Finally work starts on the wheel

Donald cuts some bucket
bottom boards

At last we were able to start rebuilding the waterwheel.  Using the new saw table to cut the 54 degree angles on the board edges, Bob and Donald produced the pairs of boards for 10 buckets - only 20 to go.  We then trimmed them to length.  The next stage is to fit them together in the jig (see last week) and drill them for the joining screws.  The leading edge of the bucket boards has to be rounded and the edges thinned to fit in the shroud castings.

The centre of this diagram shows how a pair of boards fit together, at an angle of 108 degrees, and meet the lining boards to form a bucket.  The outer part represents the 30 buckets and 40 lining boards forming the wheel.

Richard fits the first
of the new buckets

Richard took the first completed set and did the final trimming to fit it in the wheel.