barefoot hydrodynamics

Ever since I discovered them, I have been fascinated by the Foxfire books. Not that I’m planning to go back to the land or anything, just they they often display flashes of ingenuity and craftsmanship.

Take this, for example:

tub wheel - from foxfire 2

It’s clearly a turbine runner, but it’s made from a slab of solid pine, pinned together then held in compression by steel bands around the rim.

sam burton chisels out a tub wheel bucket

It was made by Georgia craftsman Sam Burton, and is documented in Foxfire 2 (Wigginton et al, 1973, pub. Anchor Books, ISBN 0-385-02267-0, pp. 142-163).

1 comment

  1. The Tube wheels were used allot in the rural areas of Virginia , Kentucky,Georgia excetra . I have only seen one of these under power & it was being used to drive a single blade saw ,used on a privet farm for cutting slab wood for heating . I am very interested in the privet small farm mills built just for seasonal use . These mills use to be all over the place in the 1800’s but now they are almost all gone. I am actually in the process of looking for line shafting& Flat belting & pulleys from an old Grain mill , to drive my machinery in my metal fabricating shop off of one motor to conserve energy, I just happened across this page while looking for info on old farm Mills from the 1800’s that are being torn down & scraped . I need some line shaft hangers . If anyone knows of any tips please feel free to send me an email .

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