20 November 2018 Farm Collector
saying no one would pay so much. Then he took orders for
six more at the higher price.
In the summer of 2017, on a whim, he visited a foundry and
machine shop in Canada, where members of a Mennonite
community were interested in manufacturing components
for his scale models. Tim planned to import the parts for as-
sembly in the U.S. A business enterprise was taking shape.
“Then I was notified of the need to remodel the house,” he
says in a tone suggesting surrender. Scale model production
was put on indefinite hold.
Accepting a challenge
In March 2018, remodeling humming along nicely, a speck
of an idea blew in through the window and lodged in Tim’s
head: creation of a 1/3-scale model of the one-of-a-kind Iron
Turbine windmill in time for the trade fair in June 2018, bare-
ly two months later.
When he discussed the project with a craftsman who’d
built wheels for full-size reproduction Iron Turbines, Tim
didn’t get much encouragement. “Pat Hunt told me, ‘It’s im-
possible. There’s just not enough time to finish it before the
trade fair.’”
And that’s all it took. The home remodel came to an abrupt
halt. “But I needed an Iron Turbine to copy,” Tim says. Days
later, Garrett Balsick dropped one by. “I leaned on that to-
tally,” he says.
As soon as Pat told Tim there was no way he could produce
an Iron Turbine in such a short time, Tim headed to the shop
and set to work. “That day, I made one blade,” he says. “It
was so easy, just a piece of cake, really, so I moved on to the
castings.”
Then he returned to produce the rest of the blades. “No
matter what I did, I could not reproduce that first blade,” he
says. “I tried and tried and finally threw them all out and
started over.” Eventually, of course, the blades fell into place.
Tim finished the model just days before it was time to pack up
and head to Lubbock.
Small wonders preserve the past
Tim’s scale models are so intricate, so precise and the parts
are so complex that every single model represents an enor-
mous challenge. “If you looked at it as art, as a sculpture,”
Tim admits, “it’d sell at a much higher price.”
But for his customers – former windmill collectors and
restorers, some of whom have had to leave their farms as
they age – the models are deeply meaningful. “When they
move into apartments or nursing homes,” Tim says, “they
can’t have their windmills anymore. But they can have one of
mine, and it’s a working windmill model. It will pump water.”
Who restores antique windmills?
Jimmie Christensen
Like many windmill collectors, Jimmie Christensen, Elgin,
Texas, can’t remember a time when he wasn’t fascinated by
windmills. “Both of my granddads had windmills,” he recalls.
“I’ve never found a windmill I didn’t like.”
He started restoring windmills after he retired. During the
process of restoring a Dandy Irrigator, he learned that the mu-
seum collection did not have one. When he completed the
restoration, he donated it in memory of the late Chuck Jones,
a collector/restorer from Kansas.
Built from 1919-25 by Challenge Windmill & Mfg. Co., Bat-
avia, Illinois, the Dandy Irrigator was available in sizes up to
20 feet in diameter. “The off-center wheel automatically turns
away from the wind as the wind increases,” Jimmie says. “It
has a weighted arm that acts like a spring; it brings the wheel
back to face the wind.”
✭
LubbockTexasThe Dandy has long been a part of the landscape of his
life. “I have known of this windmill since I was a young boy,
as long as I can remember,” he says. “It was set up west of
Elgin, which is east of Austin. They used it to pump water
from a reservoir for a home and livestock. It was there many,
many years.”
Jimmie’s interest in the old mills is rooted in the ingenu-
ity they demonstrate. “Necessity brought about progress,” he
says. “With no windmill, there’s no water. And with no water,
you’ve got no place to live.” FCFor more information:
The 31st annual Windmiller’s Trade Fair will be held
June 12-14, 2019, at the Kimmel Ag Expo Center in
Syracuse, Nebraska.
American Windmill Museum, 1701 Canyon Lake
Dr., Lubbock, TX 79403; (806) 747-8734; http://www.
windmill.com.
Garrett Balsick, (719) 472-4812.
Leslie C. McManus is the senior editor of Farm Collector.
Contact her at [email protected].Below: An Easy windmill, manufactured by Easy Mfg. Co.,
Lincoln, Neb. The Easy is a uniquely designed mill with a split-
wheel shaft designed to reduce the speed of the pump rod,
accomplished by an encased planetary gear positioned behind
the wheel. Easy Mfg. Co. later became Cushman Motor Works.
While continuing to produce windmills, in 1936 Cushman
began producing motor scooters. At left: a restored Cushman
Eagle. The model was introduced in 1949.Right: The
museum
collection
includes one
of every model
of windmill
produced
by Aermotor
Windmill Co.
from 1890
to today,
each carefully
restored.