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!

Finally! Lambs!

Came home from work to find one yearling ewe outside with a newborn lamb; one yearling ewe inside fighting with a haggy old ewe over a newborn lamb.

Got everyone situated in jugs (small pens for ewes with newborn lambs). Threw the haggy old ewe out (the lamb belonged to the yearling) and took a couple photos. All are doing well. Except the old hag who still wants the lamb (she was due to lamb three days ago).

Karakul/Romanov/Romeldale ewe lamb

Karakul ewe lamb

I have a baby monitor set up in the house so I can hear what is going on in the barn. One day it was the geese honking for an half hour. Another day, all I heard was the male llama fornicating. Today, all I hear is that old ewe baaaaaaaaaaaing at her would-be lamb. She's very vocal!

Warm March Day Means Time for Electrical Work

Finally! A day spent with the carder!

Today we worked on wiring.

The motor that runs the carder is three phase so we have a converter that we moved into position today and wired. We also wired the very large air compressor I bought last summer off craigslist and tried that out. We spent the day running a bunch of wire around the shed to various boxes and stapling it in place, connecting it into boxes and to circuit breakers. All around, it was a very productive day, despite not being able to find a single roll of electrical tape.

Meanwhile, the geese were outside enjoying the warm day and the shallow pond in front of the shed.

Tonight should be the night the lambs start arriving.

Adding the air compressor to the main board

Meanwhile the geese enjoy the "pond" outside the shed

This big guy is showing keeping one eye on me and one on his mate

Shearing Day

Today it was just me, the shearer and 28 wooly sheep waiting to be shorn, vaccinated and wormed.

My faithful helper was at a quilt retreat and refused to leave to help with shearing this spring--I don't know why. My back up helper was having a good time in Wadena. So, just the two of us to do all the work. We managed quite fine.

Before shearing. The CVM/Romeldales are wearing coats to protect their fleeces from vegetation

Jim Peterson, from Wisconsin, shearing a karakul ewe

After shearing, all fleeced out and contentedly munching hay

About 18 of the sheep are ready to lamb starting the end of March.

The Mill is Not Forgotten

It's just languishing in the cold and snowy winter we've been having.

Today, I actually looked at it. Gave it a pat. Dad turned the drive wheel a few turns just to see it go (by hand and foot since it is still not wired to electricity).

Spent the morning plowing snow around the yard and sheds in preparation for Saturday's shearing. According to the weather reports, we received about nine inches of snow yesterday. I can well believe it. Very fluffy stuff. I didn't attempt to do the driveway. Since my mishap with tipping the tractor over, I've been hiring someone to plow the driveway.

Dad came over with plans to help move a bunch of mill equipment from its "temporary" storage in the lambing barn up to its permanent home in the "mill" shed. Unfortunately, the sliding door on the mill shed would only open about five feet--not nearly enough to fit most of the equipment through. So, we had to make do in the lambing barn by rearranging the equipment. We shoved and piled and moved and piled and shoved and finally made enough room for a lambing pen.

Wiring is the next phase of mill work but the weather has been very uncooperative. Then, there was that little cog in the plans when I took a permanent (half-time) teaching job that is a bit more than half time for now. But, when the weather warms up, we plan to be back in the shed, wiring, working, and getting 'er done.

Sorry, no pictures today.

But, lambing starts the end of March, so expect to see pictures of lambs when they arrive!

Please Return Your Seat to Its Full, Upright Position

It's been a productive few days. We put the main drive pulley on and lined it up with the motor; we moved the breast and aligned it with the card; and we moved the doffer and aligned it with the card. 

Dad fidgeting with the main pulley to get it just right

The motor is three phase electric and will need to be bolted to the floor

The breast in place (on the left of the card)

Here we have the doffer in place on the right of the card

A better picture of the doffer

Dad left about noon to have a nap so I thought I would finish plowing the driveway. I spent nearly five hours on the tractor on Monday but wanted to plow a wider path. Fortunately, I fed the sheep and the animals before attempting to widen the driveway.

Please return your seat to its full, upright position

Please return your seat to its full, upright positon

I'll do that later, after I've had a lot of wine and slept it off. For now, it can sit there. 

I felt the tractor sliding into the ditch, then starting to tip, I jumped off and was very lucky it only tipped on its side. I'm fine--hopefully the tractor will be okay when its upright again. 

I'm off to a hot bath and a bit of wine.

The Card is Coming Together!

Numerous and many in-depth google and bing searches have convinced me that the woodruff keys I need are $30 to $35 each. Outrageous for a half moon shaped hunk of iron approximately 5/8" x 3.5" long.  So, being innovative (at least my Dad is), we decided to purchase some 5/8" keystock and make two keys. The keystock was a little over $12 and we could make THREE--count 'em--THREE keys from it. Only made two, for now.

Today was a very productive day. That isn't to say we've been slacking off since the last post--in fact, we continued to clean, repair and replace many parts on the carder. However, at the end of the day, today, I could see some real progress. The carder is finally coming together--literally.

Dad grinding down a key to make it fit perfectly

While Dad was grinding and fitting the keys, I adjusted the fancy. This is done by chalking an area under the fancy on the main cylinder, placing the fancy back on, turning it swiftly, then removing it again to measure the width of the area where the fancy brushed out the chalk.

You can just see the line where the fancy brushed the carder

The fancy is readily adjustable depending on the fineness of the wool being processed. I decided to set the width at 1" for medium wools. It started out over 2" wide and needed several fine adjustments to get it down to 1". 

While the fancy was off, we decided to check the distances between the main cylinder, the workers and the strippers. There should be about 15/1000" distance between each item. One stripper was way too close (we could hear the teeth on the cards interfering). We reset that stripper. The other workers and strippers were "close enough" for the time being. In actuality, the distance is supposed to be checked with the belt on. We were just doing a preliminary check.

Dad checking the distance between a worker and the main cylinder using feeler gauges

By mid-day, I was very chilled and Dad was ready for a nap. We agreed to meet back in the shed in a few hours.

Later in the day, we started to move the breast and align it with the card. 

The breast, on skids, is a fair distance from the card

Look familiar? Yep, back to jacking up a bit on each side to remove the skid without twisting the breast

The breast is on four steel rollers. Dad welded 1/2" square tubing onto 3/8" x 4" steel plates to make a track for the breast to roll on. The square tubing is a guide so that the breast will not fall off the plate. 

This shows the track that the breast will roll on

We set the rollers on the track and then moved the breast closer to the card. But let me back up a moment. When the breast was still on skids, we adjusted the steel pipes under the skids in order to align the breast with the card. Slight adjustments to the angle of the pipe and we were able to get a fair alignment.

This is where we left the breast for now. The bolt in the middle needs to line up perfectly with the card. We are about 1/2" out of alignment at the moment--plan to fix that using dueling jacks (one on each side of the breast to move is just a slight amount at a time). 

But the day was not over. The main leather drive belt was in the house warming up. When it was cold, it was about 2 3/4" too short. Warming it up gave us just enough stretch to get it on the card. The belt drives the main cylinder, the strippers, and the fancy. 

Success! The belt is in place. BTW, the fancy is the roller on the far right--it has much longer teeth than the other parts of the card and is the only piece that meshes with the card. 

Here's the other side of the card with another leather belt placed successfully

What a great day. It feels like the card is finally coming together.