Well sorry for being away so long, but have needed to rest
While I was resting I was reviewing some of my video footage, and by chance came upon the restoration of the water power that operates the 1865 Mulay saw mill at UCV--for those of you who do not know the terminology, this mill consists of a single vertical 6 foot blade, about 12 " wide and 3\16" in thickness, with 2" teeth set at 2.5" spacings
I had entered it on one video disk and covered the rebuild of the horizontal pressure box, the large 12"oak drive shaft, and the eventual installation in the mill.
The box (all heavy white oak segments) were adzed out circular on the inside. These segments 3 in total were bolted together after adzing side by side, the adzed out interior about 36" in diameter, the box itself appears square on the outside
The shaft was turned oak 12" in finished size, with multiple tapered areas on each end to accept specialized castings, such as heavy ringed collars with cups, that directed the force of the pressurized water inside the box which in turn rotated the shaft, to power the saw blade
Other components installed on the ends of the wooden shaft were what was referred to as spiders, or gudgeons, these specialized castings had for instance on the drive end, a 12" offset crank that as it rotated lifted and lowered the blade 24" and operating at approx. 100 rpms
You can imagine the strain and vibration on the crank as it reached its upper and lower limits at that speed
You would wonder how it was fastened in place so that it would not fail after a few minutes let alone years of work
Well let me tell you the old millwrights knew the secret--for another time--
