Garden waterwheel

[ColeyS1]

I'll have a looksie for your book later, I'm always after an interesting read.

Well the width will be governed by a few things. The dogends for the buckets are about 2ft but I think the shaft will mean it has to be shorter. I've got some more sapele offcuts of t and g but I think I've only enough to do about half, and they are only about 12 inchs long. I do have a stash of oak t and g which would be wide enough for any size but I was hoping not to use it on this.

The outer lip suggestion is just pure genius !!! I was considering rounding the front edge of the bucket to make it look prettier, but I think I'd be better off leaving it straight, incase I need to increase the capacity by adding a lip.
That's a really neat way without much effort to increase the capacity. Cheers Mike

Coley

 

[ColeyS1]

Changed the planer blades and planed up this awful stuff.
Had a quick measure and I'd have bang in enough boards if I used the sapele offcuts. The downside being the wheel would have to be alot narrower to accommodate them.
I've decided to dig into my oak pile instead

Chances are it'll only sit gathering dust for years. Atleast I can make it as wide as possible, more water in the buckets, and not have to worry about scrimping and scraping short bits.

Coley

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

 

[Chrispy]

Very interesting project you have going, a thought I just had, is this for a pond with fish? if so you may want to soak the wood off first, some how I feel with all this tannin rich wood your using you may end up with a strong tea coloured pond.
Keep up the good work.

 

[ColeyS1]

Very interesting project you have going, a thought I just had, is this for a pond with fish? if so you may want to soak the wood off first, some how I feel with all this tannin rich wood your using you may end up with a strong tea coloured pond.
Keep up the good work.

Probably gonna sound daft but it's gonna just go on the end of my shed.
I saw this pic and just liked the scene.

I'm hoping sitting in the shed, reading a book hearing the waterwheel splashing will be a nice retreat from the everyday chaos that is life. Good point regarding the tannin though.Thanks for the words of encouragement
Rather than wreck a router rebate cutter I used an old cutter and bush- a little naughty but I locked the height so it could accidently hit the bush

I wanted to form a rebate for the t and g, which should cover the mortice holes

Out in the timber rack and I noticed an offcut of newel post that was leftover from a renovation job.

If it was bigger I could mortice the spokes into it and hopefully gently slide it onto the shaft.
One things lead to another after that, I think it should work.

If I slice of the end of an old brake disc, I think I could use it to slip over the wooden spindle. Also.... if I can drill them I could add a few addition bolts to the spokes to hold it nice n rigid.

It'd be nice if I could find some wood for the spindle, that would be big enough so the brake disc fit snuggly around it (after the disc end with the holes is ground off)
Now I've had my lunch I think the next stage might be to attack the disc and see if it likes having holes drilled in it.

Coley

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

 

[ColeyS1]

It cuts

It drills really really easily, even without coolant

Nearly had a melt down when I noticed the shaft isn't consistently parallel

It's 51mm on the ends but the bit in the middle gets smaller. Having a square hole in the spindle would mean one end will be wibbly wobbly.

After a bit of head scratching, this would fix the sloppy end. I'm now wondering if I should make the square hole oversized and have an amount of adjust each end.

Not the best choice of material for the spindle but perhaps if I've adjustment both ends it wont matter as much.
One things for sure- there's no way in a million years this will be assembled by the end of the day :lol:
Coley

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

 

[Bm101]

Keep it up Coley. This is a fascinating project.

 

[ColeyS1]

Keep it up Coley. This is a fascinating project.

Thanks bud, I thought by posting almost as it happens someone might catch me about to make a cck up.
The morning went reasonably well. I set the spindle moulder up to put a 45 degree bevel on the spindle. Then one thing led to another....again. The two parts of the spindle I planned on making in two parts, then bolting the two together

I was about to turn the spindle moulder on but realised I needed to counterbore the waterwheel spindle beforehand to accept the bolts that'll hold the two parts together. Thing is, I didn't know where the bolts could go, cause I didn't know the width because the bearing were stuck fast on the saw blade shaft

No amount of heat or fkin peed right off aggression :lol: , would release the nut.
Angle grinder time

Not sure why but I really didn't want to damage the nut or the thread. Once the nut realised I meant business it gave up hanging on.

One of the bearing was packed with dry grease, the other was all moist and spun really freely. Not sure if I've done the right thing but I've scraped off as much of the grease as I could, then used 'gunk', a grease remover and pressure washed em off.

I've lit the fire to get the moisture out of them, not because I'm cold and watching the footy

I'd like to have removed the lump on the end that the saw blade clamped against. I can't see how it's joined so can only assume it's part of the shaft.- this will limit the width of the wheel which is another reason to feel grumpy. -(I'm grumpy, I haven't got a stranger living with me who's miserable that I like to feel)
Dissapointing afternoon. Was looking forward to a day of wood bashing, instead got covered elbow deep in grease.
Are bearings fussy when It comes to regreasing, or will anything do ? The dried up bearing works better just dry, now that the dried up grease is gone.

