Part of a feature on John McGeorge, a tinkerer, in the March 1977 Organic Gardening.

. . . Due in part to his unpredictable washing machine, McGeorge set out to design a lower power washing machine. First he acquired a 5-gallon plastic trash can for a couple of dollars. He then attached a sink plunger to a rubber cord, which in turn was attached to a fixed overhead object. He finally hooked up his washing machine to a bicycle.

[The photograph shows a bicycle anchored in the ground by some sort of metal frame, the back wheel removed and the front replaced by a drive wheel on the side of the fork where the wheel would usually fit. A rope is attached to one of the holes in the drive wheel and to the bottom of the can, so that as the wheel turns the rope pulls the trash can bacjkwards and forwards in a see-saw motion. The trash can is pivoted on a stand so that it can move when the rope pulls it. It's not clear how the plunger works. Text says the machine can also churn butter and might be modified to saw wood. I'm not at all mechanical but maybe one of you brainy types might be able to expound on the idea.]

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), April 26, 1999

Answers

I tried taking the mouse pointer over to the white area of the screen and moving it in a circular motion while trying to imagine the rest of the pieces in the puzzle. I could envision an old style locomotive wheel churning and the drive arm oscillating forth and back. All kinds of neat possibilities came pouring in. I could get a translucent working washer, block and tackle, irrigation pump, potters table, bellows, etc. Oddly it seems to work better counter-clockwise for me.

-- spun@lright (mikeymac@uswest.net), April 27, 1999.

I was thinking that a person would want to use two bikes and cut one down and use the crank as a cam. The one bike would be used to actually peddal and hook the chain up to the other bike crank (which is mounted) then tie a bungie cord - rope from the peddal stem to the bucket or whatever. This is to easy :o) I love it.

-- Brian (imager@ampsc.com), April 27, 1999.

Good! Y'all got sparked! More, more! Put your thinking caps on, let's see what you come up with, no matter how far-fetched. Promise not to flame anyone for something not quite feasible so that nobody will be afraid to put forth a weird idea--one that just might turn out to be a big help to us all.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), April 27, 1999.

re: the washing machine plunger.

forget having it move. keep it fixed and let the washer contents move _around_ it. the results should be the same.

-- j (sandpine@juno.com), April 27, 1999.

Here's a couple of in-process ideas I'm still brainstorming. MO-bility is a big criteria for for my designs. My future Nom_de_Plume will probility be MobileMike

First; Since the gas supplies are at risk, I have been thinking of alternate ways to recharge a 12v bank of batteries to supply a group of backup devices at home. I believe with a little work a person could use a defunct treadmill, a 10+ speed bicycle, a inverter (similiar to the design posted here a while back... less the gas engine) It would require attaching the 5 in. pulley to the roller on the tread mill, and detaching the motor assembly from the treadmill,(eliminating the drag). The bike would not have to be altered, so it would remain a source of transportation. I haven't gotten to the math on it yet but I think it will work to recharge the 12v battery bank. Suggestions welcome. Won't have much to do if the lights go out, so might as well stay in shape.

I'm also working at designing a large solar oven. So far, I am researching a plastic film source that will reflect enough sunlight and still be easily (dis)assembled. This will be attached (probably in strips) to 2 rings of 1" PVC pipe (very flexible), 1 large diameter ring and 1 small diameter, made from off the shelf PVC or CPVC pipe. The diameters can be entirely fluid, just add more PVC. In effect the dish will be more like an inverted cone, with the hole at the bottom to extend the tripod (not PVC) up through to the focal point. The oven is suspended from the tripod. Have not gotten around to investigating Fresnal (a type of reflector) yet. Like I said, still in infancy.

If you would like to get info on my takeoff on the solar dehydrator please see it at our new homepage, I'm kinda proud of it (the dehy). I am still working on getting a shematic to the webpage for the visual reference. But then for a construction guy, I've come a long way in a short time. Thanks.

{hope this works, first try at posting a link}

-- spun@lright (mikeymac@uswest.net), April 27, 1999.

Well the link to our homepage didn't work so until I get it figured out here it is in hands on form http://www.users.uswest.net/~fabio/index.htm

-- spun@lright (mikeymac@uswest.net), April 27, 1999.

Sloppy. Water all over the place. Especially if you are enthusiastic about riding or having clean cloths.

We bought one of the hand agitated "pressure washers" from Lehman's (just to see how the design worked). I'd say you could duplicate the same setup on a bit larger scale and rotate the 'drum' with the bike. Apparently the idea of keeping the pressure up inside the vessel increases the cleaning effeciency greatly (reduces wash time, soap and water usage).

How to do this? Well, you need to have a container with a 'band' about the middle (adjustable) which also has axles projecting to the sides. You would need to have a container which would have a lid which could be removable and resealable and able to take the load of a half full contents of water from the inside pressing down without leaking. One of the axles would be a bit longer and have a pulley wheel on it. The barrel would sit down on a small frame to allow it to rotate freely.

You would probably want to have a strainer into which the open barrel could be emptied (to release the water from the clothing. And if you were very cleaver (which I know you are because its always easier to work cleaver than to work hard) then you could have a shallow 'spinner' available to spin out the water before putting these items out on the cloths line.

Darn, it looks like I'll have another project to build.

-- David (C.D@I.N), April 27, 1999.

Of interest?

Here are plans to create a bike powered generator for charging NiCad batteries. http://home.inreach.com/bolson/bikegen.htm

I think one of the basic hand washing machine designs for the peace corps was fashioned after a rocking cradle. Come to think of it, the gold miners used to use a long tom, or rocking cradle to wash gold. There might also be some design info. for amateur engineers in the old gold miner's inventions. One that has potential is booming. (Holding back water in a stream, then letting er rip. Has a lot of power.) Using artificial fall of water in flumes to create massive water pressure - not suggesting we resurect monitors or "hydraulic giants" but the physical laws are the same. Really, it is worth looking into. Miners are amazing engineers.

-- marsh (armstrng@sisqtel.net), April 28, 1999.