Water, water everywhere...where to get a drink?

I'm in the process of outlining my next book on procuring water for your homestead or home. We had a successful experience introducing this as a topic at the North Country Renewable Energy Fair held in Canton, NY last month. It will include the following chapters:

Chapter I. About water….Wells, springs, ground water, artesian supplies, dug wells, drilled wells, cisterns, rainwater, finding water (hydrology and water witching)

Chapter II. Well Buckets

Chapter III. Shallow Well Hand Pumps

Chapter IV. Deep Well Hand Pumps

Chapter V. Wind Powered Water Pumps

Chapter VI. Ram Pumps

Chapter VII. Rebuilding Old Style Piston Pumps

Chapter VIII. Solar Powered Water Pumping

Chapter IX. Hand Dug Wells

Chapter X. Rain Catchment and Cisterns

Chapter XI. Plumbing Basics

Chapter XII. Water Purification

This is all stuff I know about and have, for the most part, participated in. I helped out at the local historical society museum yesterday. They had 8 or 9 groups of 4th graders come through with an adult/teacher/chaperone to tour the museum. My job was to explain the tool collection they have in their basement. I had fun creating a 20 minute story with them about the tools and how they would have been used if we could have transported ourselves back in time 150 years. I let the kids take on the roles of children in a large family coming to our area and settling down and building a farm. We used our imaginations to figure out how the tools would have been used by almost everybody in 'our' family to help clear the land, build the buildings, plant, care for harvest and process the crops, take care of livestock, get water, keep warm, fix or build equipment, etc.

The museum had a working pitcher pump in the kitchen and a rainwater cistern in the basement. The kids and adults, by and large, had no idea how the water systems worked in those days, let alone, right now! There is a need for this kind of information. Please feel free to e-mail me with your questions, ideas and suggestions about this book. jsjuczak@gisco.net

The pump plans and kits are just waiting for you! Feel free to order them and my book on scrounging so I can continue my endeavors in creating a self-reliance campus for our surrounding community and for those that make the trip for a visit.

Have a great day! -Jim-

Woodhenge Deep Well PVC Hand Pump Kits Available

The PVC Version of my deep well hand pump kit is available. The cost is $250 + postage, I will know the exact cost of the postage by the end of the week. I'm sending Sharon Astyk a kit to do
a 'test run' with her son. I will publish their opinion of the kit and instructions as they complete and test it. My wife already 'red penned' the first version of the plans and version #2 has been updated and printed...always marry someone smarter than yourself!

The Stainless steel and brass version of the pump kit will be available shortly. The cost for that kit will be $400 + postage. Both kits will include a modified cast iron pitcher pump and all parts except for the drop pipe and cable. I don't include those items because they are commonly available, too bulky to ship and I don't know the depth of your well. All of the machining has been done for you. All the buyer has to do is assemble, install and adjust the pump.

I tend to forget that not everybody is a shop teacher/tinkerer and my wife pointed out that it isn't common knowledge for designing, building and operating a router fixture for cutting o-ring grooves, for example. Sorry about that...

Everything is growing around here. We put in over 1400 seedlings this pans long holiday weekend and other than trusting a kid worker to do a good job all went well...tomato plants and other seedlings don't tend to grow well if you simply drop them on top of the ground and cover them with old hay...it took a couple of hours to redig the holes and bury them to the right depth...I'm still grumbling about the 'mistake' under my breath...I thought they planted things a bit quickly; the drooping leaves and stems were my first clue.

While the kid workers weren't planting I was installing a solar powered pump into my well for watering the plants. I finished hooking up everything yesterday, just as it got so cloudy that there wasn't enough sun to run the pump for a test run. The theory is sound though; whenever the sun shines the pump pumps water into two 275 gallon containers and all we have to do is turn valves on to the row of crops we want to drip irrigate. I also added filters and a place to get water for spot watering and washing up. There will be 3000' of drip irrigated vegetables when all is said and done.

I'm going camping this coming weekend to my favorite island in the middle of an Adirondack lake. I'm leaving directions on how to install 6' fencing on the 10' poles. We're adding wire above the fencing with tell-tails to discourage the deer...it will look like a WWII German POW camp whe it is all done.

