Further work on No 2 stone

Today we continued to work towards our goal of milling with the No 2 stone before the end of the season. The tun is a two-decker structure, the upper section being detachable mainly to make it easier to get it in and out of the limited space.
Ray made good progress with the tun, putting in the cross bracing timbers which will support the top and help it to support the horse ...
... and built the top, made like the rest of the tun from tongue and groove floorboarding. All that remains is to finish trimming the edges of the top, cut the central hole for the grain to enter, finish the internal reinforcing, and finish and stain the wood.

Bob and Richard worked on the stone nut disengaging mechanism. The vertical bars have had to be modified as the holes in the tentering beam through which they pass are no longer vertical. To give a little flexibility, the bars are no longer fixed into holes in their bottom plate - instead they have collars which rest on the plate. Today's task was to fix the collars by drilling and fitting spring pins, and then refit the bars.

Finally we made a second hole in the cement dressing on the top of the runner stone and filled it with molten lead to balance the stone.

Repairing the Sluice

13/04/2010 Sluice gate has collapsed under water pressure due to rot.

The new sluice gate

At first we inserted plywood boards to reduce water flow.
Removed side posts (grooved for sluice gate boards), which were cemented into channels cut in stonework. Make new boards and design and manufacture new sluice valve with steel blade and slides and screw control. Install new sluice mechanism. Replace rotting bridging boards with more stable arrangement.

01/06/2010 Make new weir handrail from scaffolding sections.
08/06/2010 Weir handrail fitted - adjusting the sluice was previously a hazardous activity.
15/06/2010 Finishing fixing of weir handrail.
22/06/2010 Further work on weir handrail.
28/09/2010 Wheel control added.

New main shaft - 30/10/2007

The main shaft fitted during the mill restoration in 1991 had rotted and broken during 2005 and the mill could no longer turn. Acorn Bank Volunteers Richard Harland and Bob Price joined Tim Martin of Context Engineering in October 2007 to help fit the new main shaft Tim had made and replace all the 12 spokes of the waterwheel.

Tim Martin of Context Engineering fits the last of the 12 new spokes

In March 2008 Tim, Richard and Bob were joined by the third volunteer, Ray Gill, when they adjusted the wedges to balance and centre the waterwheel and pitwheel on the new shaft.