Horse powered workshop

[Ernest T. Bass]

Found this video on youtube and thought it was really cool. I dunno, some people might say animal abuse, but this is the way things have been done for all of history...

Workshop and grain mill run on 2 horsepower..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FM6eiFwKTjU

[MountainDon]

this is the way things have been done for all of history...

We saw a horse powered laundry in the Netherlands in a historic village, open air museum.

[John Raabe]

Interesting.

We tend to forget that horses and other animals were the motive power for almost anything man couldn't shoulder himself. This muscle powered world was only recently replaced by carbon fuels and electricity leaving horses to play the role of pets and competitive trained athletes.

[peternap]

That's interesting Earnest!

Animal abuse...no a chance.
Having been born in a section of the mountains that was 50 years behind the rest of the world, I had a chance to see work animals being used on a daily basis. My memories are that the Horses and Mules were generally treated better than family members. They did work but so did everyone in the family. The Mennonites took their sons out of school at age 16 (That was the dropout age) to work on the farm.

There are still loggers that specialize in gentle logging, using mule power. As the owner of a mature tree farm, I applaud them. While timber does have to be harvested, I am sickened seeing the land stripped bare, compacted and unproductive for many years to come.

[Don_P]

the Amish near here have a horsepower connected to a sawmill. They run pine with 2 horses and oak takes 4. For some reason it takes me a minimum of 35 iron horses to swing a slightly smaller blade.

Fossil fuels have provided an alternative to animals and wood for energy. The reason the forest here has recovered is that we are not cutting trees for energy and converting them to pasture for animals that do work. We should be conscious of this, I suspect s better method is to blend and use both resources wisely rather than depleting one, switching to another until it is depleted. When we are forced to switch back to the replenished original resource it will be at a much higher demand. Beyond its ability.

MD, was that Enkhuizen?

I went to Hart Square this fall and took these pictures of a cotton gin and bale press. The long sweep poles in both of these were harnessed to draft animals.



Abuse is probably the fat people I see hit the trails up here on their fat pet horses. We are all built for work.

[MountainDon]

MD, was that Enkhuizen?

Arhem, built somewhere else in the Netherlands in the 1700's, moved just prior to WW2
http://www.openluchtmuseum.nl/en/objects/oid/5.1

[Ernest T. Bass]

this is the way things have been done for all of history...

We saw a horse powered laundry in the Netherlands in a historic village, open air museum.

That's what we need to do!

I've been thinking a lot about horse power, since my Mom loves 'em and we have a whole bunch, including a couple of mules that, despite many efforts, we have failed to train real well.. Something like this even a dumb animal (and person) could do!

Only problem is my lack of mechanical inclination.. Ideally, it would be really cool for us to power at least a saw and a water pump, with grain milling and laundry next on the list..

I might have to do it REAL primitive, with wooden cogs and stuff since metal is a mystery to me..

..Not that wood isn't, either...

[glenn kangiser]

Very Cool, Andrew.  

Surprisingly wood is pretty durable for slow working gears and even some faster bearings and gears.  I have a drilling rig that is going to get a wood bearing if I drill another well up here with it some day.   The slides in the top of a Speed Star drilling rig are made of Oak and last for years and years.   I have a bit of a desire to build a wooden windmill but I haven't got the steel one up that has been sitting on the ground for a couple of years yet.  [ouch]

Here - to get you started... wood gear generators.  I like the big wood peg ones too like in Don's post above.

http://woodgears.ca/gear/

http://www.forestmoon.com/Software/GearDXF/

[Ernest T. Bass]

Thanks for the links, Glenn. Gears are surprisingly complicated pieces of geometry.. I made a kind of fancy cheese press earlier this year, and that was my first experience with (relatively simple) wood gears.. Needless to say, I have several scrap test gears that do not fit together still lying around..

Forget the steel windmill and make your wooden one! Take many pics while you're at it (not that I need to say that). I need to see how it's done.

[glenn kangiser]

Might be a bit but I would like to.  Next mill will be a gold mill though.  I have a Huntington Mill that Whitlock set me up with - traded some work for it and he arranged the deal.