Enjoy the rain! I know my trees and plants are cheering it on!

To my two first PUMP PLANS customers

Hi;

My apologies, I just finished up the final directions and photographs. I've been waiting for the price quotes...apparently some stores are so busy that they don't have time or interest in selling bulk amounts of plumbing supplies and fasteners to a potential steady customer. Note the sarcasm there. Really, the plans will be out in the mail first thing tomorrow!

We just got somewhere close to 3000 seedling plants for our farm- it will be a busy Memorial weekend planting them all! I wanted to make the trasition from teacher to farmer and it looks like I'm doing it in a big way. If we sell all of the vegetables I'll be very happy! Heck, if they all
grow well with our new drip irrigation system I'll be happy.

Have a great day! -Jim-

Some background on me and what we're doing.

Hi ALl;

I've included the body of an e-mail I just sent to someone that is interested in printing additional copies of wmy scrounging book and printing my pump plans. He's also interested in promoting them on Amazon and Natural Builder's sites! Yahoo! I need the confidence to 'cut the cord' from my old teaching job and this might be the motivation to just that.


I wanted to keep the book an 'easy reader', but am very willing to take suggestions and make
corrections. My in-laws just returned my 'gift' copy with a couple of hundred suggestions for
improving the consistency, spelling, grammar, syntax, format, pagination, etc.,
(both are retired teachers) and if it improves the clarity of the book I'm all for it! Your suggestions
would also be helpful and welcomed. I would like to have some broader advertisement for the
book and if you are willing to do the fronting to amazon, etc. I'm sure we can work a deal.
Back Home Magazine just sent me a contract for an article I wrote called "The King of Scrounge",
Richard Freucenberger is one of their main editors and he's trying to review the book and sell it
to Chelsea Green or New Society....he's had a rougher version for over a year now, which is why
I self published.

I'm trying to get outy of the public school teaching business and books and articles areis one of the
ways I'm beginning to make this transition. I have outlines and more for a dozen books and several dozen
articles. Most of them are on self-reliance topics. We do practice what we preach. Our home is self
built (along with three other homes on the property), our intentional community is off-the-grid, and we're
at around the 40%-50% mark for producing our own food. We've expanded from a really big garden
to a small farm (orchard and 1600' of drip irrigation went in this past Spring). I'm beginning to be 'heard of'
with my lectures, writings, appearance on the Science Channel's "Invention Nation" show on home made
wind turbines and articles in the newspapers (check out "The King of Scrounge" article in the on-line
version of the Syracuse Post-Sandard October 10, 2008), radio interviews, etc. My friend, Rob Roy,
warned me about the need to self advertise to get the ball rolling on this kind of home business.... indicated
that I'd have to hit a certain level before my programs became self supporting and an entity unto themselves.
It feels like I'm getting clost to that point. Time will tell.

Thanks for reading my rants! Have a great day! -Jim-

Disclaimer about my pump design

Hi to all;

Thank you for the comments (2) over the past week. I will take your advice about e-bay, paypal, and e-publishing under consideration.

I was building the fixture for routing the o-ring groove in the piston and realized that this is a dangerous process. For the fixture I used and explain in the plans entails using the router clamped upside down into a bench vise and using your hands within inches of a rapidly spinning carbide cutter. I want to formally state that anybody building this pump from scratch does so at their own risk. I take no responsibility for any injuries to your person, home, family members, friends, pets and the world in general from the use of information provided in my plans sets.

The quality of the water from your well provided by this pump should also be evaluated before consumption. I'm not doing this project out of the pure need for fiscal compensation and am willing to listen to your comments and advice. We're in for a world of difficult and interesting changes and the knowledge that must be accrued before electronic media are not commonly available is almost insurmountable. We're running as fast as we can.

I don't remember the exact quote by Robery Heinlein about "A man should be able to: shoe a horse, deliver a baby, plant and harvest a field of crops....." I'll try to look it up, but 99% of the people I know wouldn't knew where to start on even the basic skills. Remember I know a lot of very practical people!

