Professional Documents
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I really miss the old days when we could leisurely peruse the scrap pile within our town
‘recycling facility’ and procure all the material necessary for any home project. These
days however we must rely upon our ability to identify potential sources and secure those
materials prior to them arriving at the collection point. I find doing this to be a bit more
challenging since I must now be on the lookout at all times for the perfect item to fill a
specific need. Perhaps you’ll understand now why it took almost two years to identify
and assemble the materials for this small project.
Required material:
1 large industrial wire spool*
12” – 15” Diameter PVC schedule 80 pipe*
3/8 inch Threaded Rod*
Fiberglass resin*
(2) 1½” Pillow block bearings (Northern Tool Item #1810 @ $13.99 ea)
1½” Cold rolled steel shaft*
14” automotive flex gear (or other gearing mechanism such as chain and sprockets)
Imagination
* (optimal size is site dependent)
In putting together this list, it has occurred to me that there are too many variables and
alternatives available to the rest of the items I used so it would perhaps be best to let your
creative juices flow as you consider what you’ll use to build the sluiceway or power with
this device. I’ll merely relate the adventure as it unfolded…
One particular Spring thaw found me musing over the zillions of gallons of water flowing
over our waterfall and how “… it would be nice to put that to work.” The fall is merely
four feet high so my mind sized out an appropriate overshot water wheel. On the way
home from work that day, I stopped by a local electrical contractors shop to inquire about
that large wire spool I had spied on his lot. To my surprise, he asked me to take as many
as I’d like since he would have to dispose of them otherwise.
I inserted some “L” – shaped lengths of leftover threaded rod into the concrete before it
set such that I could bolt down two lengths of pressure treated lumber onto which I could
later locate and mount the gearbox and generator. If I was clever and had the pillow block
bearings in hand at the time I would have also inserted threaded rod lengths in the
appropriate locations to mount them, but as it was I ended up drilling holes and placing
5/8 inch threaded anchors later on. The clearance between the wheel and the formed
sluiceway ended up being ¾” so one should be very careful if pre-placing threaded rod
for the pillow blocks.
Getting the wheel mounted however took me until mid November since I still had to
figure out how to secure the axle shaft to the wheel. The epiphany occurred while
performing my annual autumn garage clearing ritual. There among the items scheduled to
return to the future projects parts pool was the satellite dish assembly from which I
My wife now frequently visits the water wheel and seems to be mesmerized by it… the
other day, while working in the pasture, I caught her standing there talking to herself (or
the dog) and I inquired as to whether she was speaking to me or not since I didn’t hear
her clearly. As she walked away she repeated herself… “Elegantly simple!”