Millhouse

[Dave]

The windmill had seen better days and the ply on the sails and in other areas had started to delaminate, so I decided to create something else using the power of the sun again.

Enter the Mill House.

The idea is totally from my mind, with a little help from some old photos, as is the build.



As usual we start off with a blank page....or piece of ply in this case



What you see in the second photo is the water wheel. This was made from cutting two circles out of 3mm aluminium sheeting. I then inserted spacers in side and put it all together with 'Gorilla' epoxy glue, which I might add is very good stuff.

Next we put it together dry to make sure it all fits



Now it's time to cut out the stepped sections of the gable ends for the roof, I did this as it was very similar to the way the roof of the windmill was done and I liked the effect. First thing to do was cut the gables ends off the side wall sections with the scroll saw this meant that it was a very thin cut and keeping the same side to the cut side means there is only a small gap once it sits back in it's proper finished location. Once that was done and the slats to form the roof were cut then I glued them on with waterproof wood glue and then each one was also screwed to the gable end for extra strength. Once that was done the the whole this got so many coats of paint it was difficult to pick it up...we'll I didn't want it rotting away in the winter 



The roof and the walls now complete it's time to look at the water wheel function and how I was going to get it to flow in a steady stream. I decide the best way was to have a tank inside the house with an outlet to only allow a certain amount of water out at a time. I created the tank from the same sized sheet of aluminium and again fixed it all together with the epoxy glue.



You will notice in the last photo above I added a round section of pipe for the outlet, after thinking about it I realised that this wasn't practical as I didn't have an overflow if the solar pump went mad or the pipe blocked with silt. So in the photos below you will see I changed the design so that a square section went right through the tank and I drilled a hole on the inside of that for the water to run out of the tank to the wheel and had it so that the top of the square section was around 25mm below the top of the tank, that way if the pump went mad or the was a blackage with the hole the water level would rise to the top of the square section and just flow into the outlet. You can see I did test the flow of the pump out before deciding I was happy to proceed.



Now it's time to sort out how I'm going to get the water into the tank in the first place. So I drilled a hole in the side of the house and fitted a gas valve which I added a section of chrome gas pipe to which I bent with pipe benders to get it to aim into the tank, then fixed the valve in place with a piece of meccano.



So the next job is to start the windows and doors. I did have this idea that I was going to put a balcony around the whole thing and when I checked the dimensions of the pre made balustrade it was to short so I gave up on that idea. So I decided to put in two windows to start with. I found a couple of photos on the web of the inner workings of a millhouse so I printed those. I then made the windows out of miniature architrave and other small wood then added some leaded window effect laminate. I then stuck the photos into the side of the building, once they were dry I then added the windows directly on top of them the windows are fixed to the side with brass panel pins that have had the heads blacked to give it the effect of being old fashioned. I sealed around the edges and that was the windows done.



So now on to the doors

I decide to add an ordinary door as well as a stable door to the front, this was more for visual effect than anything else as neither door opens.



So now with it all painted and tested it's time to add the wheel and set it up at the pond. So below is the finished article and I have also added a video so you can see it all working.

[Dave]

Here's the video of it running.

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