Thanks for listening. -Jim-

Paypal and e-books

I find that I am actually enjoying the blogging experience. I hope it continues to be a pleasant experience. Another customer wrote an e-mail that will affect how I operate the plan and kit business. My reply is included below. Please continue to send me questions and ideas at my personal e-mail (jsjuczak@gisco.net), I really appreciate your interest! -Jim-

PS I'm a real Dave Ramsey-Financial Peace University fan and graduate!

Dear CVBB;

I have a friend that offered to do e-books and take paypal for me, but I am against
credit cards and all they stand for. This leaves me in a philosophical quandry...
do I go for the money, which we need or to I hold to my principles? So far the
principles are winning out. The same with the e-book, I'm not anti-technology, but a delivered-
by-the-post-office-honest-to-god-paper-copy will weather an EMP or hard drive
crash and be useful for years...that is why I'm doing things the way I'm doing them for
now.

Thanks for your order. Have a great day! -Jim-

Some pump information and background

One of my potential customers wrote with several questions about depth of well, PVC contamination, longevity, working capacity and related topics. I got done with my letter back to him and realized that there were some good points that would be helpful to anybody. My goals are both personal and altruistic(sp?). I AM worried about the survival of future generations, especially because we do not teach basic principles of the mechanical world around us and, by and large, don't care. Availability of potable water is one of the big underlying crises that will significantly affect quality of life in the future...it may even have bigger implications than a dramatic reduction in fossil fuels.

If I was independently wealthy I would be giving the pump design away, I'm not even close to that. I haven't worked for a steady paycheck in a year and thanks to my wife we've made it with a bit of room to spare. My lectures pay, my writing is beginning to pay, even the farm is beginning to pay us back, but there is a lot of infrastructure in our intentional community that sales of the pump plans and pump kits will provide.

Again, it is for us, but to have working examples of self-sustaining technologies (permaculture, renewable energy, etc.) for our greatter area is a significant goal for us. The "it is too bad I didn't listen to my grandfather when he was making this or fixing that" or "how come they didn't write down how to do that?" mentality is our greatest problem.

I have the sketches and math figured out for the design of the wind mill that could be attached to my pump design. It can be fabricated out of locally available sprockets, chains. metal, and wood and bearings. This would be of great benefit where more than an individual family needed the water from a hand operated pump; for example livestock. Time and funds are my two biggest enemies. Please keep your questions coming! The plans are on schedule...sending some cash or checks my way would greatly encourage me! My contact information is in previous postings. Thanks, -Jim-

Dear !@#$;

I'm not sure as to the maximum depth that the pump will pull from, but it should easily pump from 200'.
The real problem is the static depth of water in a well...you could have a 500' deep well, and have no problem
pumping from it if the static depth was only 50'. The weight of the water in the column 'pushes' the water
from the bottom of the pump to the static level.

The second feature that I'm including in the plans is a simple diameter of draw pipe to weight of water per
foot of pipe chart. We (my students and I) experimented with a variety of draw pipe diameters from 1 1/2"
all the way down to 1/2" (I don't recommend 1/2"). There is a slight difference
between the volume pumped per stroke between the diameters, but less than we suspected. The cylinder/piston
in the lower works pumps about the same volume of water per stroke regardless of the draw pipe diameter, however
friction inside smaller diameter pipes is greater and slows the velocity of the rising water. This drag would make the
work of pushing the pump handle down harder with smaller diameter pipes and increase the velocity of the water
coming up the draw pipe. An expansion chamber might be necessary to stop the water from squirting out of the top
of the pump. This would consist of a few feet of 1 1/4" diameter pipe connected from the narrow draw pipe to
the base of the pump.

I agree that there may be a problem with PVC pipe and contamination of the water...but think the problem of dehydration
might be greater. I highly recommend a filter that can remove contaminants before consuming the water from the well
anyway. I'm recommending a cover over the top of the pump to stop airborn contaminants from entering the well when the
pump isn't in use. It isn't perfect, yet, but I'm trying to get this device to the masses at a reasonable price and make the
technology understandable. I tell my college students(I teach adult ed. courses on renewable energy topics at the
local community college) that if, at the end of my class, they say "that's all there is to that?" then
I did my job. I don't think there are many people out ther that understand how the water they are using every day gets to
the tap they drew it from.