Coley

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

 

[ColeyS1]

Just had a thought. The spokes could be like the sides of a toy diablo. At an angle but still allow a wide waterwheel

Coley

 

[ColeyS1]

I ordered some marine grease for the bearings but general purpose grease was sent by error. The proper stuff turned up yesterday so last night I began syringing it into the bearings

I thought I did a fairly thorough job but this morning I noticed gaps between the ball bearings

Other than wasting grease is there any reason I can't pop the cover on and fill right up until it starts oozing out ?
The bearings seem stiffer to turn now, so I'm still unsure if I should make it narrow and straightforward, or tapered so the buckets hols more water :lol:

Coley

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

 

[morturn]

Is that good practice to pack a bearing fully with grease? I read somewhere is may cause failure, although cannot remember precisely why.

 

[ColeyS1]

Is that good practice to pack a bearing fully with grease? I read somewhere is may cause failure, although cannot remember precisely why.

I'm not sure to be honest. I think it must need to be filled right up cause the grease access hole looks like it just puts it in the middle void, no where near the bearing.

I do wonder whether I should have used a thinner grease, if such a thing exists ?

Coley

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

 

[morturn]

I would imagine that it is not going to be subject to high loads or speed, so it should be ok I would think.

 

[Mike Jordan]

Hi Coley
I've just caught up with you and read through the last page of posts, I must admit that those bearing are a concern to me, with the care you have taken with them I would have expected them to rotate without any resistance at all!
They would have been under much greater stress as a saw spindle than the gentle rotation of a water wheel, I think they are of much more then adequate size but are they worn I some way that's not obvious? I've replaced bearings on woodworking machines when they have developed a rough and lumpy action without showing any sign of play or contamination by dust etc. They are normally to cheap to bother with and easy to replace.
I have an idea for the entire of the spokes if you haven't already completed them. Did you manage to drill the brake discs.?
Mike.

 

[ColeyS1]

Thanks Mike, I've been busy pushing on another project so this hasn't had much done since the last update.
Hopefully tomorrow I'll remount them on the shaft, perhaps but a massive saw blade back on and see how it spins. I think I probably haven't greased them properly. From what I can make out there's two layers of ball bearings- I've only been able to lubricate the top layer by injecting with a syringe.

The brake discs drill easily, just haven't got around to it yet. I'm open to suggestions though

The dimensions of the bearings are 120mm outer diameter, 55 mm inner diameter and 30mm thick. If it wasn't gonna cost the earth I'd replace them, but I've just got a feeling they'll be mega bucks


Coley
Edit. Just got the hair dryer on it to see if a little heat might make the grease a bit runnier. Something seems to be happening as it seems to be turning easier and big voids where the grease once was have started to appear

Perhaps it's making its way to the next layer of bearings :?

 

[Mike Jordan]

Hi Coley
I'm sure you are right about the cost of the bearings, the problem of this type of job is that it consumes mega man hours! My next a mill house is waiting for a few bits from my sons laser cutter and delivery of others from Amazon, enthusiasm is a bit slow as well.
Mike.

 

[ColeyS1]

6months have passed- sick of seeing it unfinished :lol:
Now the sheds finished, I need this to see how it'll fit on the end of it.
So glad I had this thread to look back on.

Made a quick jig so I could flush trim it onto the proper jig.

Fingers are tingling from the iroko, despite wearing gloves and a mask, so glad that routings finished.
Need to figure out how wide to make it next. Almost starting from scratch cause I haven't a scooby doo what the plan was. Ha
Coley

 

[Mike Jordan]

Hi Coley
Pleased to see you are back with the waterwheel! by coincidence I've just finally completed the one I was working on last year, Its only a 330mm diameter wheel but it works the little figures very nicely using the nomidium button magnets beneath the floors and in the base of each of the moving figures.
They have been working for a couple of days now and although I think I may make a few adjustments, the method is easy to use and works well.
I made the floors out of 5mm thick white Perspex to cut the friction down and that seems to have worked . I've made a few mistakes with the mechanism under the floors but now I know the method works I can tidy those up.
Ill put the camera on charge tonight and post a few photos tomorrow.
Mike.

 

[ColeyS1]

Sounds interesting Mike ! I'd quite like to see the pictures to see what you've been up to.
I'm a little concerned my wheels gonna look quite small, compared to its surroundings. The possibility of it turning/powering something, might help it fit the gap on the end of the shed a little better.
Strangely everything seems to be going smoothly since the 6 month break. Not sure whether its cause I'm not as anxious about making it, or perhaps I just want it out the shop :lol:

I've got my overall width of the wheel to work with now, so it's back to woodworking. I was pleasantly surprised that both bearings went on the shaft fairly easily. I've lost a couple screws that hold the grease covers on.If that's the only thing that's gone missing after 6 months, I'll be happy.
Cheers
Coley

 

[Bm101]

(Yay!) =D> And the whole interest in the boat varnishey stuff becomes clear.

 

[n0legs]

'Bout time you got back to this :lol: