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About 20 or more years I had an inspiration to build a model water well pump, and I went so far as to pour two castings. One in aluminum and one in bronze. Then I became distracted by other things and like myself the castings have been aging. So long in fact that the bronze developed a patina. A couple weeks ago I decided I better finish the job before I loose the opportunity. It was decided to make one with a motor driven geared pump jack, and the other with a hand operated pump handle. Both types were common, and it usually depended on how affluent the owner was whether it had the motor operated pump jack, and if it did have the gear driven jack it was usually powered by a gasoline engine rather than an electric motor, but for my demonstration purposes an electric motor is much more convenient so that is what I used. Actually a small motor salvaged out of a defunct computer printer. The aluminum casting was painted, and the bronze left natural. The advantage of a hand powered pump is that you can still get water in case of a power failure. And if only a small amount of water was needed it was easier to pump it, than fuss with starting cranky old engine.
Both pumps work well as can be seen in the video below.
There you have it. A couple more models to put on display for "show and tell", my favorite activity.

Posted by oldmech at 10:00 AM No comments: