Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

a technical question for those who think they are in the know....

can you build an archimede's screw from a flat piece of metal (or similar) or does it need to be formed or moulded?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archimedes'_screw

Hi Jaymie
You can make one with flat plywood discs. The chinese used lots of seperate sections like those whirlygig spiral thingyjigs that hang up and spin around in the wind..no clue what the actual name is though

http://www.geocities.com/davidvwilliamson/pump.html

One of the reference links from the wikipedia article shows it being formed from flat donut's, cut, stretched and joined:
Plywood Archimedes screw water pump

Whoops - way to slow

thanks guys

I would think you could do a variation without cutting,
but I don't know who would have the rolling device...
Try cutting a piece of paper.
If you cut out a circle and cut a smaller circle out of the centre
and then do a radial cut...repeat a few time and tape them together and then to a pencil.
It looks like it will work!

and too slow here too

Here`s a version of the chinese whirlygig method, its pretty much loads of bits of wood placed on a shaft to resemble a spiral staircase. Its towards the bottom of the page.

http://www.makezine.com/extras/60.html

That is what I would do.. but out of either the body of 40 gal drums or the panels from older car bodies (the metal seems soft enough to work as we used the stuff as teens to make amour - went through a med evil stage - don't ask )

Come on whats your plan with it .The ballarat trout fish farm has a large one sitting in the yard i dont know what they use it for , its about a foot dia and 12 ft long

...soon to find its way to the Sunbury tip

Ha Ha i would love to find a truck with a large hiab [would be good for lifting heavy things over fences]

a friend of mine was talking about them in regard to building a wind turbine

the plot thickens!

tell us more!

It would make a good water pump (pretty efficient) run by a windmill. One could have a float switch that turns the regular pump off when the windmill is pumping.

So, was the hatchery using it as a pescalator?