Hand pumps for allotment

[geoff]

[Tim Watts]

You know, I've *always* wanted to make a well... But as we're on solid clay here, I don't think I will! It gets hard as plaster about 2.5 foot down, having been down there searching for my water main last year...

[Nightjar]

The ancient Greeks had the same problem.

'_screw> I've come across stuff like this:

If you really want to ignore ancient wisdom, I have supplied these (not all as big as in the maain picture) to order without the insect mesh for use as sump pickup screens. They have 5mm diameter holes without the insect mesh inside.

Bignell

[Jules Richardson]

I'm tempted to build one of those quant "wishing well" types of structures, purely to cover up some septic tank caps in the middle of our lawn :)

We're on a private well here, but it's an 80' deep pipe rather than one of those wide shafts and a bucket/rope. We do also have an abandoned 4" piped well with a shed over it which starts at about 20' below ground level; that has a square shaft of about 3' on each side leading down to it. I'm not sure why it was ever done that way, rather than the pipe being brought right up to surface level - maybe an anti-freezing measure.

cheers

Jules

[Onetap]

Possibly an old hand-dug well down to the level of the water table, with a (later?) borehole to make the well deeper and provide a more reliable water supply in summer and provide cleaner water.

[David WE Roberts]

Despite my suggestion about a generator and an electric pump, I would have thought that if you were putting up any kind of windmill then you would couple it directly to a pump?

[Andrew Mawson]

would have

The small pylon type wind mills one used to see in fields were directly coupled water pumps. No point in generating electricity then using it to produce rotary motion that is already there!

AWEM

[Onetap]

I've bored some post holes in clay with a hand auger and it was like drilling plasticine; very easy and the hole kept its shape. I think you will find that the subsoil near the stream is gravel and sediment from the days when it regularly flooded the nearby meadows. There's stuff on the net about making a well casing from plastic pipe with slots cut with a rotary saw blade on a Dremel type thing.

[Tim Watts]

I see your point. But the logistics of electrickery are easier. Pump in water, wire in flexiconduit tied to hose back to tank, and solar panel or windmill there where it's easy to secure and maintain it. Otherwise we'd have to have the windmill over the stream and I don't think the EA will like us obstructing the stream (2' wide at best) by bashing posts into it ;->

[Tim Watts]

I'm not entirely sure of this one. I'm not even sure it's a natural steam or whether it's basically a man made drainage ditch that happens to run water all year (many don't round here, but a few do).

If it floods, the watering problems are solved as the allotments are on the meadow that is part of the controlled flood plain! The local berm is a small one. That could fail, but the meadow is contained by much bigger >2m berms to protect the houses over the road.

[Andy Dingley]

It's easier to get electricity down a windmill tower than a mechanical drive.

[Dave Liquorice]

Eh? Whats hard about vertical shaft? Crank at the top end to make the shaft go up and down by the stroke of the pump. Pivot at the top of the pump shaft or you could just let the shaft flex...

[Harry Bloomfield]

David WE Roberts formulated the question :

Windmill centre shaft, with a crank on the back of it, crank operating a rod to a crude piston in a cylinder (pipe) drawing water into the cylinder via a valve. Let it run all the time filling a large tank and an overflow back to the stream - simples.

[Doctor Drivel]

Fantastic Maxie! Fantastic! Only you can do that.

[Jules Richardson]

Yep. You can buy them in my local farm supply place, too. Stand about 12' tall, and they're not very expensive. Fine for use if you're just pumping water into a holding tank.

cheers

Jules

[Dave Liquorice]

You still have to lift it over the top of the n, though once primed it would stay primed, except:

If the water supply level fell below the end of the pipe that half of the n would empty. Put the valve at the supply end, the weight of water should keep it shut, and hopefully it wouldn't leak enough (this is "dirty" water remember) to allow air in and the water out.

It would mitigate the pipe emptying, assuming neither end had access to air but your exit point is then at ground level again not overly convenient for putting into butts or filling cans.

[JimK]

do you mean a non-return valve?

I was initially thinking of a shut off valve near the pump to guard against air leakage past sub-optimal cast iron pump seals ...

If the inlet side were sorted "properly" (maybe anchored to a lowered area of stream bed) then I was imagining the end of the supply pipe wouldn't normally be exposed to allow any air in nor water out so would remain full..... unless there's a drought - then there'd be no water to pump anyway.

Could we guarantee that users would check levels in the stream before pumping? despite all the valves the pipe could end up pumped dry and then need priming again....

I guess that unless *both* ends were leaky/open you'd always have *at least* 1/2 an _n_ full

I was reffering to the siphon in the pump pipework not just "a siphon"...

For *on demand* hand pumping the OP mentioned buckets...

See my later post for the submerged IBC "true siphon" thought.

Cheers JimK