Heya

So this is just a bitch post so just let me vent a bit here:

First off been having a leak somewhere in my penstock thats pulling in
air. Not enough to break the siphon, but after a few days the ol hydro
just slows down and eventually I lose prime. Have to reprime and get her
going again. I looked and LOOKED for a reason. Went and used that epoxy
putty on every joint and still woudldn't fix it.

Finally I found it.. that fucking local yearling bear bit the line and
put a tooth sized hole that didn't even leak .. just when the suction was
on it would allow a little air in the line..

Then I was up messing around the other day and saw him moving off up the
hill. I had my 30-30 so I thought i'm going to get him. I followed that
damn bear for about a mile through the reprod -- him crashing around
maybe 30 feet from me at times but its so damn thick up there I could
never get a shot. Then it was getting dark and I kept stepping in bear
shit .. he's got a nice little spot up there with 10-12 foot reprod and
hucklberry bushes.. trails and hollows everywhere. Little lucky bugger.
So he gets to live for now.

So I fixed that leak .. great. We're good for a while.. Then we get the
big rain.

Intake Bitch:

I had built a pretty bitchen water intake on this little stream thats
worked great all summer and though the first rains without even a hickup.
Then it got put to the test. Got maybe 9 inches of rain in 12 hours and
so much silt and crap came down it got all fubared. Didn't matter till
later today when all the excess water was used up and I drained my pond
pretty good with the hydro. I go up there and the whole thing is washed
out. I setup a half-assed system that'll work for a day or two but
clearly I need to redesign the intake on that little stream.

Its hard, because you need a method to get water into a pipe that can
take water about ankle deap and also take water thats nearly kyakable.
Its also in the serious boonies so you don't want to have to haul
concrete up there or whatnot.. its steep and basically jungle.

I've been looking at using a wedgewire screen to make a reliable intake
system. Ain't easy stuff to get, wedgewire screens. I actually ordered
one last year from realgoods.com -- they suck -- never came, eventually
got told that the price was more. Talked to the actual makers of the
thing but never got anywhere (http://www.hydroscreen.com/). If you
search for it you'll find plenty of big outfits and some chinese
companies that produce that screen but its not something you can just
order. I just want a small chunk .. maybe 2 feet by 2 feet or something.

Anyone ever seen a plastic version of wedgwire screen?

Apparently a well designed screen makes use of the Coanda effect (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coanda_effect ) " is the tendency of a fluid
jet to stay attached to an adjacent curved surface that is very well
shaped ." Such that water moving accross the screen is drawn through the
screen at a much greater rate than would otherwise be possible given the
gap between the wires. This lets the larger particles (leaves, sticks,
silt) to flow along the screen while it sucks only the water through (to
a degree, given the gap size).

But its not easy stuff to come accross .. and having someone make you a
stainless steel one isn't cheap at all. So still hunting me one of those
magic screens but not lay out a grand for it.

Nozzle Bitch:

So i'm getting ready to move to a two inch penstock and in anticipation
of that i'm trying to get some new nozzles to play with given the higher
flow i'll be getting soon. So can you just go out and buy hydro nozzles?
Hell no! What a pain in the ass.

I thought I scored. I ordered six harris hydo-electric nozzles that the
lady on the phone assured me were the plastic variety -- you are supposed
to be able to cut them to the size you want. I thought cool. I can just
try different sizes till I hit the sweet spot and then maybe get some
brass ones the same size.

What showes up? Six brass harris nozzles with no holes drilled in them
at all. Thats OK I thought.. they were cheap and the brass is what I
wanted to use eventually .. i'll just bore them out small and move up in
size till I get the best effect.

So do you think harris nozzles use any known thread? Hell no! You can't
just go to the hardware store and find any kind of normal pipe or adapter
that will allow you to screw those things in to the existing system..
Grrr.. so now I gotta machine an adapter or find out what kind of screwy
thread they use..

I might just rethread them .. but could it be as easy as finding a NORMAL
pipe and using them? hell no.

so lets see.. I think that about covers my bitching rants.

The turbine has been turning like a champ -- its finally well broken in
and I couldn't be happier with the design and performance.. now if I
could just solve these damn plumbing problems I'd be loving life.

Hope to be making bear jerky here one of these days too.

-zachary