Yesterday I was watching, Olympic, curling on TV while I was working on making the lock doors. I love curling. Anyway, they turned out terrible! I threw them in the trash. I'm going to try again tomorrow.
Curling is both interesting and strange to me. I hate it when I have to ditch some of my hard work. I know how you feel. I am sure the next attempt will be spot on. I am lettering a batch of ten open top hoppers myself. Wish me well and the same to you.
Thanks for posting the illustration Candy. I thought this engineering aspect was interesting, using cable stays to hold the upper bearing in position. The weight of water placed upon these wooden gates must have been tremendous.
Emphasis mine. That's why such gates are/were never opened unless the water level was roughly equal on both sides. Separate smaller gates/valves were used to drain/fill the locks prior to opening gates.
Wish I could be of help but all the locks I know of are steel and part of concrete dams/bridges. All I've seen using them were large personal boats going between Lake Michigan and Lake Winnebago. The smaller ones go thru to the smaller lakes up the Fox River. Probably about 60 miles. Keep trying. We'll keep watching and wishing you well. Rich
Not enough of a big overall picture to judge your self-criticism. Your photos show good detailing technique, but not enough of a big picture to understand where the items fit within the locking system you're trying to achieve. Please don't be too critical of your work. We know you love precision and accuracy in your details. But understand that you're only trying to create your impression of a lock system. Remember that no two lock systems are the same. I rode the Rhine River from Amsterdam to Basel. Not one of the 28 lock systems even came close to looking the same. C'mon Lady, cut yourself some slack. We love your work.
No problem with a wait. My brother and I were talking about this very thing. When designing and building, a pause often yields improved ideas and better results.
