IIRC it is somewhere around 30/70 front to back or less. The wind pushes the surface with the larger area in the direction of the wind causing the pointer to point into the wind.

Hey ZKLing,

I'm making a weather vane for my parents and was wondering if you have a recommendation on what metal to use for the arrow and object at the top. I have a bunch of 10 gauge steel scrap lying around but was thinking it might be too heavy for light winds. Do you think it would work, or would it be best to pick up something lighter like 16 gauge?

Thanks,
Matt

 

[zkling]

Matt,
That will be fine, I mostly used ~12ga as I keep that on hand. As I mentioned in my above post the critical aspects are area and weight (moment) balance. Just take into consideration what the local winds are. You can change the material thickness or cutouts, weight and surface area balance as well as the pivot point rotation resistance to vary how sensitive the weather vane acts in common local winds.