Starting on the second waterwheel

There is a main shaft in its bearings which formed part of the second waterwheel.  There are also a number of pieces of the shroud (cast iron rim) of the wheel, but some are missing and several are broken.  Restoring the wheel will be a challenge, but we have started by cleaning and preserving the shroud pieces, ready for trying to repair some of the broken ones.  We will have to fabricate replacements for badly damaged or missing ones.

Anyway, here are some photos of the work in progress.  Sorry, I can't persuade Blogger to show the third pic the right way round!

Some of the cleaned shrouds

David and Chris clean the rust off

The makers mark on a shroud piece Stalker Bros, Penrith

Work continues - the jigger box

We're having quite a busy season, milling and selling a good amount of flour.

In between we have been working on restoring a drive to the "jigger box", a mechanical sieve that was once powered by belt from the stone shaft for the third pair of stones.  These were driven from the second waterwheel.  Unfortunately we don't have a second waterwheel (but see the next post) but we have the stone shaft and the belt pulley.  We have been able to connect up some belting from there via an intermediate shaft to a new shaft connected to the jigger box.

The pulley on the stone shaft

The jigger box and new shaft

Our first struggle with belting!

We've then fixed a motor intended for an invalid carriage to the top of the stone shaft.  Powered by a 12V battery it will drive the jigger box in an imitation of its original way via the belting.