Bore dry or pump U.S.

[123rover50]

Supply of water from the windmill in the horse paddock stopped a couple of months ago. I finally had time to investigate as to the cause. Bore dry or the pump. Thankfully it was the latter, but still a big job to pull 5 lengths of 20 ft pipe up to find the problem. The leather buckets on the reciprocating pump had worn out. The mill is only 20 ft high, so to get each length out it has to be manouvered out through the top of the tower, unscrewed then pulled out the bottom. With the aid of an electric winch and several chains and ropes I finally got it done on my own. Replaced the buckets and reversed the removal process, put the last length back yesterday. Hopefully it will last another 12 years at least.

Didiman

[Rangier Rover]

You did well to pull that up and cope with the thread sockets on your own.

We had the same happen to our draw plunge pump with 11 lenths of 5" pipe:eek:
Had no mill over it so had to use a pole on a loader to lift it up. Turned out the pump was fine but the Gal pipe has suffered from electrolysis on the tread next to the pump.:(

See you have a Forward Control still in action.:D

http://www.aulro.com/afvb/attachment.php?attachmentid=19414&stc=1&d=1254954879

http://www.aulro.com/afvb/attachment.php?attachmentid=19415&stc=1&d=1254954956

[austastar]

Gee some of you guys get to play with interesting toys.
Way more fun than nasty networking niggles, paranoid pathetic printers and completely cranky computers.
But hey 51 days to go (but who's counting)
cheers

[123rover50]

Pleased I dont have 5' pipe . How does your pump work?

[digger]

Pleased I dont have 5' pipe . How does your pump work?

with 11 lengths of 5" pipe??? I would suggest "HARD" !!!:p


digger

[PhilipA]

Now I know why you see so many fine old windmills neglected and rotting. I have often wondered why the farmers do not still run them. Some do of course such as Quobba Station. I guess its easier to just drop a solar pump down. Regards Philip A

[123rover50]

Now I know why you see so many fine old windmills neglected and rotting. I have often wondered why the farmers do not still run them. Some do of course such as Quobba Station. I guess its easier to just drop a solar pump down. Regards Philip A

A bloke a few Ks up the road replaced his mill with solar. It was only about 100 yds off the main rd. Got stolen, replaced it , stolen again, gone back to a mill.
Didiman

[Rangier Rover]

Pleased I dont have 5' pipe . How does your pump work?


with 11 lengths of 5" pipe??? I would suggest "HARD" !!!:p


digger

Yea it works hard all right.:D With friction head + Actual head from static water height in the bore is around 120 mtrs. A big ask with this type of pump. The bore is 120 mtrs deep actually so this pump cant really do all that in one stage if the water level ever drops that far:(

This one has a 9" stroke with draw plunge pump head and a Lister LV1 diesel driving it. Its purpose in life is a back up for our five other electric auto submersibles etc. Cant beat the old tech in a crisis;)

[123rover50]

and here I was thinking how nice it would be to put a mill over our bore http://freesmileyface.net/smiley/Thinking/thinking-023.GIF (http://freesmileyface.net)

maybe a submersible pump is the way to go http://freesmileyface.net/smiley/Happy/happy-096.gif (http://freesmileyface.net)

but mills look sooooooooooooooo much nicer ;)

the bore itself is not overly deep, but as yet, until we move onto the property and spend some time investigating these things we are not sure just how good the bore actually is. If it is fed by the partly subterranian creek down the back it might not be very good as that is not permanently running I don't think.
Submersibles are OK if you have power and a good supply of water. Still OK with not much water if you put probes down hooked to the controller. These turn off the pump when the level drops to the lower probe[still above pump level] and turns the pump on again after the level rises to the height of the upper probe.
Windmills however, have a relatively small flow and just keep pumping.
The other option is a petrol powered deep well pump, we have one of these too.Works on the venturi principle, we started using a firefighter pump,but the bore water stuffed the alloy so we changed to a purpose built cast iron deep well pump. Its been good.