hello everyone tonight

sorry for having to rush away last night but that's life I guess--

Tightening up the vertical guides entails driving in the long wedges on the reverse side of the vertical supporting timbers, we created these fasteners back a few entries or so

As I commented you continue to tighten until you can detect heat when you touch the replaceable guide strips

While we are in the process of wearing in this unit it may be necessary to, and I strongly recommend slightly loosening one of the vertical supporting timbers, and tighten the wood wedges top and bottom to crowd this timber and its metal wear strip against
the side or edge of the slowly moving saw guide unit.

Well we are nearing the end of chat about the description, manufacturing, installing, and the fine adjustment of the power linkages leading up from the offset crank on the horizontal barrel wheel, and I hope everyone followed along, I did my best, but may have omitted or did not describe adequately some of the finer points, just ask and we will try and clear up any items of interest

There needs to be some discussion about the rotation direction of the turbine, and I will cover this important point before we move ahead

How many out there believe that the rotation direction of the turbine is important? like to hear from you

enjoy NH

I'm sure it is, but you'll need to educate us about the "why".....

Jim Rogers

hello everyone tonight

Hi Jim --thanks for your comment

You know I've have been fortunate to have had the opportunity to work on the repairs and twice on the full replacement of the power source (turbine box) and the 12" oak axle, which passes through the box and exits on both sides, supported there on large split oak bearings

I might say right here that there is a tendency for the bearing
on the off set crank side to wear at approx. twice the speed of the opposite bearing due to the wear and tear of the cutting action which comes from the cutting, jerking, and spinning of pitman and the saw blade

Now to get back to business --rotation direction of the turbine--

Well, I hope that at this point you have a grasp of how a horizontal barrel wheel works, but for those that do not it entails a hollow wooden box, circular on the inside, that is enclosed with iron collars that have cups that were moulded into them during the manufacturing process in a foundry

These collars run very close to the edges of the box to contain the pressure of the incoming water from the head race

as the water exited the box it struck the cups and rotated the shaft containing the offset crank in the opposite direction

That is an explanation of how the turbine works in a very brief description, but now the question of which direction of rotation is correct and why does it matter

Well it all boils down to this, the mill will work with the turbine rotating in either direction but very damaging wear will occur when the rotation is wrong, on the guide block above the turbine.

A detailed explanation is for another night,

Well have to go now

enjoy

NH

hello everyone tonight

here is the best explanation I can give hope you can follow along--

viewing the turbine from the side opposite the crank as it is running counter clockwise, you will notice that the pitman on the down stroke pulls the guide block back against the metal guides set solidly in the vertical supporting timbers, giving the guide block good solid and steady support

As the turbine rotates on the up stoke, the pushing force is on the set up that contains the guide block in its channel, really not designed for anything else

So lets review things under actual working conditions--

Say we are into a heavy cut, slowly working through a 36" cut in a pine, the mill and its equipment is straining to move the blade downwards on the cut, the mill is up to working speed of 100rpm's, full water flow through the turbine (about 2000 gallons a minute)

as the pitman moves down at this speed, along with the kinetic energy of the weight of the blade, pitman, the two spinning cast collars each weighing approx. 90 lbs. the weight of the oak axle, with its cast iron offset crank also right in there at80 to 90 lbs., and let us not forget the water pressure that comes in at about 8 lbs. per sq. inch pressing against the surfaces of the containing cupped collars, you are working with a rather slow moving machine but with a lot of torque

All this energy is expended against the guiding block on the down cutting stroke, and needs a solid surface to glide along against

All that is needed is to contain things on the up stroke ie: lift the pitman, and the blade, which sure contains some needed force, but only a fraction of what is needed on the down stroke

You can see I am sure why the turbine has to run counter clockwise to ensure that the main forces on the guide block, act against the proper support

It would be very easy during a complete rebuild of the turbine and axle units to install the cupped collars in reverse, if you had no previous knowledge of the mechanics of the mill's operation

Even installed properly, and everything adjusted tightly, at maximum speed and full cut it makes you wonder how everything really holds together like it does

It always amazed me as you started up the mill and let it idle, how quietly it run, just the sound of the water passing through
and the gentle sliding sound of the guide block and the saw sliding between the upper guides

Well enough for tonight

hope you enjoy our get togethers

I sure do

Richard NH

I know I sure enjoy listening to you Richard. Your skills and your knowledge, they really need to be recorded. You ought to write a book. In your spare time, y'know. The skill set you've been describing, I think I've heard you describe it as a millwright, it couldn't have been all that common. It seems that there were a lot of mills of all sorts, but there couldn't have been that many people capable of doing what you describe. Was it a traveling trade, going from place to place, getting mills up and running? Not just up and running, but maintaining them. Or did people just learn to do what had to be done? Thinking about all this, it seems there was a time in history when mills of any kind wouldn't have existed. Have you ever studied on the advent of mills and the trade of millwright(ing)? Around here, in southern Ohio, I could take you to dozens of old mill sites. Abandoned over a century ago, they all failed due to the inability to build dams that could live through a flash flood. Again, love listening to you bud. I'm back to hewing after a winter of family problems. Through a complicated family deal, I now possess my grandpa's broad axe. Hafted left-handed unfortunately, and I hate to alter it. Y'know, I've bought five serviceable broad axes at sales and auctions, three of them were hafted left-handed. That seems an awful high percentage. Or maybe we're just different here in the hills of Ohio. Contrary, no doubt about that.

