Page 309 - The Lost Ways

Typically, a small pond is dug where the water wheel is, with a canal to take the water
downstream for other uses. If you don’t have any direct need for that water, it should be
channeled into a stream, river, or pond downhill of the mill. Plan for that so that the water
is not wasted.

The easiest way to build a water wheel today is to use actual buckets that are attached to
the wheel rather than forming the buckets as part of the wheel. There are several ways
of accomplishing this, but basically what you want to do is to build a structure and then
attach the buckets to it. Make sure that you have good bearings for the axle and that the

axle is strong and stiff enough to support the weight of the water-laden wheel.

These are two modern water wheels made by others (sorry, I didn’t do it), both of which
are being used to produce electrical power. The one on the left is producing 1500 watts

by using about 1,000 gallons of water per hour. That may sound like a lot of water, but if
you have a stream available, that’s not really an issue.

308