River Flow - Waterwheel (Canford School Project)

[Penri]

Hello All

I've started this topic in order to record progress on measuring river flow rate.


Penri

[CanfordSchool]

Hi

Last week we had a look at a number of issues with the current waterwheel and created a document of what we found which we will upload shortly. This week we are planning to produce a prototype for a mid shot wheel and use the school 3D printer to produce it. If we find some bearings which we think would be better we will post them on here - should you approve them then we’ll order them this week (apparently the school has a budget for this). We’ll be at the model town next week.

Alby

[CanfordSchool]

https://www.123bearing.co.uk/bearing-MR128-2RS.php
Here is a link to bearings which we think would be suitable for a new wheel - these are the dimensions we want to use.

Our school 3d printer is not large enough to print an object of the wheel's size. Either we can print parts separately and glue them together or we could use the printer which was used to print the wheel we have at the moment. If that is possible we would be able to send a file with the new wheel design to be printed

[Penri]

Hello

I'm not a bearings expert so more then happy to give them a go; just one question, are they suitable for use in a wet environment?

Send me the water-wheel file and I'll get it printed, I'll need a .STL file or something I can convert into .STL.

What will be the water surface height in front of the re-designed wheel (in the penstock)? I'd like to check that the river channel walls are high enough to contain the new water level. A simple sketch of your proposed layout would be helpful to understand your design intent.


Penri

[CanfordSchool]

Hi

We’ll work to get this done tomorrow so hopefully we’ll be able to send the stl file over and a sketch by tomorrow afternoon

Alby

[Penri]

Hello Alby

OK with me, I look forward to seeing what you've designed.


Penri

[CanfordSchool]

The bearings have been ordered and have already arrived. Their outside Diameter is 26mm.

[Penri]

OK, thanks for the bearing information.

I've put together a design for the dam to put in front of the waterwheel, enabling us to raise the point at which the water hits the wheel; it's currently being printed (3D in PLA) and I hope to have it in time for trialling next Monday.

Renderings of the design are attached.


Hwyl

Penri

[Penri]

Hello

Bearing support brackets also being printed, 2 with nominal 26mm bearing seat, 2 with nominal 10mm bearing seat.

Rendered views of those models attached.



Hwyl

Penri

[Penri]

Hello

Received the parts back from the 3D printers, see attached photographs. Everything looks pretty good to me.

Bearing holes were all designed to be slightly smaller then needed, to accommodate 3D printing tolerances (+/- 0.5mm), with the view of reaming them to size as required. The 10mm ones in the photographs have been modified in this way with the nylon bearing hand pressed into place.




Hwyl

Penri