Here’s how to make a DIY miniature Wooden Windmill with spinning blades!
As a mill madman, grandfather and miller, you also want to infect your grandchildren a bit with this.
Folders of De Hollandsche Molen, building kits, visits to the mill and movies help with that, but nothing is more powerful than an indestructible mini windmill with real spinning blades.
IKEA sells a lighthouse for children from 1 year for less than 6 euros. It is a multi-colored stacking tower made of beech, designed to teach children to discover things. Kids love to play with it!
With two free stirring sticks, a screw, a washer and 3 centimeters of a wooden broomstick, you can turn the lighthouse into a real tower mill with rotating blades. (My wife complains that the broomstick is now too short.)
IKEA item used:
MULA lighthouse (stacking rings) from IKEA
Other materials:
2 paint stirrers
Screw with round head
Washer
3 centimeters from a wooden broomstick
Wood glue
Child-safe paint or stain
Drill with 2 drills
Sharp knife
Tassel
How to make a wooden windmill that spins
1. Slightly taper the piece of broomstick (hereafter referred to as ‘plug’) with a sharp blade so that it locks firmly in the top part of the lighthouse halfway through. This is the most critical step: if the plug is too deep, this piece will no longer slide on the pile post and if the tapered angle is not shallow, the plug will come off easily.
2. Stick the two stirrers together with wood glue. Do this carefully otherwise the wing cross will become unbalanced.
3. Drill a hole in the center of the vane cross so that the screw fits right through.
4. Drill a smaller hole in the center of the plug. The thickness of this drill bit is equal to the core of the screw.
5. Sand and paint the wooden parts.
6. Screw the vane cross on with the washer between the vane cross and the plug.
7. Press the plug firmly into the top part. Optionally, you can also stick the plug with glue.
The mill is ready.
~ by Paul