Building a sled.

[Bill Hudson]

A video of Ben building a sled from scratch. He shows how to lay out the runners and shape the shoe. This is all done in a water powered mill.



http://www.folkstreams.net/film,187

[jraah]

Originally Posted by Bill Hudson

A video of Ben building a sled from scratch. He shows how to lay out the runners and shape the shoe. This is all done in a water powered mill.

http://www.folkstreams.net/film,187

That’s a great look into the past Bill!
Those huge timbers, (lengths of wood) made me think at first that the sled would be much too heavy to be pulled. But not only did it glide over the snow effortlessly, it even accommodated the big pile of logs that were loaded on the sled, and the pair of horses took off at a trot!

If that sled were to go over a cliff or ravine I would guess that little damage would be done to it, as it was put together so well with strong wood joints and iron work.
I would expect a vehicle like that would last for very many generations.

Thanks for the link Bill.

[PFW]

Bill, that was absolutely fascinating, thank you very much for showing it, wonderful. It makes you wonder what is going to happen to all these skills when people like this are gone.



Paul.

[Bill Hudson]

For Richard,
More of Ben's Mill. A little OT but hang on. A couple of minutes into the video (after Ben sharpens his planner blades, he builds a circular wooden trough. Would have been good for Richard when he was building his sprinkler tank.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2KJb...eature=related


I apologize to any one who feels this is too off topic for the forum but I felt it was very informative and educational and in a round about way applies to HDVs. At one time Ben's Mill also built wagon wheels and wagon boxes (you can see some of the wheels in Ben's video. Ben died about ten years after the above videos were made. The mill went into disrepair but was saved by a generous person.

Also check this out for round wooden construction. After Ben died the mill started going back to nature. Now that it has been saved there has been an ongoing restoration. The mill pond had filed in and the penstock collapsed from old age. For many years the restored mill has been using a gas engine for power now they are rebuilding the penstock and in the process of getting the permission to rebuild the dam and pond. See the URL below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mmj0C...eature=related

Below is the URL to the museum. Sadly some of the historical background was lost in the restoration of the mill. Compare the new picture to the pictures of it in the video. All the good stuff (junk piles) have been cleaned up and removed but I am happy they are saving the mill.
http://www.bensmill.com/

[Richard]

Thanks again Bill! Very interesting! And I agree - it looked much more interesting in the videos

[Gus]

Many thanks for the links Bill - most impressive.

Cheers - Gus