Barbegal water wheel?
December 28, 2010 9:38 PM   Subscribe

I want to build a model of the water wheel and gearing system as seen in this episode of James Burke's Connections.

There must be kits that allow me to do this. Or at least plans somewhere. I am totally fascinated by this thing and have to make a replica of the one in the episode.
posted by Demogorgon to Technology (6 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
I don't know about a kit, but you could make something up in lego technik or knex pretty quick. If you want to do a really detailed job if it, you can cut and drill balsa sheets for the walls and wheels, dowels or metal rods for the shaft, and brass bushings, all of which can be purchased at mcmaster Carr, or well stocked craft store
posted by Popular Ethics at 10:00 PM on December 28, 2010


You don't need a kit or plans, everything you need to know is in that video. You can see each part and how it works. You have paper and pencil. Go to a hobby shop, buy a range of dowels and balsa, some simple tools and glue, don't be afraid to do some trial and error, and get to work!

If you must have plans, I have seen a dolls house book with plans for making a mill (the water wheel operated millstones and a sack hoist, and something else) but that was a more complicated project than Burke's model, because it was detailed to look real, rather than idealised to be simple and informative.

I think you'll be better off scratch-building this.
Then YOU can draw up the plans for others to follow in your footsteps! :)
posted by -harlequin- at 6:30 AM on December 29, 2010


Best answer: For the bits that you can't see, or for which you need further explanations, I'd check out out a reference book on mechanical movements. Wooden automata projects also come up from time to time on the Make blog and Instructables.
posted by jquinby at 10:11 AM on December 29, 2010


Response by poster: You don't need a kit or plans, everything you need to know is in that video. You can see each part and how it works. You have paper and pencil. Go to a hobby shop, buy a range of dowels and balsa, some simple tools and glue, don't be afraid to do some trial and error, and get to work!

I realize that a lot of the works could be built this way, but I don't really see how I could build the blast furnace or the water pump. Mostly, the water pump I'm just not sure what it looks like inside.

jquinby, that's exactly the kind of thing I was thinking, thanks!
posted by Demogorgon at 10:51 AM on December 29, 2010


Neither the blast furnace or the water pump are any more complex than what you see. The bellows are just... bellows. The valve is normally a flap of leather, but I doubt the model has valves, the bellows are just icons for "these are bellows". If you want to go the distance and fold them yourself, there are instructions online for making/replacing vintage camera bellows out of paper, and you can also find similar constructions in plastic as elements in toys and hardware of a department store. The water pump is not a model of a working water pump, it's a model of what the exterior of the top part of a water pump looks like.
posted by -harlequin- at 5:28 PM on December 29, 2010


They don't really show what kind of pump that water wheel is powering but a typical pump would be a version of a cylinder pump which was common for pumping water from wells. They are very simple with just a piece of straight wall pipe, two ball or foot valves and a couple seals.
posted by Mitheral at 7:23 PM on December 29, 2010


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