Materials

• Gather a long wooden broomstick, an aluminum pie plate or baking dish, a 12-inch-long piece of wood (a sturdy wooden ruler would be OK), nails, a metal washer, a hammer, watertight epoxy glue (or a hot glue gun with glue sticks), a small saw (or serrated knife), wire for mounting, and scissors that are strong enough to cut aluminum.
  
  

Construction

• Use the small saw or the serrated knife to cut a half-inch deep vertical slit at each end of the 12-inch stick or ruler. Lay the stick horizontally in front of you and find the exact midpoint. Hammer one nail through the stick and turn the wood around the nail until the stick turns easily around the nail.
  
  Cut the head and tail of your wind indicator from the aluminum pie plate. If you want to make this easier, you can draw a pattern on the aluminum dish with a pen or marker. The head and tail should be of similar size, but it is not essential that they match any particular specifications. The head should look like a triangle (and will point out from the stick it is attached to) and the tail should like the tail of an arrow or a fish tail.
  
  Use the watertight epoxy glue or the hot glue gun to glue the head into the half-inch deep slot you cut at the end of your wooden stick. Then glue the tail into the other slot. Wait overnight for the glue to dry entirely before taking the weather vane outside.
  
  Attach the wind indicator to the end of the broomstick by placing the metal washer at the end of the broomstick. Then hammer the nail that you put through the 12-inch stick into the broomstick, attaching the broomstick and your 12-inch stick together at the spot where your placed the washer. Be sure that your wind indicator can move easily around the nail.
  
  

Mounting

• A wind indicator can be mounted in just about any outdoor spot that has access to wind. The best place, however, is up high. For example, you can position the broomstick beside a fence and use wire to secure it. Try to keep the wind indicator as high as possible above the fence while keeping the broomstick steady and secure. The aluminum head will always point in the direction the wind is blowing from. For example, if the head is pointing southeast, the wind is blowing from the southeast.