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Previous Posts

POST, April 17, 2008

All components of the station are complete and ready to be installed!

POST, January 14, 2008

The Water Power Station will prove to be both fun and entertaining for the littlest adventurers. The station, created by Mackinac State Historic Parks Exhibit Designer David Kronberg and sponsored by Presque Isle Electric and Gas Co-op, our local Touchstone Energy Cooperative, will provide a series of 18^th-century water wheel replicas in a playful and educational setting. Water will be drawn from Mill Creek pond, and visitors will decide how it will flow through the undershot, overshot, breast, flutter and tub wheels. The tub wheel is a replica of the 18^th-century wheel that powers the sawmill at Historic Mill Creek Discovery Park.

Once a rope is pulled by the inquisitive child (or adult!), water will dump over, under or to the side of the wheels, powering the wheel into action and then dumping into various buckets and troughs, which then cause gates to open or close and bells to ring.

With full-color explanatory panels, this station will engage the mind and senses. The display will be built on a deck that extends over Mill Creek pond, so the kids can see the larger sawmill working while they play with the replicas. A roof will keep them out of the sun while they play with water.

According to David, the project is right on schedule and set to be completed by season opening on May 5. The steel frame, fabricated by Bob Henning of the Mackinac State Historic Parks operations unit, is now complete and currently being primed and painted. Buckets and troughs will soon be hung from the frame.

David became aware of a new manufacturing process called ‘fused deposition stereo lithography’ that could be used to turn a 3D CAD (computer-aided design) drawing of a tub wheel into a working model. A company named Red Eye RPM (rapid prototyping and manufacturing) in Minnesota accomplished this with the tub wheel, which is made out of ABS plastic. All other wheel replicas were fabricated in-house by David, who also created the CAD drawing for the tub wheel. David turned the wheel hubs on a lathe, and he pressed the bronze sleeve bearings into the hub. All wheels run on stainless steel axles, and all were fabricated out of sheet goods.

Stay tuned for updates as the construction process continues.