How to Make a Rope Washer Pump
- 1). Tie a knot 3 inches from the end of an 18-foot long nylon rope and feed a 2 1/4-inch washer onto the rope until it sits on the knot.
- 2). Tie more knots into the rope, adding a washer to each knot, at one-foot intervals. Continue this process until the entire rope is full of washers and knots at one-foot intervals.
- 3). Feed the rope into an 8-foot long, 2 1/2-inch PVC pipe until it is coming out both ends. Tie the rope together at the ends.
- 4). Pound two 3-foot long, 2-by-4 boards into the ground, 2 feet from each other, 1 foot into the ground, so that the rope will come between them. Drill a hole 1-inch from the top of the boards on both boards. The holes do not have to be perfectly symmetrical as they are simply holding the pulley wheel.
- 5). Position the PVC pipe into the water. Set the pulley wheel at the top of the pipe with the rope in the wheel's groove.
- 6). Place a 3-foot bar through the hole of one 2-by-4. Attach the bar to the pulley wheel by tightening the screw clamp in the middle of the pulley wheel securely to the bar. This clamp is tightened by twisting until the screw clamp closes tightly around the bar. Push the bar through the hole of the other 2-by-4 board.
- 7). Begin the pump by turning the pulley wheel and catch the water as it falls out of the pump in one of two 10-gallon buckets. When the first bucket is nearing full, remove it and place the second bucket in its place. This is a rope and washer pump.