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Check this one out! About 6 years ago, John Gerlach of the GMLTC had built a
fountain that actually pumped water using the technic pneumatic system. Well,
this captured the imagination of my then 8 year old son Ross, and he set his
mind to building one of his own. After going through several versions over the
years, he finally perfected his design last November, and here it is:
I won’t try and explain all of the issues he encountered along the way-- I’m
going to let him do that on his own. We tried to give a fair idea of how he
built it from the pictures we took. Basically, Ross used the large boat hull so
that the system wouldn’t leak; and the whole thing is powered by the new RC
motor that runs off of a 9 volt train transformer. A fun feature of the design
is his water level meter (that’s what the colored grill tiles are). The whole
fountain really runs great and is a terrific animation to add to the TCLTC
layout!
Enjoy!
JOHN
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In lugnet.announce.moc, John Neal wrote:
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Check this one out! About 6 years ago, John Gerlach of the GMLTC had built a
fountain that actually pumped water using the technic pneumatic system.
Well, this captured the imagination of my then 8 year old son Ross, and he
set his mind to building one of his own. After going through several
versions over the years, he finally perfected his design last November, and
here it is:
I won’t try and explain all of the issues he encountered along the way-- I’m
going to let him do that on his own. We tried to give a fair idea of how he
built it from the pictures we took. Basically, Ross used the large boat hull
so that the system wouldn’t leak; and the whole thing is powered by the new
RC motor that runs off of a 9 volt train transformer. A fun feature of the
design is his water level meter (that’s what the colored grill tiles are).
The whole fountain really runs great and is a terrific animation to add to
the TCLTC layout!
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That’s pretty neat! It will be interesting to see if there’s any deterioration
of the pneumatic pumps over time, especially the seals.
ROSCO
(added .technic)
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In lugnet.trains, Ross Crawford wrote:
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That’s pretty neat! It will be interesting to see if there’s any
deterioration of the pneumatic pumps over time, especially the seals.
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Is his system actually pumping water through the pistons, or is he using air
pressure from them to push water through tubes?
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In lugnet.trains, Jordan Bradford wrote:
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In lugnet.trains, Ross Crawford wrote:
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That’s pretty neat! It will be interesting to see if there’s any
deterioration of the pneumatic pumps over time, especially the seals.
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Is his system actually pumping water through the pistons, or is he using air
pressure from them to push water through tubes?
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It actually pumps the water. A large part of the design problem was getting the
system to pump an amount of water that wasn’t too much and wasn’t too little.
I’d have to say that the final result was a triumph of trial and error:-)
JOHN
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In lugnet.trains, John Neal wrote:
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In lugnet.trains, Jordan Bradford wrote:
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In lugnet.trains, Ross Crawford wrote:
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That’s pretty neat! It will be interesting to see if there’s any
deterioration of the pneumatic pumps over time, especially the seals.
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Is his system actually pumping water through the pistons, or is he using air
pressure from them to push water through tubes?
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It actually pumps the water. A large part of the design problem was getting
the system to pump an amount of water that wasn’t too much and wasn’t too
little. I’d have to say that the final result was a triumph of trial and
error:-)
JOHN
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I’m glad it uses only the pump cylinders, which means that if the water causes
the seals to fail over time it doesn’t impact any other components.
I tried to make a fire engine once, using the old pneumatic system with a
non-return valve and an old type pump cylinder. The valve input hose was in
water and the valve output hose squirted it out, with the pump cylinder on the
middle. Unfortunately it soon caused the valve to fail as the hydraulic
pressure was too much for the rubber parts inside.
It’s good that your fountain is three separate systems, with each pump cylinder
feeding two nozzles, so that if one cylinder failed during an exhibition you
still have enough to show the effect.
If, like me, you’ve bought lots of Backhoe Loaders on a 3 for 2 offer, it’s a
great way to use the surplus pump cylinders!
Mark
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