I mentioned on my website that there is a stainless steel and brass version of the pump. This was actually the first one I
prototyped. Because the parts were so much more costly I chose to put my efforts into the less expensive version
first. The stainless steel and brass version uses a brass foot valve, an 18" piece of 2" diameter stainless steel pipe
and all stainless fittings. I'd recommend a galvanized water pipe for the draw pipe in this case. The piston is made
by turning the diameter of a 1 1/4" brass check valve down to a 'running and sliding' fit inside the 2" stainless pipe.
The prototype needed no o-rings and will last a really long time...I'm guessing years of daily use before it wears
out significantly.

I hope this clears things up. Have a great day! -Jim-

The pump building from scratch is a bit harder than most think

Hi to the plan buyers! I'm going through the fabrication process for the 5th time on a home made deep well hand pump and want to warn those of you that don't have much mechanical and general machine operation skills that this might be more than you want ot bite off for a first time project. You will need to be pretty proficient at cutting steel pipe, running a drill press, cutting and assembling PVC pipe and pipe fittings and a lot of related topics.

My wife reminded me that I tend to forget that others don't have a big range of materials processing background and that I should encourage you all to buy the kit(s). Okay, here's the deal: if you order the plans set and after reading them through decide that finding all of the parts and then doing the machining necessary to build the pump isn't for you, BUT you still want a deep well hand pump I will knock off the $20 you spent on the plans from the price of the kit(s).
The kit will be simple by comparison to assemble with only a little wrench and glue work.

Thanks for reading along. Keep the questions coming to jsjuczak@gisco.net.

All for now. -Jim-

Pump plans available for shipping this Friday!

The Woodhenge PVC deep well hand pump plans set is still on schedule!.. I expect to be going to our local Staples this Friday to run off the first sets for those of you that are interested. The cost will be $20 and includes postage in the US. I'm asking now that if you receive a plans set and find anything from spelling errors to technically unclear sections to please contact me with your findings. I'll come up with some kind of fun reward for your work. I really don't want to do the paypal routine and for now will only accept checks or cash. I have a friend that knows about doing the downloadable book copy thing, but I'm not so sure about that. One EMP or a hard drive crash and it is all gone. I like durable copies of stuff. Maybe I'll be convinced to change my attitude later, but for now I am keeping it simple. The plans set will only include the instructions for the PVC version of the pump. The plans for the stainless steel and brass version will be published at a later date.

You can send payments to me at:

James S. Juczak
14910 Fuller Rd.
Adams Center, NY 13606

Thanks again, -Jim-

More questions and answers about the deep well hand pump

I just copied the following from the article I'm writing on deep well hand pumps. It should give you a good start on determining if this kind of pump will work for you. Thanks for reading on.
-Jim-

Introduction: At first I didn’t think that the pump I built for our family was all that special. It was a matter of adapting a few pieces of commonly available parts and a bit of simple machine work. However, it all has to do with my background. I grew up in a hands-on kind of family and selected many of my early jobs based upon both paying for school and what I could learn. Developing the ability to look at a problem and coming up with a series of solutions and then being able to test and refine those results is, I’m discovering, a rare trait. Teaching middle and high school shop classes has helped hone this skill in me.

The problems that we as a nation are going to face in the next decade could, if confronted with their raw implications, make one run screaming into the night. My wife tries to be the voice of reason here; she believes that the effects of energy shortages and economic woes will happen slowly and give people a chance to band together to find solutions that meet everyday survival needs. We hope and pray that she is right.

The deep well hand pump plan and kit set is my answer to the basic need for potable water in a situation where electrically pumped water is not available. With all of the required things that are taught in school and the life of decadent luxury that we’ve become accustomed to we, as a societal group have by and large, forgotten some of the common and simple principles upon which the mechanical world around us is based.


If you can see the water in your drilled well it is a sure bet that it is close to the surface. In this case the water is only 8’ down the encased portion of the well. This is the Spring high water level.

