For my second whirligig, I wanted to make a gift for my dad for Fathers Day. Now I’ll admit, it’s not quite the scale or grander of the light house I built my mom for Mothers Day a few years back, but my dad owns a 1928 Packard that he REALLY enjoys taking to car shows and such, so that was the perfect vehicle to model in this whirligig.
If you are interested in the car itself, here is a video of my dad explaining the car. I find it quite interesting how much we take for granted in vehicles these days. There are a lot of standard luxuries that weren’t always there – you know, things like heat…
There aren’t too many pieces of a vehicle that are designed to catch wind head on and spin. For that reason, many people build more of a scene for a car whirligig with a full propeller on the front and a man crank-starting the car. These are highly mechanical whirligigs, but wasn’t the appropriate option in my case. The biggest reason being that the 1928 Packard I’m modeling this after doesn’t have a crank start.
My intention was to put angled fins into the wheels which would allow them to catch some wind. I did pursue this option, but with how small the tires are this became a very difficult task, and given that they wouldn’t catch much wind anyway, this idea was abandoned. Also, the real tires on the Packard have a solid metal hub.
All that said, this whirligig has turned into more of a weathervane. So it will still catch wind, attention of those passing by, and made my dad very happy. So this has certainly accomplished the goals it was intended for.
Random note: if you saw the carved bear on the porch in the last picture (I’m not sure how you missed it if you didn’t…. But if you did I can wait – feel free to go back and take a look quick), that was carved by my brother. Feel free to check out his website where he features his wood carving creations and knife making adventures.
