One Thing Checked Off

Although I’m not back in the shop full time or anything close, I did sneak in a couple of sessions to make and install the new cypress lid for the hydropower capturing basin.   Last winter I saw that something had torn the living starch out of the previous hardware-cloth-over-frame lid, rendering that element useless in filtering out the debris.  It was probably a bear, but I really have no idea why a bear would feel the need to tear up the box lid in the middle of a vigorously running stream.  The box itself was uninjured, perhaps because it holds about 500 pounds of rocks.

My first step for the new lid was nailing down the side strips to the workbench, then began nailing on the slats spaced two washers apart.  This will result in a roughly >1/16″ opening, large enough for the wicking of water through the lid but keeping out the debris and crawdads.   I nailed it all together from both sides with copper slatters nails, driven into pre-drilled holes.  Once the unit gets saturated the wood will swell and clinch the nails solidly in place.

This particular structure is known as a Coanda Screen, although they are usually manufactured from stainless steel rods and screens.

A hike up the hill to clean out the debris from the capturing basin and setting the new lid in place and the system was functional once I made the penstock re-connection that I disconnect when winterizing it.  I added another 500 pounds of rocks on top to discourage any four-legged vandals.  We’ll see if it works.

Over the summer I will spend a few days working on the penstock incline, building rock berms to flatten out the swales so that maybe, just maybe I can keep it running all winter long.  Enclosed water lines can supposedly keep running down to -17F if there is minimal turbulence.

But for now, after a week of vigorous rain (~3″ total) it’s pounding out the power.

Back to finishing up the myriad details for the greenhouse.