The assumption here is that you possess the skill sets of a handy 12-year-old in one of my middle school technology classes, as this was the think tank and testing facility for my initial pump ideas. I took the past year off from teaching to write, design, lecture and start our farm and the pump was one of the things I worked on refining during that time. It has undergone several evolutions and continues to evolve.

My initial designs on anything are typically overcomplicated. Distilling the deep well hand pump into the simplest and easiest machine has been a rewarding task. I hope that you, the builder, will contact me if you come up with better solution for its construction, so that others may benefit. The profit earned from selling the plans and kits are going to be used to build our intentional community’s infrastructure and prepare our greater area community for more self-reliance by examples that can be easily taught or observed.


My daughter, Lisa is posing in front of most of the major deep well hand pump components. She is 12 years old, in 6th grade and has the technical ability to assemble the pump!

First things first: Do you need my pump? Will a simple pitcher pump that is available in hardware stores and farm supply stores around where I live for around $60 work for you instead? There are several things you have to know before you install any kind of pump into any well. If the static level of your well is close to ground level; up to 28’ (give or take a few feet) deep, then just buy a pitcher pump, a few lengths of 1 1/14” PVC pipe, some fittings, a foot valve (a check valve that goes on the bottom end of the draw pipe) and a well cap that you can drill out for the draw pipe and bolts to attach the pump. Drop the whole thing into your well and pump away. You’d have water in a pinch for around $100 and a couple hours worth of easy work. The laws of physics determine the maximum depth that you can suck water out of a well. The maximum depth, at sea level, that you can pull water up is 32 feet under perfect conditions. It decreases with an increase in elevation. I’ve derated this to 28 feet, even if the seals in the pitcher type suction pump are nearly perfectly tight..

Here’s Craig demonstrating the freshly installed deep well hand pump. The rescue rope hasn’t been attached to the eye-bolt at this point.

1) How deep is the lowest static level of your well? This is where the water and air meet in the well hole. I use a really complicated method for determining this. After removing well cap, tie a piece of string to the end of an adjustable wrench, lower the string until you hear it hit the water. Tie a knot in the string where it comes out of the well. Remove the string and measure it from knot to wrench. This level will vary from time of year and seasonal water table level. Ideally, you should measure your static water level in the driest part of the year. I’m pretty sure that my pump will work easily to depths of 150’ with static levels of up to 100’. I will suggest some techniques that can be tried to alter the design for deeper wells and lower static levels in the construction portion of these plans. Please write, e-mail or call me if you try them and whether they are successful or not.

2) How deep is your well? You could use the same technique as above for determining the depth of your well, if you don’t know it. Just lower the wrench until the string goes slack. A little care is needed here to assure you don’t entangle the string and wrench with an in well electric pump.

3) What is the recovery rate of your well? The easiest way to determine this is to call up a local well driller and ask what they’ve gotten as recovery rates for wells that have been drilled in your area. The same string and weight method could be used if you don’t have success with the driller. Layout several 5 gallon buckets near where you have a hose attached to the house. Measure the static height of the water before anybody has used water in the house for a couple of hours. Turn on the hose and fill 4 or 5 buckets completely full of water. Measure the static level of the well immediately after the last bucket is filled and continue to measure the levels in one minute intervals until the well’ static level reaches the original height. Add and divide to calculate the recovery rate in gallons per minute. As a simple rule of thumb a 6” well holds around a gallon per foot. There will be a bit more science discussed in the math and calculations part of the plans/instructions section of this manual.

4) What is the frost depth of your area? Call the USDA or your Cooperative Extension offices in your county or parish. This will determine if you need some kind of drain-back device on your upper works to prevent freezing and subsequent cracking of pipes and other parts.

The pump can be divided into two distinct parts; I’ve called them the “Upper Works” and the “Lower Works”. The upper works consists of a ‘standard pitcher pump’, cast iron or cast aluminum well pipe cap and some fittings and fasteners. The lower works are made from two check valves, one moving and one fixed and a bunch of standard plumbing fittings its design is based upon the same principles that the in well section of an old fashioned wind powered water pump. The upper works and lower works are connected to each other by the draw pipe and pump cable. The addition of a safety rope is recommended.

