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How to Make a Sail Hub for a Windmill

The hub connects the sails, also known as blades, to the shaft of a windmill. Creating a hub is a delicate job which requires taking careful measurements and precise alignment to correctly attach the sails. Misalignment can lead to total failure of the windmill. To make a windmill hub at home, use an old circular saw blade and a few tools that can be found at your local hardware store.

Things You'll Need

Compass
Circular saw blade
Paper
Protractor
Tape
Tap
Hammer
Drill
Nuts
Bolts
Wrenches

Instructions

- 1
  Create a template of the saw blade using a compass and a piece of paper. Commercial circular saw blades are sold according to the diameter of the blade. Set the compass to half the diameter of the saw blade, which is called the radius, and draw a circle on a piece of paper. The drawn circle will be the same size as the diameter of the saw blade.
- 2
  Use a protractor on the template to determine the location of the holes where the sails attach to the hub. The sails must be equidistant from one another to properly balance the hub and sails. Determine the circumference of the circle, which is the diameter of the saw blade multiplied by pi, or 3.14, and divide this by the number of sails of the windmill. Use the protractor to keep the angle and distance between each blade the same.
- 3
  Place the template on top of the saw blade and tape it in place. Mark the holes on the saw blade using a tap with a hammer.
- 4
  Drill holes into the saw blade at the marked points.
- 5
  Connect the sails of the windmill to the saw blade hub using nuts and bolts. Tighten them down with wrenches.

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