Windmill Fan Light

[Dusty Britches]

My light over my kitchen / breakfast table went bad with some loud buzzing so I set about to replace it. I didn't like any of the ones I saw on line when it came to pricing so I started thinking it couldn't be that hard to make one, right?

After some intense design thinking (not my forte) I thought it would be cool to have a windmill fan light. Price online was shocking - what I saw was $500-$600 and that was not the motorized ceiling fan - just a light.

I went to Lowes and the feller there showed me the components and helped me pick a lamp shade and showed me how simple this would be. I was hooked. The socket with drop down wire and lamp was $40. I can do this!

I searched online for a windmill fan that was the size I wanted - in my case 38-40" in diameter. I found what I wanted on ebay. A guy there makes them custom. He was just making wall decorations and the blades were not evenly space so after a small discussion he made exactly what I was looking for. It was $80. But, shipping was $63! ebay wasn't far off - the guy told me UPS charged $53. He offered to refund the $10 but I told him to keep it.

I also have a length of 3/8" conduit for the drop down rod.

Here is what I have now:


So now my cost is $180. When my fan blade arrived I looked up how to rust it quickly and while I tried the vinegar method, I eventually had to go with Muratic acid. It was $6 for a gallon, but I could not get a smaller container. I needed maybe 1/2 cup. More on this later.

[Dusty Britches]

Before I started, I noticed a problem. The center of the fan has a big ol' cross in the way. Plus, the lamp shade had a recessed mount. I had to somehow attach the 2. I figured I'd use some 1.25" #10 bolts with nuts but I'd have to cut the cross out. The bolts would have to go through the tabs and into the shade. I wanted to make sure the hold lined up between the 2 since I couldn't drill them at the same time, so I made a template out of cardboard and taped it to the fan to drill out. More on that later.

Here's my template thought:


The lamp shade:


The light socket retainer. The light socket had to go all of the way through both pieces.

[BlackHogDown]

Very cool

[Dusty Britches]

Back to adding the rust. I quickly figured out the lamp shade had clear coat on it, so I removed it with paint stripper.

I put the large green squeeze trigger from the spray bottle directly onto the gallon container. This minimizes waste and keeps accidents to minimum.

You will also need hydrogen peroxide. Make sure you wear gloves, goggles and a mask! The fumes will burn as much as the liquid.



I moved everything outside and off the concrete when I read the miruatic acid will etch concrete.

Lightly spray the acid. I chose to wait a few minutes but you could spray the peroxide right away. Later I wanted more rust so that's what I did - spray the peroxide right away. It seemed to work better I guess the acid had not evaporated as much.

Moved outside prepping up. I did not spray the inside of the lamp - I wanted it to reflect light.


Here it is 15 minutes later. The shade took to the rust very well. The fan needed more work.


I'll post more at lunch time. I have a few phone calls to make.

[texan16]

Cool azz project. Tuned in for the finish.

[Dusty Britches]

So after about 15 minutes of letting the acid and peroxide sit, spray it down well with water or it will continue to rust and rust. Let it air dry, which in the sun doesn't take long.

Now back to attaching the fan to the shade.

I used the tabs on the cardboard to "lock" it in place on the metal tabs then I drilled holes a little bigger than the #10 bolts.



The holes are in the solid part of the template. Then I used an angle grinder to cut the tab out.



I tried to fit the porcelain socket threads in between the tabs and realized it was too small. I used the angle grinder to cut the tabs back more. It didn't matter how far as long as the bolt holes were not impacted and the socket hole was more or less centered. A little play room helped a lot.

Here's the socket fitted into the center hole.

[Dusty Britches]

I didn't feel much like driving to town to buy a can of galvanized looking paint so for the ceiling cap that was brown so I just painted it white. Hey, it matches the ceiling.



On the YouTube videos, they all recommended spraying clear coat over the rust to stop it from rusting, plus it gives the galvanize a clean look, with the rust. This Rustoleum Satin Clear Gloss that I used dried amazingly fast. Within 30-45 minutes I was able to put it all together.

[Dusty Britches]

And here it is, all put together. My white cap took all night to dry so I sadly, had to wait to put it up.



But I did get it up yesterday afternoon!

[Dusty Britches]

And here it is!


It's kind of difficult to see the rust from this angle, but in person it shows up really well.

But alas... there's another problem....

[hog_down]

Very cool! what a great project, and turned out great

[Dusty Britches]

I made the down rod only 12" so that the bottom of the light would be at 7' from the floor. It sits too high to provide much light on the table.



The single 60 watt bulb doesn't do much either.

Next weekend, I'll exchange the downrod to a 20". And, I found a 3 way splitter on Amazon that will convert the single bulb socket to a 3 light socket so I can put 3 bulbs in it. Here's the link if you want to see it.

I'll post a follow up next weekend. If you have any suggestions, I'd love to read them.

[Dusty Britches]

Very cool! what a great project, and turned out great

Thanks. My husband kept staring at it and knowing how critical he can get about stuff (he's a perfectionist), I asked if there was something wrong. He smiled and said no, he was admiring it. He said he thought it looked pretty cool.

And then... (this has become the family joke) he asked, can you make another one with a working fan?

[Tsnow]

Very cool! I like it.

[texan4ut]

Get a bright LED spot for your bulb. It should be bright enough without doing the 3 bulb thing. Good looking fan/light

[RascalArms]

That is awesome!