The Creation of One of the Largest Wooden Waterwheels in the USA

This 6,000 pound waterwheel was built by John Roades, Master Carpenter, at his shop in Fayetteville, Ohio for the restoration of the Klosterman’s Mill (Brown County) in Georgetown, Ohio. This waterwheel is 20’ in diameter. The 40 buckets are 4’ wide. It was constructed with 2,200 board feet of cypress wood found in Louisiana. There are 1,240 pieces of wood in the completed waterwheel. It was installed at the Klosterman’s Mill on April 11, 2015. by Katy Gibson Nestled in idyllic rolling hills between two small country towns, located on route 221 in Southern Ohio, sits the former Tunnel Mill, also known as Shuster’s Mill. One of the few remaining grist mills in the Midwest, originally built in 1843, it is now known as Klosterman's Mill after the new owners Ken and Judy Klosterman, also owners of the popular bakery of the same name. They have worked tirelessly along with their Project Manager Mark Smith to bring the mill back to its former glory. Purchased by Ken and Judy in 2012, the building has been painstakingly restored brick by brick from the ground up in complete period correct fashion. When it came time to find the final and most important element in the mill restoration, the water wheel, they enlisted the services of John Roades. A fine woodworking craftsman, John was preparing for retirement from decades of farming and was ready to turn his sights to his true passion and calling in life. After assisting Mark with other facets of the mill restoration project, including doors and window frames custom built to look original as well as function and withstand the unpredictable Ohio weather, John was eager for the opportunity to construct the wheel. The Roades family has a long tradition of operating grist mills in the region and John felt like this was the project of a lifetime, both paying tribute to his milling past as well as providing the challenge of piecing together a 20’ diameter, three ton piece of working art from another era. Working in his state of the art woodworking shop, which he also designed and built by himself, John crafted the wheel piece by piece and assembled the entire project by memory. The majority of water wheels used in recent restorations are often designed and built by highly credentialed engineers and architects, often requiring numerous sets of plans and blueprints to complete. This was not the case for the Klosterman Mill, as the wheel was envisioned and crafted completely in John’s mind before being fully realized in its physical form. This is even more impressive once you begin to comprehend the scope of the project. To fully appreciate the sheer size, not to mention the fine detailed nuances of the wheel, the main details are as follows. The water wheel is 20’ across, six feet at the hub, tapering to four feet at the buckets. The axel is constructed of five inch thick, schedule 120 wall tubing. Not able to find the proper parts available for purchase, John had to handcraft the bearings from 40 lbs of procured babbit. There are 40 buckets with all the joints splined in both the buckets and the floor to allow for expansion and contraction, hence increasing the lifespan of the wheel. Likewise all joints in the spokes and rim are self-draining to avoid pockets where water can collect and cause decay. The wheel contains over 2,200 board feet of cypress, carefully sourced from a mill in Louisiana and custom cut for the project from John’s specifications. It was selected for its resistance to decay as well as its longevity when exposed to water and the elements. Over 200 historically accurate square headed bolts and nuts were used in construction, highlighting the fact that period correct hardware was one of the biggest challenges of building the wheel. When certain items couldn’t be found, like the above mentioned bearings, John had to resort to building or crafting them himself. There are 1,240 individual pieces of wood in the wheel that were all custom cut and assembled by hand with the final weight checking in at over 6,000 lbs. The wheel took four months to build. While John was happy to have the project completed and installed, he looks forward to the possibility of more water wheels in his future, always eager to take on new challenges. He extends his sincere gratitude to Ken and Judy Klosterman and Mark Smith for the opportunity to be a part of this restoration.