The unique features of the pump include the fact that instead of using a solid 3/8” stainless steel rod to connect the upper works to the lower works the design uses a wire rope and return spring. This saves on weight and simplifies the assembly. The upper works pitcher pump requires a little bit of disassembly and some simple machining.

Ordering and information about the deep well hand pump

Hi

We've gotten quite a response to Sharon Astyk's blog about the book and pump. If you e-mail me you will probably get a variation of what follows this note. I ask your patience..things are happening quickly and I still have the farm work to do between other chores. Look at the other recent blog pages in this website.

Thank you in advance for understanding. -Jim-


I've updated my website recently to include some things that you should know about your well before investing in the
deep well hand pump plans or kit. Go to www.woodhenge.org and do a bit of reading. It will either make me a little
money or save you some. I describe how to find the static level of your well in one of the recent blogs and that is
what you are looking to find out. I will have the tables to change the drop pipe diameter to keep the weighting/leverage
needed to raise water with an easy stroke with my pump. Parts for my pump won't be much more than $150 and most of them
are available at a hardware store or plumbing supply place. I will supply the addresses and part numbers of the harder to get things
like the stainless steel spring and carbied tipped round nosed router cutter bit for the o-ring groove..

I'm waiting for discounted quantity costs on parts from several local suppliers so I can offer a kit to people interested in building a
deep well hand pump with all of the parts machined for the buyer. There will also be a stainless steel and brass version of the kit
for greater longevity and resistance to corrosive water.

Plans for the PVC and stainless steel pump will be available by the end of this week.

Kits for the PVC pump version will be available by the end of this month (May). Stainless and brass kits
will be available by the end of June. There is the possibility of an abbreviated kit that only contains the
hard to get parts and the parts that need some machining; this will allow the buyer to find the
off-the shelf parts on their own, but be able to afford the pump as parts cna be purchased.

Don't hold me to it, but a parts kit for the PVC pump should be around $250 (this wouldn't include the drop pipe
and 1/8"Stainless steel wire rope, because the pipe is too bulky and I don't know the depth of every customer's
well).

The stainless/brass version would be around $400. Just the spring and grooved piston/check valve for the PVC
version wold be around $50 and for the machined brass piston/check valve, 2" stainless steel cylinder and
stainless steel spring around $150. These are close estimates, but as I said I'm waiting for quantity breaks for prices.

The pump plans will cost $20 including postage. and I accept cash or check sent to (I'm working on a paypal account,
but philosophically don't like credit cards!):

James S. Juczak
14910 Fuller Rd.
Adams Center, NY 13606

My book, "The High Art and Subtle Science of Scrounging" is available for $20 plus $5 postage (the prepaid
mailers cost me $4.95 at the post office). Payment and address are the same as above.

Thank you very much for your interest. -Jim-

Information you'll need to know about your well

Hi;

I've already gotten several inquiries from people about the deep well hand pump. I was remiss in not telling the readers about what they have to know about thier well/water supply to see if my densign will fit the well. First off the lower works of the pump are around 2 1/2" in diameter. Secondly you will have to know the the diameter of your well pipe/hole. Most drilled wells are 6" or 8" in diameter (at least around here- most seem to be 6" in diameter). Roughly you have about a gallon of water per foot of well depth as your 'in ground reserve'. You should be aware of your lowest "static" water level: this is the depth that the water and air meet. The well I have the hand pump in varies from 8' below grade (ground level) and 50' below grade. You should know your "well's rate of recovery". We're happy around here to get 3 to 5 gallons per minute. Many wells get a lot more than that. The hand pump is good for pumping around 2 gallons per minute, so I will not, in theory, run my well dry. The speed testing was done by a hyperactive 9 year old. I'm working on a simple way of frost protecting the well lines and pump. The easiest way of doing that is to drill a hole (a small one- 3/32" is where I'm going to start) around 5' down the drop pipe. This will allow the water in the upper works of the pump and first
few feet of the drop pipe to drain back to below the freeze level in your area.

Keep the questions coming to jsjuczak@gisco.net. Thanks, -Jim-

Farming, writing and water pumps at Woodhenge

Okay, there are lots of events happening in my life. If my blogs seem a bit disjointed, please forgive me.

