UPDATE ON MILL Taken from the Newsletter 1st August 2025
Well the new bearing appears to be working without problems, so it was decided to replace the shaft on the middle and upper floors so the sack hoist could be re-instated. This sounds a simple and easy process and we sort of set aside a half day on Wednesday to do it.
Lets just say that what sounded like a simple job took all day. The main problem comes from the fact that the new bearing has caused the shaft to be raised by about half an inch. Now you would have thought that because the the shaft had dropped over the years that when it was lifted it would fit back into the space from where it was originally. Alas it didn’t, so we have had to cut pieces out of the various braces that hold the shafts in place and act as bearings. Thankfully most of these are made of wood (with decades of oil soaked in to them) .
This over run of time means we will have to postpone looking at the headrace and control gate till next week. Another job has come up, the waterwheel is slightly heavier on one side and when the water levels are low it causes the wheel to rotate at variable speed, causing variable flour quality. By adding weight to the opposite side to the heavy side we should hopefully get it balanced.
All these improvements are certainly making the mill sound a lot quieter than previous.
