Heritage - News
Update added 12th October 2009
91. End June 2009 Compagnes Drift Mill. Meal Spout
Heritage - News
Update added 12th October 2009
92. Compagnes Drift Mill 'Horse'
When I cut out the tees, some of the wood had broken out with the router, so this time I came properly prepared!
Heritage - News
Update added 9th November 2009
Update for Mid July 2009
93. On 'Autogetem'
Autogetem? United States Army slang for 'on fully automatic'! Although there are refinements still to do, the Vitruvian mill worked on Saturday without much supervision. Even more satisfying was that it did so in the presence of two of my 'mentors' from Mostert's Mill, Joanna Marx and Charles Forcioli!
With the festivities out of the way, work could resume on the main elevator and the delivery chutes from it to the various mills and the grain cleaner. I started by inspecting the outlet as last used, by which time, I suspect the Vitruvian Mill was out of service:
This is looking upward towards the top of the main elevator, for which a dormer structure juts out of the roof. The bent metal sheet in the slot would cut off the natural flow into the grain cleaner which is below the camera. If this is closed, then the grain will flow to the right and out into some chute, I suspect to the Stamford Mill.
Heritage - News
Update added 9th November 2009
Box for Meal Spout and Tests
Today was a follow-on from activity during the last two weeks at my workshop where we've been making the frame and components for the sluice gate. Not to be confused with the weir at the dam outlet which will control the outflow of water; this will be placed just downstream of the top end of the launder and it must prevent any water from continuing down the mill stream. It must back the water up and raise the level by 1.1 metres for it to flow into the top end of the launder.
Hello all,
At last, the metal trough of the launder is finished! Last time I was down, two weeks ago, I realised the planks for the second side were too short to reach the end. Luckily I still had a short piece of the same Oregon, so I prepared a piece at home, and at work we made another steel joining strip. The first job, then, was to drill the holes after aligning the planks:
Heritage - News
Update for 29th September 2008
Hello all,
With no milling, only one visitor and fine weather, I have quite a bit of progress to show for the day! However, the end of the launder is still a little way off! I started with the launder looking like this:
Today I had a request for a batch of meal for a forthcoming Beaumont wine-tasting Dinner. In the menu the whole-wheat meal is generally cooked in several different ways. I did two batches, and also did some sums to calculate the losses between dry grain and meal.
The scale is quite rickety, but a bucket and its contents weighed in at 18lbs. The empty bucket was 2.2 lbs, leaving 15.8 lbs. I milled two of these: 31.6 lb which is 14.36 kg. In the end I had 13 kg of sifted meal and about ½ kg of bran that wouldn't go through the sieve. What I haven't added in is the water, which I spray on to the grain to bring it up from 10 or 13 % moisture content to about 18%. The rest? Into the air as fine cake flour. I'd like to think of a way of catching it! If we make the weave of the meal bag tighter, then the cake flour escapes at every crack or gap in the mill.
I had some visitors, a couple while I was milling, who were very interested. The day was beautiful, yet there was still a reminder of the cold weather we've had recently:
Heritage - News
Update for 18th August 2008
Launder More on Second side
Last week, I didn't send a report as there wasn't much spectacular to show for the day. I had several batches of visitors for whom I always down-tools and show them around. However, I did cut off the ends square on the second set of planks for the outer edge of the launder, drilled out the steel joining plates, clamped them over the joins, lined them up, drilled and marked the joins with a serial number for assembly in the right order, as I did for the first side. I then painted the wood-side of the metal joining plates and then the planks got a second coat on the side that'll be against the metal so I can't get at them again. I then actually attached the metal plates to one end of each of the planks and screwed in the bolts a little way at the other end. This will all make it easier during assembly, mostly at the top of scaffolding.