Our farm is growing. We just finished planting 160 fruit trees and berry bushes. These were supplied by St. Lawrence Nurseries in Potsdam, NY. They specialize in heirloom, and nativized plantings for zone 3! A high quality and interesting supplier. We're in the process of laying ot 3000' of drip irrigated truck farm crops for retail in our area. The water is supplied by solar powered pump from a well we had drilled in the ag. field last year. We're also developing a CSA with an on site commercial kitchen for canning and otherwise preserving our produce. I'm also working with another local farmer (certified natural meats) on producing a pilot for a show we're calling "Crude Food", on how food is grown, preserved and used. Keeping it simple and fun...Kind of a "Red Green Show for food.

My book is out, The High Art and Subtle Science of Scrounging is available for $20 plus $5 postage and handling. It covers a lot of territory on how to get life's basic needs for little to no cost. Housing, transportation, food, kids and money, bartering and trading ethics and a lot more
are some of the topics.

The deep well pump plan sets and kits will be available for purchase shortly. e-mail me at jsjuczak@gisco.net for further information on any of the above.

Deep well hand pump revealed!

This is my daughter, Lisa (the one without the hat!) posing with the basic components of a deep well hand pump (unmodified at this point). Craig (a part-time Woodhenge member) is in the other photo showing the pump at work. Because of the constraints of using off-the-shelf components and wanting to keep the effort (how hard you have to push) light the pump delivers around 1 cup of water per stroke).

The section Lisa is in front of is the 1" PVC drop pipe that can be pretty much any reasonable length. I have our 'test' pump in a drilled well with 90' of 1" pipe. The length shown in the picture is just to give a sense of proportion with the rest of the components.

The unique features of this pump include: the 'off-the-shelf' pitcher pump that is gutted and modified to make the upper works of the pump, the use of a stainless steel spring and stainless steel wire rope/cable instead of a rod to activate the piston in the lower portion of the pump, the modification of a foot valve/check valve to accept o-rings to seal against the lower cylinder and the fact that almost all of the components can be purchased at a hardware store.

I am paranoid about problems that will cause a societal breakdown and the resultant infrastructure breakdown and securing a good supply of potable water should be very high on anybody's list!

The drop pipe could easily be 1 1/4" if the depth of the lower end of the pump is fairly shallow. I include a weight of water per foot of depth chart to calculate pipe diameter for your application with the pump plans set.

Pump plans will be ready for delivery shortly. They will be $20 a set including postage. The plans will also include details on how to upgrade the lower end of the pump to stainless steel and brass. The stainless and brass version can be fabricated so precisely that it doesn't need the o-rings!

Shortly after the plans sets are available there will be pump kit sets available. I don't have all of the pricing back from my suppliers at this point, so the estimates are rough. The PVC version deep well hand pump kit will include everything except the drop pipe (150' of 1/8" stainless steel cable will be included). I'm estimating the kit will cost around $250 including shipping. The stainless steel and brass lower end will add around $200 to the kit price. A possibility of just supplying the machined parts for the kits is also in the works for those that might have a lot of the parts on hand and/or can get them cheaper in their locale.

Contact me at jsjuczak@ gisco.net for further information.

We're finally back to updating our Website

Hi to all of you interested in my book, lectures and deep well hand pump project. I've had the past year off from my normal job as a middle school shop teacher and used it to recover from the fire and to explore a lot of different possibilities.

As a result of this effort I have finished my book: The High Art and Subtle Science of Scrounging. The cost is $20 + $5 postage if you want a copy mailed to you. (The prepaid mailers from the post office cost me $4.95). Send a check for the amount to J.S. Juczak at 14910 Fuller Rd. Adams Center, NY 13606

We're just gearing up (pun intended) to produce plan sets and instructions for building a deep well hand pump out of mostly available common components. Kits for building them will be available shortly. Plans sets will cost $15 plus postage. PVC Pump kits will be around $250 and Stainless steel/brass kits will be in the neighborhood of $450. e-mail me at jsjsuczk@gisco.net for further information.

Please contact me for further information on the pump. I will be posting pictures shortly that show the components and assemblies for the PVC Pump.


Thank you for your patience! -Jim-