scorch

Hey Erik Thanks for the Complement on my welding. It has been a long road. Since I have had no formal training, just bought a welder and started sticking metal together. I have got nothing but great comments about the windmill. I personal like the port thing for the windmill it gives you a little more control over where the shooter is going to shoot at it from and will usually keep him from shooting the mechanism itself. But keeping them back from it and a surprise seems a little diffacult, unless the Ports are pretty big. One of the fun things I have done at our local club match and why the shaft is way longer than it needs to be, is to put the windmill behind a wall and run the shaft through a 1.5 inch hole in the wall and put the pulley back on, then cut two ports about two foot square one on either side of the shaft. When running the stage have the shooter come up and actually turn the pulley to get the targets to appear in the ports. The nice thing about this a "D" class shooter can spin it slow and a "GM" can give it a whirl and fixes the "to slow" for some and "to fast" for other problem. If any one has a question about the windmill, I will be monitoring this tread and would be happy to give any suggestions or comments pretaining to the Windmill. P.S. Last week, I built a new accessory for the windmill to make it do something besides just go around and around and it is cheap. It will turn your windmill into a bobber. We shot it last Sunday at our club match (testing ground)and was a hoot. There will be some video of it on our web page at www.doubletapranch.com next week. ( Right Now the Video is 2.4MG going to try to cut it down a bit) The nice thing is cost of the accessory to make the windmill into a bobber will only be $35.00 this includes shipping. Gee! I hope somebody has not thought of this yet.... Sorry! Could not help myself.

Wrong Match Alex That was the Year after and it was not the windmill it was the Paddlewheel that Dan designed and built and it was Inovative. You were not on my squad or ROing the first year. I have the Match on video tape. It's not who did it first, it is that you say I "Took" dan design.. and you just admitted you shot one years earlier so I guess dan "took" That? You just made my claim for me, that somebody actually though this up before you seen dan's. Not only me but somebody in Germany. You got nothing, so give it up. I can and did backed up my story! One Last thing Iam NOT running for SC Either.... geeessss.. Gossip .. to bad it is never right.

Hey Erik Good Point about spiking the windmill down to keep it in one spot for a major Match. I agree there should be holes in the stand. Here is why there is none when shipped. If for your major match you drill four holes in the stand It will take you about 5 minutes to drill tops (including getting everything out and putting it all away) if I drill the holes (100 -150 holes) that 500 -750 minutes and I have to justify that in the cost. So to keep the cost reasonable I quit Fully assembling them and drilling holes in the stand and cut back on what I did vs. what the customer did. Most of this was done to meet tight deadlines on building and shipping (built on a per order basis in my spare time) and to keep cost down ( I had to increase the price later because materials went up) Most of my friends told me I should have started selling them at $125.00 to $150.00. ( at 125.00 the stand would Definitely have holes drilled) so Just like most of the stuff you buy at Wal mart today there is a little assembly and this explained when ordering.

Alex You seem to remember stuff the way you want to... I NEVER EVER said it was the first one I saw. (that match Was Two Years ago or longer, Really good memory about something I said I don't pay that much attention to what you say) Me and Bill Perry Sr. talked about this windmill just about a year after I started Shooting (5 years ago) and set down and drew it up. Took about a year before I had time to build 90% of one. but I could not get it to work consistently with spring and Cords. Then about three and half years ago Robert Kelly and I talked about spinning target and I told him I already had something going on that but the "motor" was a problem. any body that really knows me knows I am always thinking up Werid Idea for stages since I set one or two month for three years now. You have never talked to me about this and you don't know the whole story and apparently don't want to, so in your mind Dan made the first one, Great! Big Deal! Just don't Spread around that I "took" the Design in a public form, when you don't have any idea when or whats going on since you only run into me once or twice a year. My Apologies to the other folks reading this forum. This is not what it was set up for, I will not post anything further on this. My conscious is clear and I won't change the one person mind here. Again I apologize to the other readers.

Hi I would Like to introduce myself my name is Robert Porter and I am the person making and selling the Texas windmill, The purpose of the is post is to clear up a few inaccuracies. That have been posted here by folks that don’t have all the facts, and only know when he saw the first windmill, since this person does not shoot with us locally, They Live over 200 Miles from my home and have Never talked to ME about this subject, so they only know what they hear around and we all know how gossip goes. The first and foremost is that I DID NOT & WOULD NOT STEAL THIS DESIGN FROM ANYBODY.. I had one of the Prototypes for the texas windmill done LONG before Dan had his built for the 4-H match (fact I was shocked when I saw his) I will give Dan some credit for the “motor” of the design of the windmill. My motor design is an adaptation of his. There are several major draw backs to Dan's design (in my opinion, like the speed it turns) which I had to fix, but the basic motor idea was good. The windmill itself was all ready done WAY BEFORE THIS TIME and we had experimented with several “motors” such as spring and bungee cords and alike. I have several folks in this area that had seen this before the Dan’s match. About the article: It was asked for by Robin Taylor of front sight and was in no way “Self Serving” Thank You Alex ! The article was only a portion of another article about our Lone Star match and they did not run any of that article except for the part about the windmill. To address the pole Issue: Yes there is two -2’ section to hold it up this was done purely to save money for the person purchasing it on shipping. The cost for a larger box to put a 4 foot pole in was quit a bit more for the box and the shipping. But the wobble does not effect the windmill operation. (personally I don't like the wobble myself) Either welding the poles together or replacing the pole at a cost of about $4.00 will satisfy this.. rather then $12.00 for the larger box & shipping The Instruction Say to Drill holes in the stand if you want it to be “more” secure and drive spikes into the ground, but it works without the spike. ( and if it is windy enough you “Have to” Nail it down, I would not use it, the Wind does effect the windmill) The last thing I will say is, I don’t care who gets credit for the design,(Dan Had his in a major match before me) just don’t insult my integrity by saying I “took” it, when you really don’t know .There is nothing really new under the sun.