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In 1999, the Otonabee Conservation Foundation (OCF) established
a program to restore the mill to a structurally sound educational
and heritage center. After vandals burned a section of the roof,
insurance covered part of the restoration costs. The OCF restoration
team raised funds to repair the remainder of the roof. Auctions,
dances and raffles provided us with additional operating funds.
We solicited help and donations from various businesses and
asked clubs and professional organizations for funding assistance.
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A restored planer (left), also called a sticker, and
table saw (right), both of which are much heavier than
modern electric equipment and are powered by water turbines
via a number of pulleys and belts. |
Restoration
Begins
Once the new roof was in place, a civil engineer inspected the
building and gave us a list of repairs needed to make the building
structurally safe. The tailrace water, after passing through
the turbines, flowed under the wooden floor and back to the
river. This caused excessive rotting of floor support members
and the floor in the machine shop collapsed. The first task
was to tear out the floor in the affected area and pour a concrete
pier the length of the building to contain the water and provide
new supports for the floor decking. The bedrock is limestone
and about 4' below floor level. We had to dig out remaining
overburden and muck to expose the bedrock. The reinforcing steel
for the concrete pier was driven into 12" deep holes drilled
into the bedrock. At one point, we were merrily digging in the
muck and an elderly visitor commented that we were digging where
the indoor privy had been located. It hadn't been used for 50
years, so the residue was well decomposed.
We put stop logs in place and drained the penstock. We then
removed both turbines and related gearing, bearings and shafting.
A local company agreed to rebuild both turbines and repair a
large broken gear casting. In order to get the turbines out
of the building, we had to move them in pieces through the penstock.
A mobile crane with a 70' long boom was used to remove these
parts, some of which weighed a ton. |
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