Garden waterwheel

[ColeyS1]

This is either gonna end up an ugly ornament or there's a small chance it may look alright and work.
I like anything old fashioned and decided I'd quite like to have one in the garden.
I started slowly wombling bits. First thing I got was these two cart rings.

I recently made some garden rings and these pieces were leftover

The frustrating thing is they aren't as big as I'd have liked.
The rings are roughly 1250mm diameter which means the wooden ring will only be around 120mm

The easiest way to mount the waterwheel was in a premade heavy frame. It just happened to be a large super heavy tablesaw

This is the rough sketchup pic I did to show how the wheel might fit.

The front section will need completely chopping off.
Must say I'm really unsure about this. I can make it look like a waterwheel, but I want the thing to turn via a pond pump and a flow of water. As a last resort I'll have to connect up a motor of some sort to give it a helping hand.
I think I could really need some help with this one guys.
Cheers
Coley

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

 

[Beau]

For in depth advise on waterwheels the Navitron forum might be helpful http://www.navitron.org.uk/forum/index. ... ,11.0.html

Don't know much about them myself but will be watching this thread with interest.

Good luck

 

[Mike Jordan]

Ive recently made a small wheel (350mm dia) complete with a mill house and two moving figures driven by the wheel. The wheel is made of teak and mounted on ball bearings with the shaft going right through the house. The figures are driven by an eccentric wheel mounted on the shaft. You will have no trouble making the wheel rotate assuming that it holds water on the outer edge. My difficulty was in slowing down the flow to make the wheel rotate at a sane speed
I have photos of the finished item in use but I have failed to get them to post on this site. Not sure why

 

[Stanleymonkey]

I have no experience of this - but will be following with interest.

Good luck

 

[ColeyS1]

Ive recently made a small wheel (350mm dia) complete with a mill house and two moving figures driven by the wheel. The wheel is made of teak and mounted on ball bearings with the shaft going right through the house. The figures are driven by an eccentric wheel mounted on the shaft. You will have no trouble making the wheel rotate assuming that it holds water on the outer edge. My difficulty was in slowing down the flow to make the wheel rotate at a sane speed
I have photos of the finished item in use but I have failed to get them to post on this site. Not sure why

Mike that sounds fantastic ! How wide did you make the wheel ? I'd love to see pics someday, perhaps you could email me them and I could post them ?

My main concern is it might be too heavy to turn. The metal rings are just under two inchs wide so the wooden rings are the same size. I'm thinking of making the buckets out of thin metal to keep the weight down, instead of wood which would look alot better and silver over time. Do you think I'm worrying about nothing regarding the weight ?
I can make the wooden rings up then think about the other things like width etc.

Coley

 

[pollys13]

" My difficulty was in slowing down the flow to make the wheel rotate at a sane speed
I have photos of the finished item in use but I have failed to get them to post on this site. Not sure why "

Incorporate some type of gearing into the design perhaps.

 

[devonwoody]

Keep in in the ring.

 

[Mike Jordan]

Hi Coley
The wheel is 115mm wide with the spokes of the wheel outside that. I will be happy to send the photos to you, they are already posted on the getwoodworking forum if you care to look at that. I'm sure that there won't be any problem making the wheel turn. My difficulty related to the lever type valves controlling the water flow, the levers are not long enough to give good control.

 

[ColeyS1]

Just received the pictures and video.

That really is a beauty !!!! Thanks for showing me
Your videos here - https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4fhKh ... p=drivesdk
It's certainly given me a few ideas on what to do around the wheel, perhaps a pitched roof maybe.
Does the waterwheel start off really slow and gradually build up speed, or is it fairly swift in reaching maximum speed ?

Coley

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

 

[ColeyS1]

" My difficulty was in slowing down the flow to make the wheel rotate at a sane speed
I have photos of the finished item in use but I have failed to get them to post on this site. Not sure why "

Incorporate some type of gearing into the design perhaps.

Daft question but would the gearing just slow it down by adding a certain amount of friction/resistance?

Coley

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

 

[ColeyS1]

Keep in in the ring.

I'm not quite sure what you mean D.W ?

Coley

 

[devonwoody]

Coley, it just my way to continue to receive notifications at this thread.

 

[nev]

Excellent. Whats the little fella downstairs doing?

 

[ColeyS1]

Thought I'd push on this afternoon and get the easy bit done.

I put a 22.5 degree tenon on the end.

Did a quick mock up, it looks something like it.

Set up a fence and a length stop on the pillar drill to make the holes for the drawbores

I've drilled a 9mm hole to allow it to be replaced by a slightly larger 10mm bolt.

Cascamited 4 halves together, will tickle and join them together tomorrow night

Need to think about routing the halves circular tomorrow.

Coley

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

 

[Mike Jordan]

Hi Coley
Thanks for posting those for me! The wheel starts with one compartment slightly full of water compared to what they catch when running, that means it starts slightly quickly and then takes up the speed according to flow. I wouldn't worry about gearing slowing it, even my little wheel has plenty of power to work the figures. The size of wheel you are constructing will have power to spare
Nev - The chap on the ground floor is feeding timber into a machine, I haven't installed the machine yet and may substitute a rocking chair for it.
Tha figure with the steam iron is directly driven by a stainless rod but I am thinking in terms of putting a pair of magnets on and beneath the rocking chair. The power of the little button magnets opens up a host of possibilities.
Mike.

 

[Mike Jordan]

I failed to mention the solar lighting! I dismantled one of our garden lights and put the LEDs inside the house with the little solar panel mounted at he back left hand corner. It works well but I think an external solar floodlight directed at the front of the house will be on the plans for next year.

 

[ColeyS1]

It looks smashing Mike. Kind of like it's own little world.
I've just glued the two halves together after cutting it roughly to shape on the bandsaw

My thoughts now turn to what I'm gonna mount it on.

I've taken off the bearing cover and found this

There looks to be a small tab holding in a nut so I've removed both.

The bearing moves by tapping with a hammer but can't help but feel I'm probably causing damage by doing it this way. Does any one have any ideas how I could do this a better way ? Once I know if I can relocate the bearing, I'll have more idea how wide I could make the wheel.
Cheers
Coley

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

 

[Mike Jordan]

Hi Coley
Although you are working on a much larger scale with your wheel, we are both using the same jointing method. With regard to the bearings, again mine are much smaller but I found simplybearings to be a good supplier for both bearings and bearing collars to keep them in place. I my case the shaft is a 10mm diameter piece of brass rod, what will yours be? I found that putting the spokes on the outside of the assembled wheel allowed the wheel to be trued up easily
Mike.

 

[ColeyS1]

Thanks Mike. The shaft is around 2 inchs in diameter. I need some sort of central hub for the spokes to meet, haven't quite figured that one out yet. I thought the wheel could be fixed to the shaft then the actual shaft turn on the bearing if that makes sense.


Coley

 

[Mike Jordan]

Hi Coley
I was able to turn a pair of teak discs and sandwich the spokes between them after screwing the spokes to one disc (one pair of discs each side) epoxy glue holding the whole together. I think your bigger wheel will probably need two hubs with the spokes tenoned and pegged in place a bit like a wheel. I fixed the shaft to the wheel by drilling a 3mm hole through the outer hub and the shaft and tapping in a stainless rod.
Mike.