water Mill restoration

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awemawson:
Mike the bronze bearing block looks very brassy - perhaps they did it the cheap way before :clap:

smiffy:
Yes Andrew I agree from the photo but in real life it looks more like bronze but anyway its run out of newness . This bearing takes a fair amount of pressure so would welcome ideas on using a modern bearing
Mike

ddmckee54:
Does the bronze block take the end load of the steel shaft too, or just the side to side loads?

Don

smiffy:
Yes both radial and thrust Total shaft weight is about 1 ton I will probably replace like for like as that bearing will have done 50 years of running .so the design has stood the test of time and all the other mills I know have the same design Mike

smiffy:
I realigning the water wheel shaft by pushing it over with a 20 ton hydraulic ram until the gear mesh was correct from the pit wheel to spur wheel .
The next gear on the vertical shaft drives 2 diagonally opposed gears that drive the stones which are directly above them .
Its important that the meshing of both of these gears is correct

As the bearing block that I posted a photo of yesterday wears the main gear will drop . Over the life of the bearing this is about 3 inches . This will cause the stones drive gears to come out of mesh

To compensate for this the gears are adjustable on there shafts.
The drive shafts are square and onto this is mounted a casting with a square hole in it which is a sliding fit onto the shaft

The out side of this casting is a tapered square which fits into a tapered square hole in the stone drive gear . The outer piece is held at the correct height by 2 pieces of wood which are bolted to the inner shaft .
All that is needed to do is saw a equal amount of each piece of wood and the gear will drop down on its square.
Its not possible to alter the mesh by moving the drive shaft itself as this would alter the clearance between the grind stones which is critical to the correct operation of the mill
The top stone is mounted directly onto the shaft

If it is required to take one of the stone out of used the gear is simply lifted of the tapered square and tied up out of the way.

This probably sounds a lot more complicated than it is in practice . Sometimes it is not easy to describe a simple design
The next major step will Get the top floor cleaned up and the sack hoist working
Photos show the stone drive gear and the correct mesh , jacking the main shaft and the top floor and sack hoist
Mike

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