Been off this forum, building a barn

[mbryner]

Hey guys, 

While I check in here every few days, I regret to say I've been absent more than present.  Not much going on with my listeroid over summertime, ya know.  Too sunny too use any petroleum fuel except in the tractor!

I've started building a barn for the tractor, goats, donkey, chickens, etc. (Well, we don't have the chickens yet.)   Goal is to have it built by the end of summer in my spare time.   It's going to look like an old hay barn w/ vertical pine wide-plank siding and metal roof.   I paid a contractor to set the poles in the ground and get them straight and plumb, but the rest I'm trying to do alone.   I'll need to get my dad or father-in-law or neighbor to come up and help me with the trusses and higher beams, though.   Here's a thread with all the pictures and plans if you're interested.   

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/build-yourself/244220-building-old-fashioned-appearance-new.html

Also, I finished the microhydro install just a few days before we got into mostly sunny springtime weather.   The creek is down to a trickle, but it worked fine for about a week, and I'm all ready for fall.   I'll need to update my thread on that.

Best wishes to you all,
Marcus

[Tom Reed]

About the same here. I just finished the chicken coop and have 10 Cuckoo Maran pullets and a cockerel ready to start laying in July. It's been 6 years since I've had chickens and am excited about eating my own home grown eggs again. These will be chocolate eggs.

[sailawayrb]

Hi Marcus,

I really like your barn design and it should serve you very well!  Also glad to hear that you got to check out the hydro power before the summer drought.  How much power did you get and what were the final design numbers?  Well, maybe answer those questions on the more approproriate thread...

Been busy myself.  Designed and machined a new more efficient check valve for the hydro ram pump.  Originally started with about 500 GPD and then made refinements that got it to 1200 last summer.  This new CV hould get me to 1600 GPD.

I took the CWRE engineering exam last month and just learned last week that I passed.  This was one of the hardest exams that I have ever taken and I didn't feel at all confident that I would pass it.  Lots of complicated regulation scenarios that taxed my less than young brain and my reduced reading comprehension ability...over a 6 hour period.  The engineering calculations were the only enjoyable aspect and perhaps my salvation too.  We were also told that we wouldn't get the results until mid July.  So I am very happy that the wait is over and that I won't have to take this exam again!

http://licenseinfo.oregon.gov/index.cfm?fuseaction=license_seng&link_item_id=14139

http://www.oregon.gov/OWRD/WR/cwre_info.shtml

The new septic system (the minor repair to old system...) and the underground water tanks go in next week.  Once that's done, I can submit the building plans that I have finally completed too.

Bob B.

[mbryner]

Congratulations, Bob, on passing that exam!   It's been a lot of work for you.   Sometime, I'd like to see what you guys have done w/ your place, maybe this summer.

Re: hydro: I got 300 watts at just over 200 ft of head.  Used 2 nozzles, about 1/4" each (?).   I could make the nozzles bigger because I have a set of them, so the output should increase in winter months next year.   It was limited this spring by lower flow at the end of the season.

Marcus

[sailawayrb]

Hi Marcus,

We will be there last week June & first week July.  Will have to work around Jackson Brit concerts, Askland play and some dinner engagements, but sure we can find a mutually good time for a visit!

Bob B.

[Ronmar]

Bob, tell us a bit more about that more efficient ram pump check valve?  I have an irrigation ditch that crosses across the back of my property with about 40' of head and have been thinking about a ram pump in the ditch to give me pressurized irrigation back there where I don't have any power...

[sailawayrb]

Well, with 40' of Fall, 60' long x 1 1/2" diameter drive line, you could expect to deliver about 5000 GPD with a hydro ram pump.  There's a JavaScript calculator on my website that you can play with to access the performance for your exact pumping elevation and delivery line parameters:

http://www.borstengineeringconstruction.com/Calculators.html

Relative to the check valve, this component is critical to maximizing the hydro ram pump delivery rate (i.e., how many GPD one can achieve).  The high pressure water hammer pulse only lasts micro seconds so the goal is to have a check valve that has a very high orifice flow rate coefficient so as to easily pass this high pressure, realtively small slug of water and yet not allow any significant amount of water backflow when the pressure goes negative after the water hammer pressure wave travels to opposite end of drive line.  I attached some photos of my latest valve.  It has a 0.89 orifice coefficient and testing next week should establish whether the water backflow elimination goal has been successfully achieved...and I fully expect this will be the case...  

Hydro ram pump efficiency is a metric that quantifies how much water one can deliver to an elevation given the amount of Fall one has and how much water goes out the clacker valve.  With any luck this new check valve design may enable me to break the illusive 80% hydro ram efficiency barrier...  Max theoretical hydro ram pump efficiency is about 84% if memory serves me correctly.  I was at about 78% last summer.  It is interesting to note that maximum delivery rate does NOT occur at the pump frequency where maximum efficiency occurs.  Really, maximum efficiency is only important when one has a situation where the supply water is limited...in which case one wants the maximum delivery rate possible without exceeding the limited water supply rate.  

The hydro ram pump design I have been experimenting/refining has been designed to achieve zero maintenance by an affiliate of mine who is now selling them on eBay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Improved-All-Steel-Hydraulic-Ram-Hydram-Water-Pump-600GPD-Free-Power-No-Fuel-/300687859977?pt=PCA_UPS&hash=item460264a109

My sole interests with this enterprise are from an engineering, research and scientific perspective to improve the design of what I consider to be a very fascinating machine.

Unlike many plastic hydro ram pumps that are affordable, but don't survive very long, this design is all steel.  While very affordable (unlike some of the few commercial steel or cast iron pumps still being sold these days), the product is a little rough (similar to our India Listeroids) since it is now being manufactured in China to address the affordability.  However, unlike some Lister engine claims of running 100,000 hours without any maintenance, this innovative and unique hydro ram pump design will easily do and surpass that!  This design uses a 2" diameter glass ball that seals against 1" thick rubber gasket for the clacker valve...which is only other moving part used to create the water hammer pressure...and it takes a very long time to wear out a rotating glass ball in this application!  Every other hydro ram design that I know of uses a metal claker valve and the valve and guide eventually wear out.  So it is critically important that this new check valve design also proves to have a long life expectancy before it will pass muster in my book for this hydro ram pump application.

Bob B.

[Ronmar]

Thanks Bob, interesting info...