More progress

The treble is pretty much finished now. The new slider arrangement works well and will need a small amount of adjusting to get the bell a bit lighter set.

Here are some closeups.

 

 Set at backstroke.

And at handstroke.

All that needs doing is to take accurate measurements of the clapper timing and make any adjustments to eliminate any oddstruckness. This will be done when all the other bells have been finished so that the timings can be correct for the whole ring, not just for one bell.

The other job partially finished is to put galebreaker over the tower windows. This will prevent any more rain from blowing in, potentially causing corrosion of any metal parts. It will also reduce the risk of rot in the timbers. Fortunately, the timber is generally sound internally, even though it is soft in some places on the exterior.

Treble flapper board

This is the flapper board for the treble. It is needed as the rope is drawn across to fall in the right place in the ringing room to produce a good rope circle.

There are pulleys at the top and the bottom and the boarding simply prevents the rope from sagging when not under tension, then vibrating when a force is applied. This vibration can be felt when ringing and it can be very off putting to the ringer.

Having tried it, the bell feels much easier to ring than without the board.

The stay has now been shortened, and the new slider mechanism will be made in wood, not steel. Hopefully this will be ready to install in the next week or so. This will mean that the bell is completely finished - one down, seven to go!

Treble stay and slider

 The treble stay and slider arrangement has been the source of a bit of head scratching. The original idea was to use a special type of slider pivoted just below the bearings called a pendulum slider. This type of slider can work well in tight spaces, but sometimes it bounces against the stay and the vibrations felt on the rope.

After a recent visit by Matthew Higby to check on progress, the idea came up to use a version of the traditional "peg and latchet" type as here at SS Philip and James in Leckhampton.

After taking a few measurements I fabricated a trial version using some scraps of wood.  This was fitted tonight and with the bell silenced using at old bicycle inner tube, and the bell was raised to test it out. Fortunately, all seems to work well.

The treble set at backstroke.

and at handstroke.

The stay is a bit long, and will be trimmed to length. The slider will be remade properly using steel plates and it will have adjustments to make sure that the bell is not to light or deep set.

Rope guide finished

The ringing room is pretty much finished now, apart from painting the modified rope guide.

It produces quite a good circle and where possible, makes use of existing holes and gaps between the beams. It looks anticlockwise from below!

Above this, we are now pretty much ready for the return of headstocks.

This is the 7th bell sitting where we left it a while ago sitting on a temporary steel grillage. The other bells are sitting on the bell frame.

Ringing from the ringing chamber

The treble bell can now be rung from the ringing chamber!

The rope is drawn across a little bit in the room above the ringing chamber with pulleys top and bottom to get it to drop in the desired position in the rope circle.

It handles really well, but it will require a 'flapper board' to stop the rope wobbling since it is not falling vertically.

This is the view looking up.

Nearly a two bell tower

The second bell is now resting in its pit!

It still needs bed plates manufacturing for the bearings to sit on. We already have all the other parts required, the pulley, wheel, slider and stay, and these will be fitted once the bearings are in situ.

A one bell tower!

Strensham is now a one bell tower!

Apart from a stay and slider and a rope to the ringing room, this bell is ready.

Originally from Kettering, this is the first time since 2004 that this bell has been rung full circle. It is also the first time a bell has been heard from Strensham tower since April 2017.