Neighbors weather vane save

[C-Bag]

Last week I spied my favorite neighbor out in his garage. I never know what he’s up to and this time was no different. He had this cast copper blue whale weather vane lying on the bench along with an assortment of copper pipe of all sizes. Mixed in was different sealed bearings. He had been given the old weather vane by his neighbor and he was trying to figure out how to resurrect it. As you can see by the pics it’s been out in the weather for decades and the patina is wonderful.

The base of the vane was just a stud, no threads. And he didn’t have the correct die. I did. As we tried to figure out how to make this thing we started drawing it out on a paper towel. I didn’t see how he was going to just assemble this without some machining and he admitted he had been hashing this over in his mind for days and was wishing I’d show up. I had a brass shaft that had been machined for a boat that went from 1 1/8” down to 1”. He had the bearings.

So we agreed it needed to have a spindle for the bearings, threaded on the end to screw onto the soon to be threaded stud sticking out of the whale base. It would have a copper pipe cap, drilled and cut down so it would fit over the tube to seal out weather. The tube had to be bored for a slip fit for the bearing and have a shoulder in the bottom for the bottom bearing to register against. It also needed 3/4” NPT on the bottom of the tube to screw into mast it would be mounted on. It also needed to be cross drilled 5/8” for the copper tube that would be what the cardinal points were mounted to. This was a bigger challenge than I thought, mostly due to my inexperience. But it’s done and he’s happy. When he gets it finished and mounted I’ll post the final pic.

 

[MontanaLon]

Technically that is a sperm whale. Used to see a lot of those around on the coast but I bet the originals are worth a pretty penny these days.

 

[C-Bag]

Technically that is a sperm whale. Used to see a lot of those around on the coast but I bet the originals are worth a pretty penny these days.

Oops. Shows what I know about whales..good catch

 

[Dhal22]

Looks blue to me.

 

[C-Bag]

Well it took a month almost exactly and my buddy got the finishing touches on the weather vane. The very best part was getting him enthused and back in the shop. Having just lost my Dad in the spring I know the pattern of decline when they were hard workers all their life and along about their mid 80’s they quit the shop and start staring at the boob tube. I only wish I’d known him earlier. I hope to find another project we can work on together.

 

[NC Rick]

Not only is that a rare Sperm Whale, it's a ball-bearing Sperm Whale! Mine's a chicken

 

[C-Bag]

It’s ok Rick, there’s nothing wrong with chickens I was never that into weather vanes until that project came along. That cast whale was really cool and I couldn’t believe the neighbors dad had thrown it in the trash! His daughter picked it out and gave it to my neighbor, Horst. Horst said he saw the dad and showed him we’d restored it and how he was planning on giving it back to his daughter. And the dad told him she only thinks she’s getting that back! I guess it’s going back where it used to be at his house.

Horst besides being an instrument technician worked on clocks and watches. So it’s no surprise he made an animated weather vane years ago. I’ll try and get pics of his pics. It was a moving fisherman catching a fish. He’s asked me more than once if I wanted a weather vane and I should take him up on it. Who knows what we could come up with?