Hydraulic ram water pumps - Page 3

**The Reaper** · 05-05-2006, 09:50

Hey, just stumbled onto this ICW the welder.

An underhood heat exchanger that will let you get water heated by your vehicle engine. Comes in handy if your windmill is taking longer to build than you thought and you brought an XX along for advice.

http://www.premierpowerwelder.com/un...underhood.html

TR

mugwump · 05-05-2006, 10:35

Check out POLDAW wind turbines. They are a modern re-design of the old idea. Cost is about $300 - $500 and they are indig-maintainable. The gearing/transmission is rope and wood -- really ingenious -- and does not tangle or foul with multiple head swings (rotations) of the blade section when the wind is changing bearing (a flaw with many inexspensive 3rd world mills).

poldaw.jpg

This is often coupled with a rope pump. One rope pump can be made from one old auto tire, some rope, pvc, scrap tin, and a coke bottle filled w/ cement.

ropepumps_real.gif

http://www.ropepumps.org/

**Bill Harsey** · 05-05-2006, 13:57

Mugwump,
You keep this stuff up and I'm going to have to nominate you for the first PS.com "Redneck Engineer of the Year" award.

I'm checking the rule book now to see if big city kids are qualified to enter.

mugwump · 05-05-2006, 14:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bill Harsey

Mugwump,
You keep this stuff up and I'm going to have to nominate you for the first PS.com "Redneck Engineer of the Year" award.

I'm checking the rule book now to see if big city kids are qualified to enter.

It'd be an honor, but no go. I am small town at heart, but I read the redneck engineering thread and I know I just wouldn't "see" the solutions described there. A man's got to know his limitations.

This "appropriate technology" stuff intrigues me. I met a lot of folk who were hooked on developing it when I lived in the UK. Some of them are walking the walk with NGOs in some of the same places the QPs hang out. I try to keep up with them and what they are doing.

**Peregrino** · 05-05-2006, 15:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by mugwump

It'd be an honor, but no go. I am small town at heart, but I read the redneck engineering thread and I know I just wouldn't "see" the solutions described there. A man's got to know his limitations.

This "appropriate technology" stuff intrigues me. I met a lot of folk who were hooked on developing it when I lived in the UK. Some of them are walking the walk with NGOs in some of the same places the QPs hang out. I try to keep up with them and what they are doing.

A lot of the "worker bees" in the NGOs are good people doing genuinely useful humanitarian labors. Now if something could only be done about the politics of their bosses and mouthpieces. My .02 - Peregrino

**Bill Harsey** · 05-05-2006, 16:44

Mugwump,
It always amazed me to see the working solutions the old hands in the logging operations came up with to nearly impossible problems.

We kept that outfit running with a twenty pound sledge hammer, an oxy-acetylene torch, portable arc welder, one nine inch Milwaukee angle grinder, a box of 3/4 inch drive socket wrenches and a whole lot of bad attitude.

The saying in our particular neck of the forest was: "what for a normal man would be impossible takes logger a little bit longer to get done."

I think many of the QP's live this life.

Your still nominated.

mugwump · 05-05-2006, 17:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peregrino

A lot of the "worker bees" in the NGOs are good people doing genuinely useful humanitarian labors. Now if something could only be done about the politics of their bosses and mouthpieces. My .02 - Peregrino

Agree completely, they are doing good work, but the worker bees' rhetoric is hard to take, too. I treat conversations with them like Sunday dinner at Granny's house: no discussion of politics. Makes things go smoother. Having said that, I have lately noticed a shift away from "magic cookie land" towards the world the rest of us live in. Stints in Darfur, recent brushes with Maoist rebels, etc. have caused a couple of them to lurch away from their org's official positions. One woman I know guiltily admitted to me that she was beginning to think the people in Darfur had the right to defend themselves. Imagine!

frostfire · 05-10-2006, 09:19

hope this is relevant...albeit quite expensive

http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/ro...africa_th.html

got this from the frontline thread in general discussion. Perhaps it'd be a useful reference somewhere, sometime in the future.

MtnGoat · 05-23-2006, 06:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Reaper

Hey, just stumbled onto this ICW the welder.

An underhood heat exchanger that will let you get water heated by your vehicle engine. Comes in handy if your windmill is taking longer to build than you thought and you brought an XX along for advice.

http://www.premierpowerwelder.com/un...underhood.html

TR

Great Idea TR - the simple things that make life easy

MtnGoat · 05-23-2006, 06:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by frostfire

hope this is relevant...albeit quite expensive

http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/ro...africa_th.html

got this from the frontline thread in general discussion. Perhaps it'd be a useful reference somewhere, sometime in the future.

Frost - Good idea for a school yard just about anywhere!! The kids can play with it while the pump water for the school tanks.

mugwump · 05-29-2006, 17:45

Check this out MtnGoat, but only if you have an afternoon to waste...

The hippo water roller is cool, the irrigation system especially.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appropriate_technology

MtnGoat · 06-05-2006, 20:42

mugwump

I like what I see

Next week I can look at it better, more time on my hands. PSC Leave and all

Start looking for Affordable Portable Irrigation Systems or farms

Thanks!!

Appropriate technology.. So many other "things" that should be APPROPRIATE... for most SA or a good ideas but those are other threads.

MtnGoat · 12-26-2009, 16:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by frostfire

hope this is relevant...albeit quite expensive

http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/ro...africa_th.html

got this from the frontline thread in general discussion. Perhaps it'd be a useful reference somewhere, sometime in the future.

Was wondering if anyone has used anything along these lines before. Saw this is Kenya in 2007 and I thought it was great. A South African Company makes them and I'm looking at getting some.

Also looking at getting a wind mill water pump. Something along the Old west style Windmills. WESTERNWINDMILLS

Looking for Plans or "HomeMade" Windmills or water pumps again.

MtnGoat · 02-21-2015, 07:04

I have not tried this, but if I was deployed I would try it out.

Please pictures if anyone tries it out.

http://m.instructables.com/id/Hydraulic-Ram-Pump/

Golf1echo · 03-06-2015, 08:32

Mt Goat, the house I bought in WNC had a water ram as did many of the houses in the area at one time. That system had a cinder block box near the creek that gathered water from a side spring, water then was piped down into the ram IIRC for every three units one got pushed vertical ( about 25' ) up to the house. The only insulation I saw was where the pipe was buried so I suppose it to be more of a 3 season system unless insulated. Unfortunately the previous owner gave the ram away other wise I would have used it for irrigation.