How to make a weathervane with your own hands

Do you want to decorate your house with an unusual decorative detail? Make a weather vane with your own hands and install it on the ridge of the roof. You will not only always know the direction of the wind, but also make your house unlike everyone else.

In literal translation, the word "weathervane" means a flag made of metal. Very popular such a design was in medieval Europe. Figures in the form of dogs, cocks, angels, ships and boys with musical instruments decorated most of the houses. In Russia the weathercock was installed on the homes of wealthy citizens and merchants. If you want to make a weathervane with your own hands, choose any figure you like. For example, take a cock.

Any weather vane consists of three parts: the base on which the letters with the designation of parts of the light, the turning mechanism with the arrow and the decorative figure are fixed. Such a structure is attached to the roof using metal corners.

Thinking about how to make a weathervane with your own hands quickly and as simple as possible, do not be wiser and buy a swivel mechanism in the building store. After this, it is necessary to determine the material from which the decorative elements will be made. It can be plywood, copper or stainless steel. The choice of material will depend on your skills and available tools. The simplest version will be a figure made of plywood and fixed on the metal tube of the pivoting mechanism.

Before we make a weathervane with our own hands, we will deal with a pattern. We use for this purpose a dense paper or a thin cardboard. We draw on it the figure of the rooster standing on the arrow, and two details with the signs of the sides of the light from which the wind rose will be collected. We transfer our pattern to a sheet of plywood and cut it with a jig saw.

Carefully clean the edges of each part. The cockerel is colored with acrylic paints on both sides. Cover with several layers of colorless varnish and let dry thoroughly. We cover the rose of winds with the paint of the right color. While sawing an arrow, it should be remembered that its feathering serves as a kind of counterweight and turns the figure of the cock under the influence of a gust of wind. Therefore, this part becomes quite wide. By adding a freely hanging plate, you can evaluate the power of the blowing wind.

We fix the swivel mechanism on the ridge of the roof. With the help of a simple compass we determine the sides of the world. In accordance with this, we attach to the base the details of the wind rose, using screws for this. Then attach a decorative figure of the cock to the arrow to the tube of the turntable.

But it is not enough to make a weathervane with your own hands. It is necessary to protect our design from a lightning strike - ground. To do this, take a long coil of metal wire. One end is attached to the base of the weathercock, and the second is lowered from the roof and buried in the ground to a depth of one and a half meters. Now the house is protected from electric shock.

Making a weather vane with your own hands will not only allow you to decorate the house, but it will also be a pleasant pastime. And by improving your skills, you can make a wonderful gift to your family or friends. The real craftsmen, from whose hands wonderful products go, earn large sums for such a simple decorative detail, like a weathercock for a house. Make the first design for yourself, and if this activity will enthrall you, then move forward. Each time try new materials, shapes or methods of processing, until you find your ideal design of a beautiful weather vane.

Elegant figure on the roof of the house will attract the attention of adults and make the kids happy. Having such an illustrative example of decorating a house, many will want to have a weathervane in their own, which will expand the circle of your potential customers.