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DIY Wind-Powered Water Pumpby flyingpuppy on July 2, 2012

Table of Contents

DIY Wind-Powered Water Pump . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Intro:   DIY Wind-Powered Water Pump . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Step 1:   Wheels and Gears . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Step 2:   Making the Wind Foils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Step 3:   Installing the Wind Foils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Step 4:   The Wind-Pump Connector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Step 5:   PVC Water Pump . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Step 6:   Assembling the Wind-Powered Water Pump . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Step 7:   Bug Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

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Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

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Author:flyingpuppy    Do It Yourself and SaveMy favorite quotation is: “All you need in order to accomplish something great is a good idea and not quite enough money.” – Anon I live by that theme, andthe ideas just keep coming.

Intro:  DIY Wind-Powered Water PumpThis summer I made a bunch of fun things out of PVC for my visiting nieces and nephews, and this wind-powered water pump is a combination of two of those projects: awind-powered deer deterrent , and a pump-style water gun .This water pump is definitely in beta stage. All the components work, but the design is highly inefficient and requires considerable wind to pump water out of our pond. Inthe video below I act out the part of a gale to give you a visual of how the pump works. The last step in this instructable will discuss the bugs in the current design andhow they can be improved for a more efficient use of wind power.

Step 1: Wheels and GearsLike my outdoor chandelier project , most of the parts for this wind pump came from the bicycle shop dumpster. I don't know the names for all these parts, so I'm notnaming them. What I can say is that the gear-looking pieces were not gears on the bikes (I turned them into gears by adding bolts). I found them on mountain bikewheels, and they can only be installed on a wheel that had one in the first place.I'm also not sure what the best order is for putting this wind pump together, so I'll just rattle off what I did.1. Added small bolts into every other hole in one of the "gears." For the top (horizontal) gear I used shorter bolts; longer ones for the vertical one. I left the top bolts as isand put nylon spacers over the vertical gear "teeth," securing them with Teflon tape.2. Attached the horizontal gear to the axle of a mountain bicycle wheel.3. Attached a second bicycle wheel rim to the first using three metal brackets (mine ended up shorter than shown in this picture due to a change in plans).4. Found a way to secure a 1" PVC tee to the top of a tripod.5. Installed the bicycle wheel contraption into the top of the PVC tee. I used a couple wooden circular pieces drilled out of a piece of 1x2. The hole in the center of thewooden pieces held the axle rod firmly in place. I used a couple odd pieces as spacers to elevate the horizontal gear to the spot where it would catch the vertical gear.6. Installed the vertical gear into the horizontal part of the PVC. The gear must sit on a ball bearing so it can rotate freely. I used part of an axle that had a bearing inside.Use whatever you can find to "stuff" the gear into place and keep it from wobbling.

I had to do a lot of shimming and shaving to get things to fit. I shimmed with toilet paper cardboard and shaved with a dremmel or sandpaper. You do what you gotta do.

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Image Notes1. nylon spacers secured with Teflon tape

Image Notes1. wooden circle drilled with a wood-boring drill bit2. odd metal pieces used as spacers3. horizontal gear. Note the bolts are in every third space. I changed that toevery other space.4. metal axle rod

Image Notes1. gear teeth should be every other hole2. wooden circle with center hole3. 1" PVC tee4. ball bearing with PVC shimm inserted into tee5. 1 1/4" PVC piece holds the gear on the black axle piece6. part of an axle7. metal rod

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Image Notes1. how everything in the previous photo fits together2. small red thing is a ball bearing. In the final version it is the back side of oneof the bolts

Step 2: Making the Wind FoilsI wanted the wind foils to be bigger than the ones I installed on the deer deterrent gizmo, but still light. Tin seemed like the perfect material, but I was afraid of getting allcut up when I tried to cut the tin pieces to size (I grabbed a piece of duct from a recycle yard for the purpose). So I painstakingly felted five pieces of silk and coated themwith polyurethane. They turned out stunning, but when I installed them and set the windmill out for a test, they were a complete dud. The wind didn't know what to do withall that fluff. These plastic +silk foils are my quick substitute for the felted ones.I don't know what this plastic is called. I was using it as a light diffuser in photography, as it's semi-opaque and lightweight. Hopefully someone will know what it's calledand where to buy it.For the foils, I divided what I had into five. I wanted the largest possible foils, given what I had to work with. Then I bought a silk scarf at a thrift store and cut that into five(a little bigger than the foils).I sanded the dull side of the plastic and painted it with polyurethane for adhesive (because that's what I had on hand).After gluing the silk to the plastic sheets, I trimmed off the excess silk and punched holes for the spokes that would hold them to the bicycle wheel rims.

