I designed and built this water wheel for pumping water from a creek up about 100 feet. My friends live in a remote area 3500 feet up in the mountains of northeast Washington State. The creek runs year round and should provide enough water to thier cistern.
The wheel is 30" in diameter, the buckets are 8 X 4" wide, 3" deep. This was made as cheaply as possible. Yes those are wheel chair rims!
The bearings are plastic self aligning with stainless steel housing
The pump is made of 1" brass pipe, it has a 1.125" bore with 4" stroke. which gives around 4 cubic inches of water per stroke. As you may have noticed the pump rocks back and forth on the lower bearings. No need for wrist pins on the piston.