Chunky woodworking - building lock gates

[AndyT]

Looking for something else, I came across this video and thought others on here would enjoy it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tD5wtd36NHc

Using a mixture of stop-frame and live video it shows how the team at one of the workshops of the British Waterways Board (now the Canal and River Trust) make new lock gates from English oak. They use a mixture of power tools, including a much bigger morticer than most of us have, and a few hand tools.

You can see some more detail by clicking on the pause button from time to time and there is a bit more info on their website here http://canalrivertrust.org.uk/our-work/major-works/building-lock-gates

These gates were marked as being for the Kirklees Top Lock on the Calder and Hebble navigation.

 

[Sheffield Tony]

How timely. On the last bank holiday Monday I was sitting outside the Three Locks pub on the Grand Union canal, and paused to wonder where they managed to get replacements gates made. Now I know.

I presume it is just an artifact of the stop - motion filming, but it gives the impression that they do spend a lot of time shuffling some very heavy bits of wood around, without much apparent change to them !

 

[wallace]

I enjoyed that Andy. I found a load of woodworker magazines from the 60's in my loft, in one it has an article on making a lock gate with hand tools. I'm sure they used greenheart.

 

[bodge]

Crikey O'Reilly! There is chunky woodworking and then there is chunky woodworking!
Thanks for posting Andy, that was really rascinating.

 

[CHJ]

Side tracked from the link into German an French canals and shipping videos last night somehow and lost two hours somewhere.

 

[doctor Bob]

Thats some morticer

 

[Mike.R]

I'm sure they used greenheart.

Yes, greenheart, traditionally used for lockgates. I'm not convinced oak is a suitable substitute, elm would be better perhaps... if we had any left.

 

[Woodmonkey]

When they replaced the lock gates in Bristol's floating harbour they made some benches out of them, they were greenheart and pitch pine apparently....

http://www.jimsharplesfurniture.co.uk/B ... ck%20gates

 

[CHJ]

I'm sure they used greenheart.

Yes, greenheart, traditionally used for lockgates. I'm not convinced oak is a suitable substitute, elm would be better perhaps... if we had any left.

Elm is no good for gates as constant wet and dry cycle soon rots it. Elm was/is used for the sill beams though as it stays permanently wet so not subject to rot.

 

[Mike.R]

I'm sure they used greenheart.

Yes, greenheart, traditionally used for lockgates. I'm not convinced oak is a suitable substitute, elm would be better perhaps... if we had any left.

Elm is no good for gates as constant wet and dry cycle soon rots it. Elm was/is used for the sill beams though as it stays permanently wet so not subject to rot.

Good point, I was thinking fully immersed but lock gates are hardly ever fully immersed. I remember there were some Roman drainage/sewerage pipes dug up in York a few years ago, they were bored out elm tree trunks, one plugged into the end of another one which plugged into another one etc to form a pipe line.

They'd been wet for 2000 years and were in excellent condition.

Still not convinced that oak is a good idea, too fresh and too full of delicious nutrients for those wood boring weevlies to ignore.

 

[nathandavies]

That is proper man sized carpentry, sticking whole trees together.

 

[Racers]

I love big chunks of wood! I must been a timber framer in a previous life :wink:

Pete

 

[AndyT]

I thought I wouldn't be the only one to enjoy something on that scale!

I'm still not sure about how the mortice and tenon joints were done. There was no glue visible in the video section where they were assembled and I couldn't see any evidence of pinning or wedging. So I guess the answer is that the threaded iron bars hold the joints tight, maybe helped by natural swelling of the timber when wetted.

I'm currently reviving an old interest in canals and have been impressed by the number of old archive films available. I did find one with a few seconds of lock making, with an adze being used instead of an electric planer.

 

[Setch]

Thanks Andy - I enjoyed that!

 

[Andy RV]

Brilliant, thanks for that!

 

[Billy Flitch]

Andy thanks for the link really enjoyed it. I hope you wont mind me butting in on your thread but the comment by Chas of going off on tangents brought to mind a link I came across some time ago and have really enjoyed little by little getting up to date on it, any way I hope you and others enjoy it. Billy.

http://forum.woodenboat.com/showthread. ... ght=morgan

 

[AndyT]

Just reviving this old thread, to point out that popular canal vloggers Foxes Afloat have just visited the lock gate workshops at Stanley Ferry so now there's another video to watch.
Not quite as much footage of the heavy iron machinery as some would like, but it's a good example of work that really needs a solid mortiser or two. (And some hand planes!)

[youtube]4uDDqtLs34E[/youtube]

 

[Trevanion]

And we usually think that a 1" hollow mortice chisel is a bit absurd, these boys are using upwards of 2" chisels! :lol:. I imagine they have to look after them very carefully, as where do you get something like that anymore? Amazing to think that they make 2 a week between both the Stanley Ferry workshop and Bradley Workshop.

 

[ColeyS1]

I saw a 2 inch mortice auger on an auction site and did think 'what a whopper!' I bought an inch clico one for my multico the other week. Haven't tried it yet, not sure if my arms are strong enough lol.

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

 

[katellwood]

That morticer takes me back

I was apprenticed in a workshop where one side were joiners and the other side wagon repairers however all the machinery was on our side of the workshop

they used to repair and on occasion build these, they contain a great deal of timber with lots of holes and mortices

The one in the workshop was If I remember correctly was manufactured by Robinson and ran off 150mm wide belts.

There was a long track which held the timber, it moved left and right via a geared wheel.

In the centre was a morticer which moved forward and back this had a 2" chisel.

Either side of the morticer were two drilling machines which also moved forward and back. All movements were powered by the machine itself

thanks for sharing It allowed me to recall nice memories