Developing the water control

During the last week, Richard had fabricated a superb, flexible hinge arrangement for the new second lever on the dump valve. Today we installed the hinge, with the new lever, through a new hole in the weatherboarding wall. The hinge is mounted on the weatherboarding, which is reinforced by a large plank screwed across several boards. There is adjustment of the axis of the hinge relative to the wall, to allow for the slight skew angle of the launder.

We then made the two-piece link to join the new lever to the old, assembled the whole thing (apart from the actual shutter board) and tested it. This short video shows how the new lever moves further than the old one, as intended.

At last this damned Blogger interface has let me upload it.

Elsewhere, we also fitted a couple of small pulleys to re-route the cord controlling the angle of the shoe so that it can be adjusted from the lower floor.

The following day, Wednesday 5th October, Richard and Bob returned to the mill, lured by the prospect of a visit by the BBC - which, typically of the media, never happened. However, we did manage to test the new shutter with the board rigged approximately in place and to clear some of the woodland debris from the headrace. Richard also made a number of measurements for his ongoing home fabrications.