The axle tree ready for moving out of the workshop. It is over 11 feet long 15inches diameter and probably weighs about two tons. It was jacked up onto rollers cut from old telegraph poles and rolled from the workshop to the front of the mill where it was slid on iron bars into the wheel using crowbars.
	The old axle was slightly wider at one end than the other and as a result had iron hoops of slightly larger diameter. These were packed out with oak wedges as shown here.
	The axle on its rollers ready for the final push.
	Inspecting the axle to decide how best fit the end bearing.
	The hole in the wheel was bigger than the shaft and had to be packed out and centralised with oak wedges. The sizes were calculated as near as possible and the the first one was fitted to a corner of each wheel opening as shown here and then side wedges were put in to centralise the wheel. The wedges were made over long and very slightly tapered so that driving them in or out would adjust the setting of the wheel.
	The original bronze bush had worn through and the bearing housing had been deeply gouged. A piece of cast iron guttering was found with correct diameter to fit nicely under the journal the space between the worn housing and the guttering was packed out with "Belzona Molecular Metal" - an epoxy metal replacer.