Water saw
A water powered saw
I have many summers made increasingly large and intricate waterwheels in a stream by my familie's cottage, and this summer would turn out no different. Except maybe that it would be a lot larger and a lot more powerfull.
Instead of making the waterwheel in the stream, as I had previous years, this time I would bring the stream to the waterwheel.
Foundation
For the scope of the project, it required a proper, sturdy foundation. And so this became the start of my platform.
The stage is complete
And so I was ready to begin constructing the actual waterwheel.
Origin of the waterwheel
My granfather had (has) many old bikes, and I was free to choose any of them as my subject for transformation.
I only needed the back, so the front was cut off.
I realized that I could cut the tire into segments that would work as fins.
And so the waterwheel was complete.
Source of water
I wasn't the only one who had had the idea of building a waterwheel in this stream, and that was quite fortunate, since they had left behind some small watercables, and one very large one.
For many reasons, I setteled for the smaller one.
With some work draging one end of the cable about 100m up the stream (With perhaps a 7-10m incline), and getting the water moving in the cable, I had a good source of water.
The saw
After a few failed ideas, I setteled on a wheel based rail guided platform.
An important idea of the saw was that it should be falling onto the wood, so that it could in theory cut through something thick.
And so the platform has two joints. One for the saw, and one for the connection to the bike pedal.
And finally, I put it all together. (As anyone who has worked on a problem will know, there were a few hickups...)