Windlass

[solarman]

Looking for a hand windlass for use with a well bucket in deep wells.

Any info or plans will be very helpful.

Thank you!

[kyratshooter]

Last one I made was 30 years ago. I cobbled it together from an empty small wire spool the electric department left to me.

Plans? We're men, we don't need no stinkin' plans!

A wire spool, a couple of pieces of pipe and two or three pipe fittings, a couple of flanges, two or three 2x4s, go to work and when you finish you have a windlass!

Remember that when you use a windlass you need a fairly large diameter pully to reduce the strain on the whole outfit and ease you muscle work.

http://www.lehmans.com/store/Water?A..._all=&sort_by=

Besides the other well goodies Lemans has a hand pump that will lift water at the 200 foot level.

[Rick]

Lordamighty man. A hand pump and all this talk about men. All you need is a good length of rubber hose and siphon it out. Hand pump (shaking head).

[solarman]

Last one I made was 30 years ago. I cobbled it together from an empty small wire spool the electric department left to me.

Plans? We're men, we don't need no stinkin' plans!

A wire spool, a couple of pieces of pipe and two or three pipe fittings, a couple of flanges, two or three 2x4s, go to work and when you finish you have a windlass!

Remember that when you use a windlass you need a fairly large diameter pully to reduce the strain on the whole outfit and ease you muscle work.

http://www.lehmans.com/store/Water?A..._all=&sort_by=

Besides the other well goodies Lemans has a hand pump that will lift water at the 200 foot level.

Thanks for the information. I hope to make one that is geared like a bike. Any thoughts on this?

[kyratshooter]

You are making a windlass to pull water from a well. You are not going to the moon.

You can have a simple, working usable windlass that is rugged, strong and foolproof in a couple of hours OR you can have a complex system with ten thousand moving parts and finish the job two or three months from now and spend the next 10 years repairing it before you draw every bucket of water.

In fact, I figured you already had this job done.

This is absolutly, positively, the one true situation where you are trying to reinvent the wheel, literally.

This is one of the diseases of our modern world. "There has to be a better way and I will find it if I have to work myself to death for the next 100 years!"

At that 100 year mark there are rusty bicycle parts scattered around from the failed Rube Goldburg system and you reverted to a simple windlass that works every time, does not break and anyone can operate.

The most complication I would consider would be yanking the wench off a boat trailer and skipping all the construction work completely.

[gryffynklm]

Kyrat I like my Wenches with red hair.

Solarman, use the KISS method and get er done.

How deep is your well? How much water do you want to pull up?

1 gal = 8.2 lbs.

3 gals = 25 lbs + bucket weight

Keep it Simple Solarman

[Rick]

Hoowee. That's risky because you don't know who that wench belongs to. It might be some big ole fellah that don't like his wench yanked off of anything. Of course, if he don't mind then she could probably fetch the water for him.