Stone Mill

 Building Walls   Details   Sluice   Placing   Completed

I’ve been wanting to build a stone mill for quite some time now.

First, it would be a different material to model in. Second, it would add a water feature to the garden, as I need some water to drive the wheel. 

That means a pond. It also means a waterfall, as the mill cannot possibly use all of the water that a small pump produces.  I don’t want to have a turbo-wheel!  Real mills operated around 8-10 rpm.

I received this wheel as a Christmas gift. It’s manufactured by StoneWorks.  I also ordered some stone from them.

I decided to build a mock-up of the mill so I could visualize how it might fit in the garden.  I’m not basing this on any real mill, but freelancing using a lot of different mill pictures and ideas.  My plan is to make the building out of stone, using the techniques and some stone from StoneWorks. They have some more detail parts available that I might get as well.

Right now, I'm thinking of making the sluice out of plastic strips as I think that will have less chance of rotting than real wood. I'll probably use real wood for the support bents.

I haven't decided yet if I'll get some small pre-formed pond, or just a liner.

This shows some of the parts I have ordered:  a pulley, a weathervane and some pieces for the sluice.  In the background you can see what a ten pound container of stone looks like before any of the pieces are cut.