Final assembly Phase 2

I am now completing the final steps for the shaft axial retainers and radial bearing. I greased the bearings and tightened the bearing caps. During cleaning of the grease cup I noticed that it holds a 1893 patent mark. This would indicate the possible age of the machine. The machine also has two other patent marks. One on the bed stone that reads 1870 and one on the grease cap that reads 1889. My guess is that the machine was built after 1893.

Final Assembly Phase 1

Today, I began to form the main shaft seal. This seal keeps ground cornmeal inside the main housing during operation.

The seal material is leather and is about .25 inches thick.

It seals around the outside of the inboard bearing housing

It is retained by 4 screws and a cover plate.

 I also fit the main shroud that encloses the runner stone. 

Easter weekend

This weekend I logged some hours on the grist mill. Finishing cross drilling at the posts and installing structural fasteners for the wooden frame. Also I continued painting and polishing various components. One of which is the burnishing of the runners stone and shaft.

I used a technique of working a wire brush driven by a die grinder and then followed by an application of olive oil and then more burnishing with the die grinder and wire brush. This result in a food grade finish that will prevent rust. It removed significant quantities of dust and debris from the runner stone assembly.

Furthermore,  I found lead balance weights on the backside of the runner stone. In a earlier operation, performed by Roger and Jeff the front side of this wheel was filled with hydraulic concrete or mortar to fill voids between the banding and the stone there by increasing the reliability and rigidity of the runner stone assembly. Next week, I will push for completion by the time of the open house April 27th at Anderson Mill and Muesum. I will probably bring it to the open house regardless, for show and tell.

Painting and Reassembly

First steps...

The pour

On March 27th 2014 Jeff Campbell, Roger Shull and Julia Land met in my garage for the babbit bearing pour. Jeff loaned us his turkey frying propane stove and Roger loaned us his cast iron pot to melt the babbit. This set up worked very well for melting the babbit. It only took about 15 minutes for it to be completely molten. Meanwhile, I used a torch to heat the frame of the gristmill in the region of the bearing journal.

I did the pour and the bearing filled up. I used a clay for damming up the ends of the journal to keep the babbit from running out. The clay and babbit did have an undesirable interaction but the effect was minimal and limited to some minor bubbling at each end of the bearing.

See the movie here

Setting up for Babbit Bearing Pour

I built this temporary frame to position the primary shaft including the runner stone which will center the bearing and main shaft with respect to the frame. I'm using the upper bearing caps on both out board and inboard bearings to position the shaft accurately and then I built this V block stub shaft support near the end of the frame

Christmas 2013 Progress Update

The new native Pecan wooden frame has been shellacked. Also the fasteners were wire brushed and hand filed to remove rust then painted black

Here is a close up of the installed fasteners.

And here it is with the Hopper installed.