Vintage Windmill and Wind Generator Forum

Jim it should be visible from I10 it will be on the north west side of I10 and 71 if you want to come check it out just let me know.

Michael I’m not sure as I have heard this one can do a 700 ft well. I have good water at 130ft and another band at 630ft I was going to defer that decision to the well company as it will be a new well drilled for this windmill. Do you have any advice for depth or size. I don’t need a lot of water I just want it operating.

Welcome Overkill
Looking forward to see the pictures of the process of the rebuild and set up. That is one impressive sized windmill.

Overkill - I’m the dummy end of the tape measure more often than not, so my inquiry as to water well depth was generic. I know a 20’ can pump from a great depth. Someone on here smarter than me would have to answer your depth/size question.

I am interested in photos of your progress on the rebuild and install of the 20’ Samson.

Michael

Here are a couple of Samson pump tables from a Samson catalog. If you want to PM me your email I can send you the entire catalog. Lots of other useful info in it.

Mike I sent you the PM I have seen these charts but is it really true 12000 gallons per hour. Given that is max wind speed and a huge well but dang that’s a lot of water. Also I have seen these come in a-few different strokes so I’ll have to measure it once I return from Venezuela.

I'd call it a theoretical number. A 14" cylinder, 20" stroke, that's 13.4 gal/stroke at 15 strokes/min is 200 gal/min or 12,000 gal/hr but at less than 10psi. That's water park type flow rates but the starting torque on the mill would be huge. Obviously, you'll want a pretty small cylinder for your depth if you want flow in modest winds. Your stroke length is adjustable by moving the pitman rods to another hole in the driven gear. Now if you could adjust the stroke on the fly, that would be cool.

The 20 footer we are "restoring" was over a 530' well IIRC. Their issue was not the pumping but the wind. Cows get cranky if you have too many windless days and the water goes away so they scabbed in an engine powered pump jack for intermittent use. The same well is solar today.

Edit correction: 565 foot deep well.

Jake- how are you coming with the Samson?

Paul,

I just got back in country, my dad and I was able to take it apart and haul it all to my place this past Saturday the 14th. I will start my build thread soon. The tower was missing a few of the cable cams. Do you know where I could get some or should I have new ones machined.

Depends on what size they are, I may have some. Mine are off standard towers for 6 and 8 ft mills. A 20 footer tower may have larger ones and thicker cables? Not sure.

Take a measurement, and let me know how many you need.