Ceiling Fan as windmill

[Smcl001]

Working on a production of "The Wizard of Oz" and just got an email from my designer about adding a "Middle-America farm-style windmill" to the Kansas scenes and I just came across a ceiling fan unit that was never installed in the space. I was thinking with a little luan, hardware, and theatre magic I could convert it to a "farm-style windmill".

Throw a dimmer on there and I could keep it low for the opening and set it to high with the tornado affect.

good idea to peruse? maybe to much work then it's worth? any ideas or input is welcomed. I'm just spit balling here. Thanks!

[Footer]

Originally Posted by Smcl001

Working on a production of "The Wizard of Oz" and just got an email from my designer about adding a "Middle-America farm-style windmill" to the Kansas scenes and I just came across a ceiling fan unit that was never installed in the space. I was thinking with a little luan, hardware, and theatre magic I could convert it to a "farm-style windmill".

Throw a dimmer on there and I could keep it low for the opening and set it to high with the tornado affect.

good idea to peruse? maybe to much work then it's worth? any ideas or input is welcomed. I'm just spit balling here. Thanks!

All well and good.... except the dimmer thing. I have built some really big windmills and getting the blade to spin slow enough is a huge fight. Depending on the motor used, the dimmer might work, it might not. If its a variable speed fan, odds are it won't. It might work for long enough for you to test it, but won't work long after that. AC motors are not designed to work on variable power like DC motors. Added to that, you will have issues with starting it and keeping a consistent speed slow speed. The speed you will want to set it on to run will be different then the speed it will take to start it.

I used a variable frequency drive to run this windmill and this motor. It allowed me to start it hard and then slow down to run at a consistant speed.




They do sell motors that are very powerful and very slow. Google it.

Another option... which I have done before... use a screw gun. Gut the screw gun and set it slow. It will have enough power to spin the fan and has the benefit of being wireless. I did that for this production for our airplane prop. Because the piece flew it also took care of a cable pick issue.

[dramatech]

I did the windmill in "Oklahoma", with the windshield wiper motor from a Mazda RX7. It had two speeds, and we ran a 12 volt motor off of a six volt battery. I used a dual channel garage door opener to activate it. It really wowed the audience, when it was stopped and started at different speeds, as the item was moved to different parts of the stage for different scenes. We sold it to another theatre, who in turn sold it again. Who knows!!!, it may still be touring from theatre to theatre,

[Irish]

Something to keep in mind is that a ceiling fan is not balanced to run on it's side. Strap the thing to the edge of the table and let it run a bit before you try to put it up anywhere.