hello everyone tonight

welcome Dave--

I have been waiting for someone to post something to say without reservation that the technical information that I am posting is not going on deaf ears

You touched on subjects dear to my heart--historic mill wrighting and hewing

don't be scared to re handle your Broad axe--if you have a problem I do have instructional videos on the proper way to handle your axe head

I enjoy being able to help those that sincerely need this type of information--and I only recommend creating a handle using hand tools alone

Some handles were created reversible, meaning that they could be inserted into the axe head from either side so that right or left handed workmen could use the same axe--there is a lot of detail that goes along with the proper hanging of an axe head--for starters examine the ones you have --you might just get lucky-----

anyway thanks for coming on board with those very moving remarks I will cherish them

Richard

NH

I always enjoy reading whatever you have to post, but it is hard to make much of a reply on a stoopid phone. I appreciate the time you put into making your posts.

hello everyone tonight

Hi Dave Sheppard--also nice to hear from you, and also thanks for the remarks for the good of the order--I appreciate it very much----

You know there are so many aspects to know and appreciate about everything historical, I just noticed a local newspaper article that covers some of the major restorations at UCV--part of the article concerns the replacement off the brick floor in the oven of the bakery there--

it is in the Cornwall standard freeholder I believe--it takes me back a few years ago when as supervisor of restoration there (it seems like yesterday), our division did a complete rebuild of the oven, including the round dome top, the oven holds approx. 100 loaves of bread at one time, and bakes with radiant heat from the interior brick lining--man does a fresh baked loaf taste great especially when it is created using fresh ground whole wheat flour from the 36" flour grinding stone at the mill on site--just to expand this out a little--the mill has 3 runs of grinding stones, clustered around the main vertical drive shaft rising from the 45 hp water turbine--

only one pair of stones are used for flour grinding, the other two are used as follows: (1) for animal feed, and (1) pair as spares

Following the wheat as it arrives at the mill, it is elevated to the 3rd floor, and passes through a machine that removes weed seeds and any other foreign material this machine is located on the 2nd floor--gravity is moving the wheat along--after this machine it passes along to the first or main floor and is directed into centre of the spinning upper stone of the grinding pair (the only one that moves), the bed stone is always stationary and its surface is perfectly level.

Just a bit of technical information here, both stones have many specially formed furrows in their matching surfaces, that carry the ground wheat outwards, these surfaces run so close that they produce flour, but don't touch--very important--this aspect is controlled by the miller who is well versed in how this is attained

I am not a miller but having said that I found out that creating the mill takes a real collaboration of many trades people that include masons, timber framers, millwrights, and in our case a steam engineer to operate the steam engine--I must not forget the lowly carpenter

richer
NH

OK Richard, you've got me wondering. I've seen millstones, around here they were pretty darn big. More than a few of them got dumped over riverbanks here and there to keep the banks from washing away. I like to canoe, I've wanted to load one up and bring it home many a time. If I could lift one, and if it'd fit in the canoe. They're just too big. So how did the miller keep the stone shimmed up so it didn't touch the one below it. I know the bottom stone was stationary, but that big ol' stone on top spinning around, it seems like it would just grind through anything. Any sort of shim, steel, anything, would quickly get ground away. Did they raise the axle that the top stone spun on? Even then, those stones are so heavy that it seems like it would be a continual job maintaining tolerances. I also seem to remember reading something once about "dressing" a millstone. Do you know if that had to do with cutting the furrows that fed the ground meal out to the edge? I'm attaching a link to a rebuilt local mill that I just love. I think you might enjoy it. The mill has been there for two centuries. It's recently been rebuilt and is back in operation. A labor of love by some really good people. You'd have fit right in.
http://oldmills.scificincinnati.com/ohio_mills_fairfield_rock_interior_page.html

hello everyone tonight

Hi Dave Mc.

That sure was a nice link, took me down memory lane somewhat-----

One thing that struck me was the bed and grinding stone shown, were fabricated from single pieces of stone

Ours were burr stones, they were manufactured from pieces of this special stone that come from one area in France

let me say one thing about burr stone it is very unusual with shells imbedded along with microscopic air spaces mixed together, this feature along with its unusual hardness creates a grinding surface of sharpness, and cooling that has no rivals

you can tell a burr stone because it has a wide metal band around its perimeter that holds all the segments together, I am not sure but expect that the metal band was heated to a very high temperature in a forge, dropped over the segments and after cooling and shrinking permanently contains the segments

we used carbide tipped chisel hammers to dress the stone's surfaces due to its hardness,-- years ago they used high carbon steel mill picks, especially manufactured to dress burr stones, a good blacksmith could produce these and then heat and sharpen them as required

have to go now will be back tomorrow

enjoy

richard