Tuesday, April 9, 2013

She Turned!

Wow! Today the carder turned under its own power! Very exciting!

We did some rewiring and then turned on the converter; turned on the carder and watched her slowly start to turn; faster and faster she turned until she got up to full speed. And then the clanking of a bad bearing and we shut her down. She slowly came to a stop. Not a machine that you want to get caught in. She will not shut down immediately. And, yes, she is a she. The bearing is nothing to worry about. Its not on an important part so nothing is broken. Just a little noisy for now.

Still a lot of work to do. The workers were not yet "chained" up so we did not get to see them turn but the strippers moved very nicely along with the breast (the front portion), the main drum and the fancy.

We worked on putting the chain on the workers and the doffers later adding the three idler pulleys. It took about 25 feet of chain for this portion of the machine. We then tried to find a leather drive belt to fit but could not find one the right length. We will have to make one.

Before the end of the day, we ran the machine one last time. Still without the workers and doffer running since we didn't have a belt for that portion yet.

A very fulfilling day seeing the machine run under her own power!

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