How to Make a Spiral Wind Sculpture

Use some scraps up by making a spiral wind sculpture.

I made mine with the off-cuts from my Spiral Planter/Table build ( https://www.instructables.com/id/Spiral-Garden-Planter/ ), which was itself built from pallets!

I've published a video of the build on my YouTube channel too.

You'll need a number of slats. I used thirty five, but it really isn't important how many exactly.

They should all be the same width and thickness as each other, say 3/4" x 1/4".

I rough cut all mine first from off-cuts of pallet wood, then used a simple jig to plane them all exactly the same dimensions, with smooth surfaces that would glue better.

Tip: If you buy correctly dimensioned laths, then you need only cut them to length

Note: Details of the simple jig will be available on my YouTube channel soon, but basically it's just a piece of MDF with slots in it to the depths required for the slats, plus the thickness of a few pieces of paper. First clean up one face and edge without paper shims installed, then install the shims and clean up the opposite face and edge. The plane will stop cutting automatically (as long as the MDF is wide enough to support the width of the plane!)

First clamp the slats together, and draw in a centre line. We'll use this to line up for drilling the pivot holes later.

Next mark cut lines. I made these at about 120­° to the top and bottom of the stack - making it an almost regular hexagon.

With the slats still clamped together, saw the four marked corners off.

Cut a length of fairly stout wire (I used a wire coat hanger to harvest mine from), and turn an 'L' on the end to prevent the slats falling off.

Select a drill bit that will bore a snug fitting hole.

Drill a centre hole in all the slats, using the previously marked centre line and a fence on the drill press. If you are free-handing the drill, carry the centre line across the face of the slat and mark it's half-way point, before carefully drilling perpendicular to the slat face.

Tip: Start with the bottom slat, and place the drilled slats onto the wire as you go - this will save a headache later!

To create the spiral, start at the bottom and glue each slat to the one above, having rotated it so that the ends still just overlap a tiny bit.

I used CA glue, which was easy as it cured nice and fast and allowed progress to go quickly. It isn't the best glue for the job, but it seems to hold up well enough.

Turn a loop at the top of the wire and attach to a length of twine.

Hang in a tree or similar.

Alternatively, use a rubber band, which will store energy better I think.

You can leave it as is, or coat it with preservative, paint, stain, etc.

That's it, sit back and relax!

Thanks for viewing my Instructable,

Mitch