Flying proudly.

My previous Stars & Stripes flag was a tad worse for wear and I never cared for the cheap printed design, meaning I splashed out for a higher quality stitched one with woven stars. Made in America, of course.

But this new one suffered from the same issue common to seemingly all flags mounted on an angled flagpole, namely that they get twisted around the pole in windy conditions, making for an unsightly presentation. So I determined to do something about it.

First I added two pairs of insanely powerful neodymium magnets towards the base to add heft. These certainly stopped the twirling around the pole but in high winds the magnets would adhere to the mild steel pole! And that looked even worse. Further, in a high wind the added weight generated additional force on the thin walled mild steel pole and …. the pole bent at a right angle, landing OG in the dirt.

So I added a hardwood dowel to add robustness to the pole, after some straightening and garage language, and …. a new gust of wind bent the pole and snapped the dowel like a matchstick. Clearly I was dealing with forces whose severity I did not appreciate. So off to the hardware store for two additional purchases. A length of steel rod for the inside of the pole and a three foot length of mild steel bar stock to place across the space between the magnet pairs to add stiffness to the flag and prevent the magnets from attaching themselves to the flagpole.

I first tried this arrangement transversely, the bar at right angles to the stripes and while it did the job the flag looked pretty unnatural, never coming to rest in wind free conditions. So then I tried it with the magnets on the bottom stripe and the bar stock parallel to that stripe and, bingo!, it worked perfectly and the flag looked gorgeous at rest.

But the devil was not done. Now in windy conditions the base holder, secured with three screws to a wooden upright, started to pull the screws out of the wood. So those three were replaced with longer and beefier alternatives and so far, so good. I now have a new appreciation for the term ‘wind power’. And, just for grins, I riveted the two section flagpole together as it had a tendency to separate, yet again landing OG in the bushes. So there!

One final step was called for and that was to spray paint the bar stock red. That would make it virtually disappear against the background of the red stripe and also protect against rust. And here is the happy result:

Old Glory at rest.
Triple cable ties for safety.

A tribute, enjoyed daily, to the once and future greatest nation there has ever been. Meanwhile, we have a convicted felon destroying the economy and kowtowing to our foes, an ex (?) heroin junkie masquerading as Health Secretary, and a billionaire zonker and manic humper destroying the tendrils of our government. What could possibly go wrong?