most of us can build a cabinet, hopefully, some of us can do tables and chairs, but has anyone built a 

piece to be put into actual industrial use? I am talking working wheels,  wooden gears,  the stuff that I would not dream of? I am donating lumber and time and crane and transport to the fine kids at u of toledo, where they are designing AND building a functional Water Wheel.   yes,  old school, with pegs, tennon mortice and joints I have never heard of. (does not take much)  and will be turning with a  possible force of 7000 lb  of torque, but low rpm, , and will be 12 ft tall and 8ft across.   they are asking me for help. which is a bad idea, the biggest thing I have ever built was a kitchen.  this is the real deal.  are there any guys out there who have any idea about this stuff?  I am anticipating issues and am basically looking for a panel to go to when the perverbial poo hits the water wheel.

and yea believe me there will be pictures!  this thing is cool  they are building a working scale model now.  they have wattage, and flow charts, soil samples, bucket capacity,  velocity,  head measurements,  but that just gets us to the specs of the wheel not the design or build. 

 

 

 

 

Oh man this is so great! What a great project Michael! Sure man, we are here for you. Whatever questions you have, we might have the answers. We got some pretty big builders here on this site that can help you out if you get in a mess. I build bridges and roads, some other guys here build homes and other buildings, so yeah, I think between us all, we can get you the answers you need.

What you say guys! Can we help Michael with this cool project!

And Michael, howabout a blog write up with pics to be posted on our site!

What a neat thing to be involved in, congrats on your participation, and good luck!

Michael,

I would suggest getting in touch with any paddle boat companies.  There are several historic ones that run up in Cleveland. The old ones have all wooden wheels and some of those boats weigh in the 10+ ton range.  The wheels are subjected to some tremendous forces.

Don't know that I know much about building a water wheel, but I'll help where I can and am certainly interested in following this type of project.

 

 great idea on the paddle wheel boats.  the problem is there are very few real working wooden water wheels. and the UT students are really set on making it authentic and as effective  as possible.  I am going to set up a field trip for the guys, and include a stop there so they can wheels used like that and may be able to learn something usefull. also I was not sure if it was blog worthy it will be a year long process  with big gaps of lack of pictures and tangible advances. 

Michael 

That sounds so neat!! It'll be interesting to follow both reading a blog and seeing pictures.

Michael,

You could also check and see if Cedar Point in Sandusky has anything like this.  Amusement parks are notorious for having some oddball structures like this.  We have a working waterwheel in my hometown.  It is part of a historic display for one of our caves.

There is a small one here connect to an Ice Cream place. The water goes across the wheel and turns the crank on a good size ice cream freezer. It is probably about 4 to 5 feet tall.

 

 

Hello Michael,

There is a water wheel in Clifton, Ohio that is still working at the Clifton Mills where they grind corn, wheat , barley and most anything that they wish and sell their products right at the store.

Here is a link to their store and location; http://www.cliftonmill.com I am sure they would be more than happy to help out on this project.

 

Good Luck on the project.

 

Ralph

 thanks ralph! I remember that now that you told me, i think they run a water turbine though, I'll check into it...   there is also one here  the ludwig mill in grand rapids, its a lumber mill though.  they are state owned by the park so they are not allowed to sell the lumber,  I was told they have sawdust hoppers made of solid black walnut! just cause they have to use what they mill. 

Sounds like a great little project!!  Most of the old water wheels havee been taken out, down, rotted away.

 

Out here in Jersey there were alot of textile mills (look under water wheels,passiac, NJ. textile mills)

 

Water from the raceway was directed by flumes to waterwheels that could be 20 feet in diameter and six feet wide. Power from these waterwheels was then transmitted through shafts, gears, and belts to individual machines within the mill buildings.

The power is transtered from the wheel to flywheel, then by gears that drove pulleys, wheels and other drives that would convert the movement to the needed motion/machinery drive.

Alot of the original waterwheels were replaced by water turbines and then when electricity became prevelant they were phased out all together.

Do you have an actual drawing of the proposed wheel and gears?  Let us know.

Famous last words"it doesn't look that hard"


http://www.waterwheelplace.com/main.html

 

http://www.waterwheelplace.com/plans_1.html

They actually aren't that hard Jim, once you have your size down it's a pretty standard wheel build. 

 

Half the work is the axle and bearings, the rest is just wood.

 

 Now a paddlewheel for a boat, that's hard!!!

My thought exactly but for a first time woodworker it might look scary.

The thing that impresses me is the thought that went into such a project and the mathematical work that went into the planning stages of the project and it does not surprise me that they will be successful in the building of the water wheel according to their plans.