Watermill Blog - Woodwork
15th January 2008

The weather forecast for the day was not promising, so this entry in our Watermill Blog will describe indoor woodwork activities.

Most of the team worked in the hay-loft, Martyn and Kim re-laying the flooring at the paddock end of the loft while Colin and Headley worked to dismantle the old lineshaft and it's electric drive so that we can repair and replace it.

While he was investigating the lineshaft and one of the machines it used to drive, Colin found some old leather harness.

Considering it must have been lying unused and uncared for for many years it is in amazingly good condition.

Just the kind of thing we want for our rural museum, when we get that far.

Richard gave the hay-loft a wide berth in the morning and concentrated on making a door catch for the mill door. The original was broken when we first took the mill over and a temporary fix has been holding the door shut ever since.

There are many pieces of door furniture in the watermill made from wood, so a sketch was made that followed the common design features of these. A recycled piece of oak was carefully sawn to shape and finished to match similar components.

Old oak is very hard and the bandsaw was only just powerful enough to cut this particular piece. Patience was required, but the finished piece looks right now it is nailed in place.

Martyn and Kim stuck to their task all day, replacing the last of the rotten joists in the end section of the loft and the rest of us joined them after lunch, planking over that first bay of joists.

By the time the light was fading, noticebaly later than last week, we had completed all the woodwork in that bay. We went home as happy plankers.

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