Refurbishment of leaks in the penstock
Work Party 22-23 July 2022
Friday 22nd saw the following persons up at the mill: Kalven, Grant, Oom Hennie, Oom Sakkie, Gaye, Jill and Peter. The two principle tasks to be tackled were: Plug the leaks in the penstock and replace the Seals and Seal Sleeves on the Turbine.
When water was admitted to the Penstock it revealed more holes than a colander. So, we engaged Aqua-Man Grant in his wetsuit to mark the position of the holes.
Eventually by late afternoon we were able to extract the Turbine Rotor (or Runner as it is more correctly termed). Not all the jobs on Reichenau work parties are as energetic as this. Gaye and Jill proceeded to tidy the store room. Jill was unable to tell me whether this was a before or after shot.
Saturday saw our team considerably augmented: there were Len and Lauren, their 3 kids Abigail, Daniel and Zachery. There were Alida, Kyra, Wayne and Megan as well as Louie. Mdu also made brief appearances throughout the day.
Len and Grant plugged away at plugging the holes that Grant had marked, while the Turbine team duly augmented by Louie, installed the new Seals as well as the new Seal Sleeves made from Stainless Steel (the original sleeves had rusted badly).
We also epoxied in a loose blade on the Turbine Runner as well as clearing out an immense amount of grass, weeds and other debris from the Turbine Housing. Around two that afternoon we finally got the thing back fully assembled with pulleys and belts. We reckon it is now better than new.
With just a couple of hours of daylight left, Oom Sakkie, took off his shoes and stepped into the freezing waters of the Polela in order to cement up some leaks which were bypassing the sluice gate. Some other workers worthy of mention are Wayne and Megan who continued the job of brush-cutting and alien eradication, Jill and Gaye who thoroughly cleaned the second Guest Room and Abigail, Daniel and Zachery who picked up litter. All in all, an immensely productive and satisfying work party.
