Oil sucks, wind blows.
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Just finished my 1st revision of a DIY water wheel, the wheel delivers about 2A into my 12V battery pack. It is made entirely out of surplus pallets + an ametek tape drive motor....
Links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7A_4VP6V80http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLvsixjlYIohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z900AKfwC5Y
Pete.
How big is it?
It will be interesting to me to hear suggestions for improvements.
I am wondering about that 'flap-flap-flap' sound. If the buckets were sharpened to catch more water a bit sooner and less turbulent, maybe the output would go up a bit?I don't know.
Welcome!G-
Ben
Quite a lot of leaves but these don't seem to be a problem. We had a great deal of rain last week that raised the stream level above the wheel - this left a lot of debris on the wheel - branches etc.. once cleared it worked fine again.
The wheel slats are made from Indian Hardwood pallets (everyone in the UK seems to be using Indian stone for driveways!) and I have treated them and the plywood with Thompsons water seal.
I'll try and sharpen the edges to see if that improves things.
The gearing is in two parts a 1:2 set of cogs and a 1:10 set of sprockets and chain giving me 1:20. The wheel spins at about 60rpm under no load. I've not measured it with the gears and motor connected but would estimate about 40-50rpm.
I made two L shaped brackets out of hardwood with a 45 degree insert to firm everything up. The whole lot is bolted together with M10 bolts.
Marine ply on the base and this is bolted down to bedrock.
I'm a editor at Popular Science magazine in the U.S. and would be interested in hearing more about the water wheel--can you get in touch with me via e-mail?
Thanks a lot,Doug