Water Wheel of Fortune

Work continues on the mill. I finished the basic structure except for the roof, a few doors and some hatches that must wait until I install the wheel.

Near finished mill with tail race extension installed. I still
need to paint the stones, add the roof and some other details.

Water wheel with NBWs installed. I used a half- inch
wood dowel for an axle. 

I laser cut the parts for the wheel and on the second try got a design that worked. I went with a 16 foot wheel (4 inches in O Scale), which is close to the wheel in the photos of Piney Branch Mill.  The size of the wheel required an extension of the foundation. I kind of expected that, so it was no big deal. I didn't spend too much time cleaning up the seams as it will be nearly impossible to see once the mill is installed.


There was a lot of trial fitting, trimming scenery and mocking up to fit the dam. Once I was happy with the layout, I installed it with hot glue.  I made the dam 5 inches tall so that it hides the seam in the back drop. That solves that problem.

I cut sheets of Plastruct G-Scale Dressed Stone sheet to cover  the dam, spillway, and head race opening.

I roughly followed the arrangement of the dam and head race with wooden sluice from the Yates Mill.  It works well in this location. This  web site  has some good photos of Yates Mill, as well as hundreds of other mills around the world.

Laying out the dam and spillway.

I masked off the backdrop and gave the dam a base coat of desert tan. I'll have to paint the final colors  in situ.

The dam is now covered with stone. The wheel and head race opening line up.
After thinking about this, I decided to add an extension on the left of the
head race to separate it from the spill way.

Spillway and head race now separated by a stone extension. The spillway
should probably be bigger, but I am limited by the overall width
of the valley.  I'll probably add a diversion pipe to the
dam at the base.  Some photos of Yates Mill show such a pipe. It
would be used during floods to increase flow to prevent overtopping the spillway.

This is the view from the operators' aisle.  The roof is temporary.