Yesterday I wrote up a post that I had on my list of the last couple of years but never got around to. My all time favorite project, building a windmill and some of the stories behind it.

I made a promise to open source the design, and today I finally hope to make good on that promise. This comes with a word of warning though, I am flooded with work at the moment so I do not have the time to make this a picture perfect release. I am making a lot of assumptions about the skills of the people that would attempt an undertaking like this and if you are in doubt you probably should not even try this. In some ways releasing this scares the crap out of me because the possibility of someone getting hurt is > 0, even simply building this (without ever using it) is not without risk. I almost lost a bunch of fingers mounting the magnetic drum, so please take this as a warning (and I really like my fingers, and I’m really careful). A single ‘neo’ magnet is already dangerous, 18 of the mounted to a chunk of steel is a formidable thing. No pretty pictures today, just dry technical stuff.