water Mill restoration

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smiffy:
I carried on with getting the shafts into order The vertical shaft was still a bit out of line which I did not realise until I came to replace the floor boards. I moved it until the gap was even ,
The main wheel shaft has proved a bit of pain . The wheel runs in a bearing block on each side and the pit wheel runs in 1 bearing with a coupling to the the wheel part .
This coupling is made of 2 flanges bolted together with a squared hole in each to accommodate the shafts . the square on the pit side has worn badly and the shaft is a slack fit in the hole This makes it very difficult to work out when its in the correct position.
This is a crude form of uj so I need to leave some movement in it.
This is not something which is easy to push about as it weights several tons and every movement requires the jacks to be moved to a different position
Although there looks to be plenty of room to move about the space is actually quite restricted.
I was going to run the wheel and let it settle in to a position where it was happy but the water is very high today which causes problems.
The weir was up by about 18 inches but the down stream water level was up by over 3 feet . This always happens after short periods of heavy rain due to restriction about 3 miles down stream. This means that the tail race is backed up and the water can not get away from the paddles .
There is also a grid above the sluice gate to stop large pieces of wood getting stuck in the sluice gate or wheel . This has become blocked and is restricting water to the wheel .
I just did not fancy putting my waders on a getting into 5 feet of fast flowing water to clear it.
Hopefully in a day or 2 the level will have dropped a bit
Photos show the Level of water , The main shaft coupling and the vertical shaft with floor boards refitted

philf:

--- Quote from: smiffy on December 21, 2018, 02:14:04 PM ---.......
The weir was up by about 18 inches but the down stream water level was up by over 3 feet . This always happens after short periods of heavy rain due to restriction about 3 miles down stream. This means that the tail race is backed up and the water can not get away from the paddles ...........

--- End quote ---

Hi Smiffy,

We see the same effect on the weir at our hydroelectric system on the River Goyt (twin Archimedes screws). I was surprised that something 3 miles downstream would cause a problem. I'll try to have a walk down our river to see if there are any areas where we could perhaps do something to improve the flow. Unfortunately there isn't access via footpaths the whole way down so I may have to don my waders and paddle.

I'm in awe of what you're doing with the mill!

Cheers.

Phil.

AdeV:
Smiffy,

This is truly a bonkers project - I'm absolutely loving it, and you've done some really cool work there. :clap: :clap:

:nrocks:

Can't wait to see the video of it all up and running as it would have been in the 1700s :thumbup:

smiffy:
Thanks for your comments . The restrictions down steam are several tributaries joining and road bridges so not munch i can do about
that . Today I followed it for about 20 miles and the whole river down to where it joins the Severn is about 3 feet up . It does go down fairly quickly so if we do not get any more rain by tomorrow the down steam levels should be quiet a lot lower
Ade thanks for your words of encouragement .
The people who should take the praise are the original builders The quality of there work amazes me and they did it without any power tools .
To understand the effort required some years ago with a few other like minded people we set to to build a traditional timber building along the same lines as the traditional black and white houses that are a feature of our county side
This entailed starting with green oak as felled of about 14 =20 inches in diameter and 15 - 20 feet long and turning it into straight square timber This could either be used as it was for principle posts or cut on a pit saw into suitable size timber for studs etc .
Every thing had to be done traditionally with no use of modern power tools
The round timber is squared using a 7 lbs felling axe and a side axe . Every piece of timber produced before power saws was done using these 2 tools
The method of doing this is 1 Place the tree on 2 other trees at 90 degrees to get it off the ground and orientate it so the the place that you want to start with is vertical
2. Mark 2 vertical lies on each end using a wooden set square and plumb line [no spirit level allowed]
Join the top of each vertical line along the length of the tree and mark with a string line
3 Standing on top of the tree using the felling axe cut a series of birds mouths to the depth of the string line mark
4 still standing on top of the tree and in line with it knock of the blocks between the birds mouths , this should leave a rough but straight vertically flat side to the tree
5 Using a side axe and standing on the ground and using the axe vertically you can produce a very flat and straight piece of wood
6 Repeat for the other 3 sides
The adze is never used despite what many people think. its a tool used for shaping curved surfaces and rarely used in this type of work
Photos show all the tools required for basic framing felling axe ,side axe mortise chisel and 2 bruzzes which are square chisels used to finish mortise corners
This how the vertical axle shaft was cut and it is totally parallel a credit to the men who made it Mike

chipenter:
Your are out of luck if you are left handed .

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