what's wrong with my windmill?

[trzepot]

so im not sure what im doing wrong here? my windmill is 3 sails long and i ve linked it up to a quern by itself before and it was working, but when i tried to connect it with a pulverizer using a large grear it doesnt work. i tried to link it up with only the quern and it also stops working so its not a problem with the power of the windmill.

here is a picture (the quern is in the hole). please help

[Zane Mordien]

One windmill with 3 sets of sails or 3 full windmills? What is the wind speed?

 

It sounds like your saying just 3 sails in one rotor which is a pretty weak amount of torque.  If the wind speed slows down it would stall for sure even on a quern.

[trzepot]

3 set of sails. i dont really know how to check the wind speed but looking ar the windmill, it doesnt look slow. i thought 3 sails were enough but i guess im just gonna farm more flax. thanks for help

 

[LadyWYT]

Welcome to the forums! I think the problem is that you are trying to power both a quern and a pulverizer on the same windmill. A 3-sail windmill should be able to power either, assuming a strong wind, but you'll need transmissions if you want to power multiple things with one windmill. Transmissions will allow you to toggle specific pieces of machinery on and off. 

[trzepot]

@LadyWYT i tried to only link the quern with the large gear and it didnt work either. i can only link up either of those with a small gear

 

[LadyWYT]

Just now, trzepot said:

@LadyWYT i tried to only link the quern with the large gear and it didnt work either. i can only link up either of those with a small gear

 

Looking at it again--I think you also need to offset the large gear, and connect the main drive shaft to that via an angled gear. I'm not sure of all the ins and outs of machinery, but I know that I made the mistake of connecting the main drive shaft directly to the large gear on my server, and while it spun fast at first, everything ground to a halt as soon as actual machinery was connected. My friend had to fix it by offsetting the large gear from the main drive shaft and connecting via smaller gears.

[Never Jhonsen]

I've talked about it here before, but here is the most basic windmill setup one can make. I can relink the images again for demonstration;

The key thing here is that there are TWO large gears; one at the top with the sails, and one at the bottom. putting a small gear at the top with a large at the bottom will kill your torque and cause you to lose all power on slower winds

This design is also three sails long; one rotor with three sets of sails attached to it

Edit: I misremembered. This design has 5 sets of sails on one rotor, bet it CAN work with three sets.

Edited September 25, 2025 by Never Jhonsen

[Zane Mordien]

3 hours ago, trzepot said:

3 set of sails. i dont really know how to check the wind speed but looking ar the windmill, it doesnt look slow. i thought 3 sails were enough but i guess im just gonna farm more flax. thanks for help

 

I don't see where anyone else told you to press C to check the wind speed. Its listed there with other stats such as time of day and temperature. 

I think other people have given you good input on the set up so I won't reapeat it. I am a minimalist myself so I don't use a clutch.  I just break out the small gear when im not using something. 

 

Good luck!

[Jeremie Dexter]

On 9/25/2025 at 3:24 PM, Zane Mordien said:

I don't see where anyone else told you to press C to check the wind speed. Its listed there with other stats such as time of day and temperature. 

 

Are you using a mod to see wind speed? It has never appeared in the C menu for me.

[Zane Mordien]

6 hours ago, Jeremie Dexter said:

Are you using a mod to see wind speed? It has never appeared in the C menu for me.

True the Hudclock Mod puts it on the screen. I thought it was in the C menu, which is where it gets everything else for the HUD.  Instead type /weather and it will tell you the wind.