See Homeless Dave’s Nov. 28 entry here. The author deployed the tub from an old washing machine to spin the water out of wet clothes by means of pedal power.
Dave writes that he’ll post specifics regarding construction of the laundry spinner soon :-).
SO looking forward to the details. I’m handy with tools, but the design thing I need help with. I’ve got the bike… I got a handwringer and NEW old tyme tin washing plunger thing yesterday from Wisemen Trading and Supply (wisementrading.com) that are the best prices I had seen anywhere. Planning to have no power for way too long, with 10 people on a farm. Hand washing is anticipated to be very labor intensive and I can use all the help possible.
LEG - The wringers from wisementrading.com look good. I remember my grandmother’s wringer washer very well - wish it were still around.
I’m eager to read those directions for the laundry spinner, too. Cinda mentioned using a salad spinner, but I can’t picture that working for as much laundry as I would have to do.
Inky
Neither can I- for a real wash- like jeans and such, but it worked for t’-shirts, socks and undies!!! The salad spinner I have is fairly small- maybe 10 inches across and very flimsy.It was 1.99 oe so a few years ago. I’ve seen larger ones, but not much larger- but definately less flimsy. I’ll be interested in seeing the plans for the full size spinner.
Cinda - I wish they made a big one out of stainless steel! The salad spinner concept is smart - we just need a heavy duty, large capacity version, which seems to be what Dave has concocted.
If this would work to spin clothes, why can`t one rig up something to agitate them,too? Would make washing clothes much easier.
“Real Goods” catalog (and I suppose website but I’ve never gone there) has or used to have a small plastic washing machine turned by a crank. If as described, said it squoze them out pretty good, but didn’t hold much. Actually I’ve seen two versions, one said it would wash 5# of clothes. I desperately want one. I’ve spend years (not right now) washing clothes by hand in every conceivable way save smashing them on rocks in a stream: buckets, washtub, brush, washboard, etc. I don’t want to do it again; it’s the wringing out.
Actually most hand methods do get them very clean - stomping in a bathtub worked very well.
Is this sidescroll, mod? Getting a bit long on the side. (I’m Be Well)
on eBay there is a Canadian vendor selling old fashioned wringer moppails with 2 rollers in them for under $20.
I have some experience with the “old tyme tin washing plunger thing” mentioned by LEG above and it’s pretty astonishing.
The “small plastic washing machine turned by a crank” mentioned by Be Well is a closed canister design, with the crank not intended to provide agitation so much as thoroughly mix detergent, water and clothes. It’s based on the premise that the natural action of detergent results in pressure building, forcing the suds through the clothes. I’ve never tried it.
I use the James Hand Washer, which I purchased from Lehman’s Hardware on a trip through the Ohio Amish country nearly fifteen years ago. Still works great. Needed a little JB Weld along the way, but still.
Lehman’s has a website, with a full-line of non-electric washers, including all those mentioned here. www.lehmans.com
I took some additional photos yesterday of the pedal powerd laundry spinner and will soon be able to alert you that some documentation is available.
In the meantime, have a look at this other guy’s pedal powered laundry, which seems to do washing AND spinning: http://www.cyclean.biz/mainmenu.html
Cheers,
HD
HD, thanks so much for the additional links — I’ll be looking forward to what else you tell us about the pedal powered spinner.
I’ll go take a look at lehmans too!
Okay, here’s the documentation I’ve come up with for the laundry spinner:
http://homelessdave.com/hdwashingman.htm
The usual caveats of DIY apply. (A lot depends on the washer and the indoor bicycle trainer you start with)
It’s beautiful-Thanks Homeless Dave!!
Not only is your documentation very helpful, but I appreciate your assessment of the limitations of wringers. I remember watching my grandmother use a wringer washer when I was quite young and being warned to keep my little fingers away from the wringer, but I’ve never used one myself. I have a Wonder Wash (like a Wonder Clean) but have yet to try it out - will do that over the Christmas holidays. Its small capacity won’t be so much of a drawback in a couple of years when my youngest child enters college, but for now, we’d have to use it often to keep up.
I went and looked up those James washers Talked about in the article. $499. Don`t think that will on my list anytime soon. Hafta stick to the plunger in a 5 gal bucket .
cactus,
you’re right about the James Handwasher being pricey. And that doesn’t even include the cost of shipping, right? It’s what can happen, I think, when the volume of the demand is low, but the intensity of the demand is pretty high (almost nobody wants to buy one, but those who do really really really want one bad). The low demand means it’s not going to be mass-manufactured, so no economy of scale applies. Have to hand it to the inventor of the linkage that connects the handle to the agitator. You get amazing leverage to sweep the clothes through the suds. It really makes the action of any automatic washer look pitiful by comparison.
And really, the lowly inverted-cone-on-a-stick in the five gallon bucket puts an automatic washer’s agitation to shame as well. Don’t know if you’ve actually tried that out the yet, but in my experience, it works best if you consider both the up-stroke and the down-stroke as power strokes. So pull up forcibly as well as push down forcibly. It’s actually a pretty good workout for the gut (in contrast with the James, which allows you to just sort of lean back and forth). I found it helpful to define a ‘cycle’ as a certain number of strokes … helps with the monotony. I use 200 for the wash phase and 100 for each rinse.
Haven`t tried it,yet. But, in my youth and very broke,I did wash a lot of clothes in the “stomp on `em” in the bath tub washer. And they did get clean.