Waterwheel rebuild

Tom Baugues

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2,790
Location
Lafayette, Indiana
My honey do list keeps getting bigger. Actually I think I'm just slowing down. Anyway.....I have an outdoor koi pond in our back yard. It's been a few years since I've done any real maintenance to it and it's time do start. I'm doing some new landscaping next week and I also want to do something with my old waterwheel. I built this about 15 years ago. Built out of cedar. At the time I was told that it would hold up to the weather elements very well and should last a long time. It looked and worked well for about 4 years then the wood in the wheel started to dry rot and the wheel started leaking all over then eventually stopped turning. I had a small pump pumping water through a hose up to the top where it spilled onto the wheel keeping it turning. The water running over the wheel seemed to just eat away at the wood. So...my questions are.....is there a better material to build a new wheel out of or should I just plan to replace it every few years? I did not treat the wood with anything. Any suggestions? Here is a few photos of the pond and one of me "wet pets". My largest koi is about 18" long.IMG_4043.JPGIMG_4039.JPGIMG_4040.JPGIMG_4041.JPGIMG_4042.JPGIMG_4044.jpg
 
Is this condition called waterboarding? I know the water will eat up just about everything. Look at the Grand Canyon. I feel a rebuild as conditions warrant replacing. What wood is it they use for ships bearings? Guess that would work.
David
 
Tom when we consider that water wheel driven mills were around for many years i think perhaps cedar is not the best wood.

I am thinking perhaps a wood something like Ipe would be better. I don't know what wood was used back in the day.
 
Actually, Rob, it was red cedar, according to Mr. Google. Probably because it was readily available. They went ot metal water wheels because freezes in the winter was what did in the set wood. Bearings also were the issue, causing the wheel to stop or stutter, thus water logging part of the wheel and dying out the rest. Then it self destructed. There is a water wheel dam in Wisconsin that I visited a year ago. It is completely submerged and worked for over a hundred years. It has been reconstructed and log sawing demos are now done with it. The wheel operated a level, like on a train locomotive, moving a very thick saw blade up and down which ate through a log at an alarming rate. Scary, but fascinating. I do not remember the wood the dam wheel was made of, if I ever knew. It is near Greenbush, WI.
 
Teak would hold for many many years, that's why ship decks were made out of it. If you set up for some other type maybe you could consider making a hybrid one using plastic friction bearings for instance or stainless steel in some parts
 
Teak would hold for many many years, that's why ship decks were made out of it. If you set up for some other type maybe you could consider making a hybrid one using plastic friction bearings for instance or stainless steel in some parts
I am using stainless steel bearings, so no issues there. I may look into the cost of using teak for the wheel.
 
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