Windvane

eligius1427 - Monday, January 5, 2009 - 1:57pm

Hello all, I finally got around to posting picts of the weather vane that I asked so many questions about. We've been talking about conveying constructive criticism so lets give it an honest shot with this project.

Project Overview/goals: To create a large wind vane with a natural rust patina that will not stain the roof with run off or corrode further. The budget prohibited the use of stainless steel or copper based metals.

I ended up using mild steel with two coats of Ospho, two coats of zinc primer, two coats of red primer, two coats of liquid iron and insta rust for the patina. There is a canopy over the hub of the arrow to help prevent drainage/corrosion and a brass sheet metal bearing between the pole and arrow hub. The arrow sits on an Oilite bushing to reduce friction. Due to the wind vane's size and it's need to withstand high winds, other configurations for the spinning arrow didn't work well, so we went with a simple approach. The arrow is balanced, a must i found out, and will move if i blow hard on it. The height of the vane is over 7' tall and the arrow length is roughly 40". I decided to leave the arrow a little darker than the rest of the vane to add contrast and hopefully make it easier to see against the sky.

I welcome all comments and critiques and want to say thanks again to all of those people that helped in answering questions on this project.

Jake Balcom
Mettle Design
Lincoln, NE

wind vane 1

wind vane 2

wind vane 3

wind vane 4

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another great lookin

visitor - Monday, January 5, 2009 - 2:29pm

another great lookin project, Jake. Congrats. Thanks for sharing the pix. You get points for "unique design".

bill

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Finished

warren - Monday, January 5, 2009 - 3:04pm

Jake,
Glad to see you finally got it installed. I take it the customer has some hay. The finish looks pretty nice and I bet it was fun to do. Not too sure about the center pole with the knob on top, looks too high or something.

www Metalrecipes -- heat and beat to the desired shape, repeat as necessary.
warren

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Hi Warren, the finish was

eligius1427 - Monday, January 5, 2009 - 3:25pm

Hi Warren, the finish was fun. It's amazing how much more relaxing a project can be when you don't have to match a color chip exactly. The main factor in the size of the vane was the rakes in relation to the size of the house, and the house is really big. The pole had to be tall so the rakes would clear the the spinning arrow. Widening the angle of the crossing rakes and lowering it started looking funny, so we raised it. It was amazing the number of hurdles that popped up as the vane got larger and larger.

Jake Balcom
Mettle Design
Lincoln, NE

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Looks Great

Chuck Girard - Monday, January 5, 2009 - 8:36pm

Hi Jake,.

I liked it when you showed pic.s when it was being Built.
I'm glad to know that is functional as well as good looking.
I of course like the Machined parts on the Post. The Arrow in Contasting color I think was a good Idea.
I wish the Client would have picked a different finish. But in all fairness to you I think you did a great job in the painstaking metheod of preventing it to Stain the Roof.

I'm still a fan of your work, I enjoy your straight forward, Clean Lines and ability to adapt to what the Customer wants.
I bet balancing that rascal was no fun at all. Hope the Bearing suggestions helped.
Nice Job!!

Chuck

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Thanks Chuck, the bearing

eligius1427 - Tuesday, January 6, 2009 - 12:03am

Thanks Chuck, the bearing advice was invaluable, thanks again. I didn't mind the finish too much, I just wish we could have let the actual metal, whatever was chosen, do it's natural thing. Mother nature will win this battle in the end, so why waste the paint. The lighting really sucks for my picts, nothing like a dreary winter day to ruin a photo, but I'll bet in a midwest sunset, the different colors of rust are gorgeous.

Jake Balcom
Mettle Design
Lincoln, NE

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Hi Jake, I think that

NELSON - Monday, January 5, 2009 - 8:56pm

Hi Jake,
I think that Project Overview/Goals idea should become a standard for those who really want well aimed constructive criticism. Somehow I agree with Warren on that "something" about the pole. In my case the area of concern is the point where the rakes meet the pole. The height is perfect to me, but I would have added some steel twine,wrap of some sort to make the holding of the tools on the post more real. Different folks, different strokes... My judgement, excellent design, color, and goes great with the setting which I imagen to be sort of farm, hay...nelson.

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Thanks Nelson, You know, I

eligius1427 - Tuesday, January 6, 2009 - 12:19am

Thanks Nelson, You know, I never even thought of making it look like the rakes were "bound" to the pole. The entire vane comes apart for maintenance and repair, so it would have been a faux effect, but I think it might have been a good one. This was my first project involving multiple designers/decision makers, roughly 5 different people, across 2 states far apart. That was an education in itself. In the end, with all of the worries about maintenance and such, this project became more of an engineering one over an artistic one. This was version 4 and was the least "flashy" and most functional. When function and maintenance factors are emphasized the most, it can "cloud" artistic options. The other thing is that the average viewing distance is at around 200-800 feet, a silhouette. That's harder to keep in mind than you would think, lol. I'm worried about making sure a weld is ground flush and perfectly smooth when nobody will ever see it or touch it. Yet another good lesson, always keep in mind how your piece will be viewed. Designing and building a piece that will be viewed at 500 feet is so different than constructing a ring that will be touched and fiddled with 100 times a day. Thanks again for the input my friend.

Jake Balcom
Mettle Design
Lincoln, NE

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Distance

Frank Castiglione - Tuesday, January 6, 2009 - 9:44am

Hi Jake,
Sorry about the belated response to your post. I like this weather vane. It is original, that is important to me. The color is splendid, but I agree with you in that naturally achieved colors are better. A picture from at least 200 feet would have let us all see this work as it will be seen in its final setting.I realize that we couldn't appreciate the interesting paint job then, as well as the workmanship.
If I ever make a piece that is large and meant to be seen from a distance I will try to take advantage of the lesson you taught us and focus my efforts based on how it appears at the distance it will be viewed.
Thanks for sharing brother.
Frank

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Thanks Frank, I can't show

eligius1427 - Tuesday, January 6, 2009 - 12:50pm

Thanks Frank, I can't show anymore of the house or surroundings due to confidentiality agreements. I really wanted to show the vane to you all since i asked so many questions regarding it and they were nice enough to let me show these. You'll have to take my word that the profile looks pretty good at a distance.

Jake Balcom
Mettle Design
Lincoln, NE

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Jake, The viewing distance

NELSON - Tuesday, January 6, 2009 - 11:27am

Jake,
The viewing distance you talk about makes details like the one I suggested, nonsense. Congratulations. Nelson.

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Hi Jake,

Jamie Santellano - Tuesday, January 6, 2009 - 2:51am

Hi Jake,

Well, I think you did as best a job as you could given the amount of people and their input on this one...it's a difficult thing trying to please one person let alone a group. The budget and it's limitations is also a challenge to conquer.

On the other side you show great team work and flexibility.

With that said, you did a great job at completing the project to specifications. On the creative part I think you do beautiful work, but were greatly limited on this project. I really enjoyed your video, and feel that you have a great eye for detail.

I have never created anything this big, and it sounds like there were a lot of
things to consider in the construction of this vane.

Commissions are such a tough thing...we want the business, and the piece to add to the portfolio, but we also have to bow down to the orders of another...UGH!!!

There it is...my $.50 worth...

Cheers,

Jamie Santellano

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Thanks Jamie, I meant to

eligius1427 - Tuesday, January 6, 2009 - 7:25pm

Thanks Jamie, I meant to respond to this when I responded to Franks post and got pulled away until now. Dealing with multiple clients can be tough, dealing with multiple designers/architects can require a lot of patience, lol. I probably should have tried to take more control of the project from the beginning and tried to talk to the actual paying customer more directly. Some correspondence filtered through as many as 4 people before the client got the info, so you can imagine how that might have gone. Thank god for emails and paper trails. All in all though everybody was great and i learned how projects like these should be handled in the future.

Thanks for your input.

Jake Balcom
Mettle Design
Lincoln, NE

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