In August 2018 I volunteered to coordinate restoration of an old cotton gin here in the Nacogdoches area. The effort is funded by the Bright Foundation of Nacogdoches. Ultimately, the restored gin will be located at Millard's Crossing; a historic village in Nacogdoches.
I dropped a couple of shots of the restoration in another automotive thread and was encouraged to open a separate thread to track progress.
My participation has been voluntary but we've engaged a couple of paid helpers and have paid for services such as sandblasting, welding and sheetmetal fabrication.
If things go well the gin will be operational and could potentially gin a few bales for an occasional exhibition.
The gin we're restoring was operated by the Langston Bros of Garrison TX. It closed in the late 1930s, as did many gins in East Texas as cotton moved west and out of the piney woods.
Where we started
It was a mess. The gin building had collapsed much of the duct work had separated and was scattered.
This is the view from the south end where the gin press was located.
One of the gin stands with timbers located as we found them
This was a 3 stand gin. Stands as they looked after the collapsed roof had been removed
I dropped a couple of shots of the restoration in another automotive thread and was encouraged to open a separate thread to track progress.
My participation has been voluntary but we've engaged a couple of paid helpers and have paid for services such as sandblasting, welding and sheetmetal fabrication.
If things go well the gin will be operational and could potentially gin a few bales for an occasional exhibition.
The gin we're restoring was operated by the Langston Bros of Garrison TX. It closed in the late 1930s, as did many gins in East Texas as cotton moved west and out of the piney woods.
Where we started
It was a mess. The gin building had collapsed much of the duct work had separated and was scattered.
This is the view from the south end where the gin press was located.
One of the gin stands with timbers located as we found them
This was a 3 stand gin. Stands as they looked after the collapsed roof had been removed