Another Find for the Rustic Shop

Very cool, Rick! My buddy's brother owns a smog certificate shop and believe it or not he has one of those in the office lobby! I haven't tried to talk him out of it just yet ;)
 
I used one for many years at the Scout Camp. It turns away from you. It does not take much water ( and you don't really want much) .We had a soup can with a tiny drip hole in the bottom. It had a wire bail that the ranger made from a coat hanger. It took about five minutes for the can to drip out. We kept an old coffee pot to refill the water, next to it.
It has sharpened hundreds of axes and brush hooks over the years.
I think to keep the grinder Canadian, you should use a Labatt or Molson beer can.
 
The two of these things that I have both have/had troughs through which the wheel turned.

The wooden pieces of the older pedal-powered one are mostly rotted away and it's hard to see if water was fed in, poured in, or what. The newer ride-on, caster-mounted, double-reduction electric-powered monster also has a trough with a drain valve built in and everything. I believe the newer one turns away from the seat, like a forward-traveling wheel. There's a little flappy brush thing screwed to the trough where the leading edge of the wheel emerges to reduce the amount of water flung at your crotch.

The first I was given by a neighbor and had planned to rebuild (never started). The second I bought with the foolish notion that it was already rebuilt - I'd traveled an hour to look at it and guess I didn't want to go home empty handed... It's in decent mechanical shape, but the wheel surface needs help.

Anyway, both are rather eccentric in shape. They should probably be on their way to someone who will put the time into the stones and/or frame to make 'em into something usable.
 
I added a drip can set up to the grinder, today. It is 1/4" hotrolled rod coiled around the ends of the frame bars...

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so cool!
how round is the wheel?
Now you can rig up a belt drive to turn that into a human-powered flywheel to drive other tools in your shop. when the power is out you just hire the kid down the street to pedal.
 
This takes stationary bike to a whole new level doesn't it Rick. This one will give McGuinty's smart meters a run for their money. Congrats on the great find.
 
daizee said:
so cool!
how round is the wheel?
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It has a 1/4" dip for about an 8-10" run. Not enough to interfere with grinding, so I will just leave it.

My "rustic shop" will be a multicultural, eclectic collection of low-tech, ancient, traditional and semi-modern tools and equipment........ no power necessary.
 
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