When my boys were young and we visited my father in Melbourne, they were always interested in the whirligigs that he had made and which were setup in his backyard. When he passed away, one of the boys insisted that we bring some of them back with us. For a while I had them setup, but the weather (& neglect) got to them so I took them down.
Just recently my oldest granddaughter was interested in something I had made years ago, so I showed her the old, neglected whirligigs. This inspired me to have a go at doing them up.
This first one (a fisherman) was relatively easy to restore as I didn’t have to remake any of the wooden parts.
I disassembled all the moving parts and replaced brass pivots with stainless steel bolts. But I discovered that my father (a fitter & turner by trade) had lined all the holes with copper tube as a sheath. Because my bolts were a slightly larger size, I had to get new tubing and reline the holes.
Also, based on an internet search, I used a bike spoke for the link between the propellor & the fisherman. It took a little bit of effort to create the round eye at each end of the spoke but it provides a nice neat link.
Apart from sanding, most of the effort went into painting – my aim was to make it nice and bright.
Finally I needed a new post, so an old table leg proved to be ideal. I drilled a vertical hole in the end and used a bolt (with the head cut off) at the pin that the whirligig sat on. The square end of the table leg (not shown) was almost a perfect fit inside my pool fence post.
There are 2 more to go – a woodchopper (which will require making a number of new parts) and a dinosaur. I’ll write about these when they are done.
I have plans for these whirligigs (and others) so would always be willing to share that information.