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Image Notes1. the red stuff is laughing cow cheese wax used to temporarily hold the foils inplace while the epoxy dries

Image Notes1. the red stuff is laughing cow cheese wax used to temporarily hold the foils inplace while the epoxy dries

Image Notes1. fine grit sandpaper

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Step 3: Installing the Wind FoilsTo install the wind foils, I drilled five holes big enough to fit a bicycle spoke into--in both bicycle wheel rims. The spokes are inserted from the inside of the rim andsecured with plumber's epoxy. Once the epoxy dries, the foils are slipped onto the spokes and secured to the outside of the spokes with epoxy. I screwed spoke nutsonto the end of the spokes to keep the foils from falling off.

Image Notes1. plumber's epoxy, later painted black

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Image Notes1. the red stuff is laughing cow cheese wax used to temporarily hold the foils inplace while the epoxy dries

Step 4: The Wind-Pump ConnectorIf you look closely at the vertical gear mechanism, you'll see a small red ball bearing on the back side of one of the gear "teeth." This bearing, and another identical oneattached to the piston on the water pump are what allow the connecting piece between the windmill and the water pump to move freely, transferring the wind's horizontalforce into the up-and-down force of the water pump. The connecting "rod" itself is made out of PVC. I painted it to look rusty (see step 4 in the the outdoor chandelierproject for details), and later inserted some bicycle spoke nuts into the plastic by heating them over a gas stove.

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Step 5: PVC Water PumpHere is the drawing of the PVC water pump gun I made for my visitors. I made no changes except to add an eye hook to the top of the piston and secure the second ballbearing to the hook.And here also is the video of how I put it together.

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Step 6: Assembling the Wind-Powered Water PumpTo assemble the wind-powered water pump, I hammered a metal rod into the ground where I wanted the pump to stand. To this rod I braced the outer part of the pumpmechanism using two screw clamps. Then I positioned the windmill part of the whole thing centered above the pump and high enough to allow the connecting arm toextend and contract without buckling. Lastly, I attached the connecting arm to the two ball bearings--one on the horizontal gear, the other on the pump piston.The project is complete. It really is a thing of beauty...

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Step 7: Bug ReportThe biggest problem with this wind-powered water pump design is that every single part of the assembly is a bit wobbly, and all the wobble eats up a lot of the windenergy that should instead go into pumping water. To solve this problem in the next version, I would:1. Use a sturdier tripod.2. Use a bicycle rim that isn't warped. The bottom rim in this project is badly bent from some bike accident, and the motion it makes wastes wind energy.3. Use tin or PVC for the wind foils and attach them directly to the bicycle wheel rims. My deer deterrent has smaller foils, but they are more efficient than the ones on thiswater pump system. A lot of wind energy is lost with the shaking of the bicycle spokes.4. Use a heavier rod driven into the ground to hold the water pump. Or install the whole thing onto a 4x4 post to eliminate unwanted movement (again, like my deerdeterrent).5. Make all parts as light as possible--especially the connecting arm between the gear and the pump piston. The more weight the gear has to lift, the more wind will berequired to lift it.6. Find a better solution for the gasket part of the piston. The harder it is to push and pull the piston, the more wind energy is needed to pump water. I used 3M oil tolubricate the rubber part of the plunger, but I think mine isn't as efficient as it could be.

Any solutions to the above would be appreciated.

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Comments

1 comments Add Comment

 sunshiine says:  Jul 2, 2012. 5:29 PM  REPLYThis is pretty awesome! Thanks for sharing.Sunshiine