Watermill

The watermill made with found sticks.

Josh holding the only tool we used.

We spent the afternoon at the river doing on location sculptures. It was good.



6 Responses to “Watermill”

  1. Dave Says:


    Visit Dave

    This was really fun to see - looks like a great day. Was this at the Ledges?

    How did you lash things together? Bark?

    You should go back and see if it’s still there. It would be really fun to stumble upon it and wonder who made it and why. Very cool.

  2. Gabe Says:


    Visit Gabe

    This is at a river east of Waukee. It took some 4 wheeling down a rutted out dirt road to get there. The place was pretty secluded and the current was strong. That is what gave me the idea.

    I was just kidding about only using the ax to make it. We actually had a screwgun and some 3″ screws that we used to attach everything together.

    The experiment was to see if it could be made with only found materials and I think it could, but the screws saved us about a days worth of work.

    Josh went back a couple of days later and it was still there. He said he had to make a few ajustments but got it working again. I might go and check it out tomorrow.

  3. Dave Says:


    Visit Dave

    That’s hilarious. I totally thought you made it with your bare hands and an axe.

    Did you bring a portable bandsaw to rip the planks for the blades? Ha!

    The idea of you two standing in the river with a cordless drill is pretty funny, too!

  4. Gabe Says:


    Visit Gabe

    The planks were actually split with the axe or ax.

  5. Colin D. Devroe Says:


    Visit Colin D. Devroe

    I guess the most difficult part, would be to actually use the energy produced in some way.

  6. Josh Says:


    Visit Josh

    I thought maybe we could attach and extend a main axle to the shore and power all of our saws…maybe just a grain mill then.