How to Build a Windmill With Kids

Before telling you the entire process of building a windmill, I think you should know what exactly is a windmill and how it works. A windmill is a simple machine that helps you in generating electrical power from wind energy. The machine structure is simple. It has blades installed on a stand. You have to put up the windmill in an open area where it can get sufficient wind flow. The wind rotates the blades of the windmill, which in turn rotates the turbines of a generator that produces electrical energy. This generated energy is then utilized for various purposes. It is also possible to build a windmill at home and use this homemade windmill to power your house and reduce electricity bills. You can also build a windmill for school project for your kid. The paragraphs below will tell you how to make a windmill for kids.

Building a Windmill Model

Before building a windmill for home, you can make a model of what the actual one would look like. You can follow the subsequent steps to know how to build a small windmill model. Here we are making the model from wood; but it is also possible to make windmill from plastic bottles or other materials, the process will remain more or less similar. So let's begin.

• Take a pane of plywood which is 5mm in width. It is going to be used for making the blades of our windmill.
• Now make ten pieces of this pane, each having a width of 6cm and a length of 36cm. Actually, we will be needing only eight of these pieces; the extra two are for backup in case something goes wrong.
• Next we have to take a pane of wood which is 2cm thick. We have to cut a circle out of it, which is 16cm in diameter.
• Take a marker or a pencil and draw a line on this circular pane dividing it in two halves. Draw one more line but this one should be perpendicular to the first line. Continue drawing such lines till the circle has eight parts like a pizza.
• Now we have to continue these pencil lines on the periphery of the circular shape. But they should not be straight lines they should be drawn at an angle and this angle should be kept same for all eight lines drawn along the periphery.
• There are lines on one face of the circle and on the periphery. The other face is blank. On this face also we have to draw the same eight lines as on the other face. But these lines will be drawn 2cm apart from their corresponding line on the other face. So we draw the first line, that divides the circle in two equal parts, on the blank side 2cm from the center.
• You will see the same eight markings on both sides now. But they are not overlapping each other.
• Now we have to make cuts on the circumference of the circle to fit the blades into them. For that, make cuts on the slanting lines that we drew on the circumference. These cuts will go through the pencil lines on the two faces of the circle till they are about two inches from the center of the circle. Don't let them go too deep.
• A hole is to be made at the center of the circle. After that you have to push the blades, that we made, into the dents made on the circle periphery. You can use glue or tape to keep the blades in place.
• You can use a small wooden bar as the axle of the windmill. For that, push the bar through the center hole that we made in the previous step. And mount the structure on a pole or a stand which also can be made of wood or any other material.

Your windmill is ready. The above procedure involves a great deal of cutting wood and shaping it, so it should not be done without proper adult supervision. School kids looking to make a science fair wind generator project can make it with cardboard, as it will be safer and easier for them. Now that you know how to build a windmill, what are you waiting for? Go ahead and make one!