HAND AND BIKE PUMP EXPEREMENTAL NOTES
EXPEREMENT ONE the Hand Pump
1a Mike Gale, Zone Manager of Tarmac, and I arranged to meet up at the quarry car park to set up the hand pump experiment by setting the ‘in and out’ flow pipes to the appropriate places on the hand pump, then a water hose was connected to the ‘in let’ hose and another one was placed into a bucket then pumping began, the ‘out let’ hose was attached to a high post set at approx. 3meters (the approximate height of the installation) to see if the hand pump would lift the water. It proved to work efficiently.
1b The hand pump was taken to the installation site and tested. Unfortunately the hand pump ceased after a while, as the metal bearings inside the pump had rusted and it was discovered that the wrong pump had been ordered by Mike, so it was replaced with a plastic one.
1c Once the new hand pump had been replaced testing began again on the Jubilee site , It took various attempts to position where the hand pump was to be placed, It was decided that a concrete slab be set into the ground so that the hand and bike pump could be attached to it for safety reasons.
1d A tripod frame made from recycled metal from a scraped road sign was made and fitted to the Hand pump, It was then it was installed on site by fixing it to the concrete slab with bolt screws.
1e The hand pump works quite well.
EXPEREMENT TWO the Bike Pump
2a I obtained a bicycle that was going to be thrown away, with a friend’s help we developed and adapted the bike and water pump to work via peddling to generate the energy required to lift the water up and over the Water Feature.
2b The front and back wheels were removed and two frames were made using recycled metal from old road signs to the bike frame, then painted to stop rust from building up around the welds on the frames.
2c A small hole had to be drilled into the pump shaft, and a pivot screw fitted to the spindle to enable it to be fitted to the gear sprocket on the bike. This was achieved by turning it on a lathe.
2d After the water pump had been reassembled it was attached to the bike and tested by fitting the in- let and out -let hoses to the pump and the bike was then taken on site where further testing took place.
2e Unfortunately the pump failed to work after a while, this was due to a split in the plastic casing, and the plastic ball bearings that kept the float working had ceased, which prevented the water being sucked up from the pond. A non-return valve was fitted to the in-let hose, which allows the water to remain inside the hose which solved the problem of flow back.
EXPEREMENT THREE (mark 2)
3a The bike was taken back to the work shop where my friend replaced and adapted the new pump to fit the bike, again a hole and screw had to be fitted to the spindle to allow fixture to the gear linkage system of the bike.
3b Having replaced the original plastic pump with one made from non-erodible metal which has been previously coated with a rust-resistant paint. The inside of the pump differs from the old one, as the new pump uses a float system instead of ball bearing, which has proved to have a better suction rate than the previous pump.
3c The bike was then taken back to the installation site, tested, which took a couple of attempts, but once primed the bike pump worked really well, it was then installed by screwing bolts into the concrete slab for safety reasons and stability.
Over all I am pleased with the results and I think the whole concept works well and I think the public will enjoy the interaction with the Water Feature, so far the reaction I have had regarding the Installation have been positive and encouraging , the comments have been taken into consideration when installing the feature.
this clip shows how the bike pump was developed and fitted to a bicycle.
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