Water butt plumbing

[Penri]

Hello

During inspection of the Wendy Street's butts earlier this week I noticed that the "new" splitter had become unglued from its feed pipe, which connects it to the bottom of the butts.

Both parts of the joint looked ok, no evidence of breaks or cracking in either, so after a cleanup I re-glued the joint using the thick Acetone/PLA solution I normally used to stick the 3D printed windows together. I'd previously used a proprietary adhesive but have since read that the Acetone/PLA mix should do a good job.

Why did the joint come apart? I really don't know, the two materials on each side of the joint are dissimilar so perhaps the glue couldn't make a good enough bond, though it did look and feel good when we first made it. Some adhesives create very strong but in-elastic joints that can fracture under shock loads, it may have been that as the result of the increase foot traffic at the rear of the Wendy house that the pipework was given a kick; or perhaps it just did not like the cold weather!

Anyway the problem is resolved for now and will be tested when we re-start the butts to sump link.


Hwyl

Penri

[hamishmb]

Hopefully it was just the cold weather. Looking forward to getting this all going again on Tuesday (assuming it goes to plan ).

Hamish

[Penri]

I'm waiting the arrival of the new SSRs.

[hamishmb]

Ah, I meant in its previous form, assuming we have all the bits and the old SSR, we can get that working.

[Penri]

I've taken the old SSR out, but it can be easily reinserted. Lets see how far we can get with re-estabilishing the pumping with the new pump.

[Penri]

A post to note the fact that the Lady Hanham butts has been plumbed into the system, currently with manual ball valve control.

The water level within the butts was equalised across the three groups by opening the ball valves interconnecting them, some small leaks were observed.

As a prelude to further work to stem these leaks, metal strapping was today installed to support the interconnection pipework within each butt group of 5 barrels. This strapping serves to prevent the input/output pipework from drooping within the tank connectors under the weight of the water within the butts. It remains to be seen if this initial remedy will be successful, if not the offending joint(s) will be treated with Plumbers Mait, the strapping with help to keep the joints from flexing.

[Penri]

It has become apparent that the platform build to support the Butts behind the Wendy Street stage is beginning to fail under the weight of water in the barrels. So rather that wait for it to fail completely it has been decided to replace it with something more solid and permanent. The final demolition of the existing structure and construction of the replacement will take place on Sunday 19Jan20. The barrels and plumbing will be reinstated during the week following the construction, hopefully.
To that end I intend to drain the Wendy Stage butts, remove the sensors and then the barrels and plumbing as far as the coupling to the blue MDPE pipe, bag and tag the cables running to the interface box (to prevent them getting damaged during demolition and construction) during the week commencing the 13Jan20.

[TerryJC]

Penri,

I was intending to go to WMT tomorrow as usual, but the forecast for most of this week is appalling. I'm assuming that the draining of the butts etc will not need two people, but if I can be useful, just let me know.

[Penri]

Terry

Draining will be the simple matter of opening the rodding eye, taking the existing plumbing apart may be more tricky but we'll see.


Hwyl

Penri

[Penri]

Terry

If you can make it in to ensure I power down and remove the Stage RPi interface properly I'd be grateful.


Penri