Waterwheel rebuild - good progress

Ray planes bucket boards

 A good turnout of 7 volunteers today, so we were able to get on.  Ray, Bob and Donald continued making the bucket boards.  This involves ripping the boards to width, cutting at the required 54 degree angle; trimming them to length; drilling the bevelled edge for the joining screws and inserting and removing the screws (to make them easier to put in for real); and planing the edges to ease the fit into the wheel castings.

We now have 10 sets fully processed, and the remaining 20 sets are all ripped and waiting for length cutting and finishing.

Richard helps Bob locate the angle
of the bucket screws

Assembly has been made easier by drilling the clearance holes slightly bigger than is strictly necessary for the brass woodscrews we are using.

The tailrace is flooded

In spite of which several buckets
were installed

Richard and David managed to complete the installation of 7 buckets overall.  They have to be fitted a few at a time, then the wheel turned and some fitted at the opposite side.  Otherwise the weight of them would make the wheel dangerously unbalanced.

Finally, Peter and George got on with cobbling the area behind the wheelhouse; only a small area left to do.