Urban Survivalists

Last week, we went over how to start putting together a containment box for all the components to the water filtration system. This week, we are going to start laying out the piping between the system components. We had thought last week that we would be putting in some schematics but we find that we have too much content already so we are pushing that back a week or two at the least.

Cleaning out the swarf on the cut CPVC pipe:

We decided to show you an easy way to clean out the swarf that collects on the inside of the CPVC pipe after cutting it with a hack saw. We used a 60 degree counter sink to cut the particles off of the inside of the pipe. This turned out to be highly effective and we thought we would mention it. The pictures below show what we are talking about.

Silcock valve placement and drilling:

We are going to be adding the silcock valves to the shell of the box so that we can connect hoses to one or all of the many outlets or inlets of the box. Our plan is that we will be using garden hose or the like to make the semi permanent connections to other systems/tanks/stuff. In order to do this, we needed to get the proper placement of the silcock valves in relation to how the piping must sit in the box. We measured this by putting a test piece of pipe onto the pump and measuring the height at which they were in relation to the box wall.

Tools

• Hand drill
• 1-1/8″ spade bit
• 7/8″ spade bit
• Phillips driver bit
• Pencil
• Carpenter’s triangle
• Machinist’s Square

Materials

• Four sillcock valves or 1/2″ boiler valves
• Sheet of 1/8″ thick plastic stock (we used Teflon because we had it on hand)
• Four brass female to 1/2″ CPVC adapter

Steps

1. Using the Phillips driver bit remove the shelf from the box so that we can drill out our holes.
2. (Picture 1) Mark out a vertical line 3″ from the front edge of the box.
3. (Picture 2) Figure out the distance to the first sillcock valve hole by placing the pump on the bottom of the box next to the edge and marking the centerline of the intake port. In our case this was 2-13/16″ from the bottom of the box.
4. Take this measurement and add 4″ to it to get the second silcock valve’s height. In our case this was 6-13/16″
5. (Picture 3) Repeat Step 3 with the pump on the small shelf this time. In our case this was 10-1/2″.
6. Take the measurement in Step 5 and add 4″ to it to get the placement of the last sillcock valve.
7. (Picture 4-6) Mark these measurements along the vertical line you drew in Step 2 with a tape measure.
8. (Picture 7) Set your machinist’s square and set it to a depth of slightly less than 1/2″ as shown.
9. (Picture Using your 7/8″ spade bit, drill out the four holes you just marked on the outside of the box to a depth just sufficient for the point to just poke through the other side of the board. For us, this was about 1/4″. It doesn’t need to be exact. The point is to have the tip come through the other side so that you can flip the box over and drill from the other side with the 1-1/8″ spade bit.
10. (Picture 9-10) Now switch to your 1-1/8″ spade bit and start depth drilling the holes from the inside of the box using the small holes you just created as guides. Use the machinist’s square as a depth gauge that you set in Step 8 to find out when you hit a depth of slightly less than 1/2″. Take it slow and stop and measure often. Do all four holes in this manner.
11. (Picture 11-12) Flip the box over and, using the 7/8″ spade bit, continue drilling out the holes you originally started in Step 2. Drill at a high speed but slow feed so that you don’t rip out the bottoms. You will end up with four holes that are stair stepped from the inside of the box.

Teflon valve spacer:

The Teflon valve spacers are put into the four holes you made in the previous section to ensure a tight fit of the sillcock valves to the fitler box so the pipe system doesn’t wiggle around. We looked around for quite some time for a standard washer to fit over the sillcock valve for this purpose but couldn’t find a common size that was readily available. Instead we came up with this hack because we had some extra 1/8″ Teflon sheet laying around. (We know…why? RepRap.)

Tools

• Hand drill
• 7/8″ spade bit
• 1-1/8″ spade bit
• X-Acto knife
• Two 2″ C-Clamps

Materials

• 1/8″ plastic sheet (We used Teflon but any type will do)
• Scrap wood for drill backing

Steps

1. (Picture 1-2) Using the C-clamps, clamp the plastic sheet to the scrap of wood. Using the 1-1/8″ spade bit, “score” the edges of a circle deep enough to almost break through the sheet but not quite. Be very gentle with this otherwise you will plunge the bit completely through and ruin the piece. It helps to hold the edges of the sheet down. It’s okay that the central point goes through the sheet as all we want is a ring with a 7/8″ ID.
2. (Picture 3) Using the 7/8″ spade bit, put the bit’s point back in the hole you started with the 1-1/8″ spade bit and drill down completely through the plastic. This will leave a little ring still attached to the plastic with an ID of 7/8″ and an OD of 1-1/8″.
3. (Picture 4) Use the X-Acto knife to carefully cut out the little ring and seperate it from the sheet.
4. (Picture 5-6) Place the ring you just made in one of the four holes you made previously in the filter box. This will act as a spacer for the sillcock and the adapter so that you get a tight fit.
5. (Picture 7-9) Test fit a sillcock and adapter to see if you get a snug fit. Just hand tighten these to see if they give resistance against the wood. If the fit is snug, you are done with this hole. If not, repeat Step 1 – 4 until you have enough spacers for the hole.
6. Repeat Steps 1-5 for all of the four holes in the filter box.

Connecting silcock valves to adapters and filter box:

We are now going to cement a 1″ section of 1/2″ CPVC to our brass female threaded adapters and then fit this assembly into the filter box wall. These will form the inlets and outlets of our filter box. On one side is a silcock and on the other is a 1″ CPVC stub to which we can connect the rest of the plumbing in the box.

Tools

• CPVC cement
• PVC primer
• Teflon pipe thread sealer
• 10″ pipe wrench
• 10″ crescent wrench

Materials

• Four 1/2″ boiler valves (silcock valves)
• Four 1/2″ female threaded to 1/2″ CPVC adapter
• Four 1″ segments of 1/2″ CPVC pipe

Steps

1. (Picture 1) Primer the 1″ section of 1/2″ CPVC pipe and the adapter.
2. (Picture 2) Apply CPVC cement to half of the 1″ section of CPVC pipe and the adapter.
3. (Picture 3) Firmly seat the 1″ section of 1/2″ pipe into the adapter. Allow to dry.
4. Repeat Steps 1-3 for all four adapters.
5. (Picture 4-5) Wrap Teflon pipe thread sealer around all four silcocks.
6. (Picture 6) Place female threaded adapter on the inside of the filter box, brass end first, into one of the holes you drilled out previously. The edge of the brass should seat against the Teflon rings you made and placed in the holes.
7. (Picture 7) From the other side of the same hole, insert the threaded adapter of the silcock and screw it into the female adapter on the other side. Tighten finger tight and then position the spigot pointing off to your left or toward the front of the box at about a 45 degree angle. Using a crescent wrench on the spigot side, hold the spigot from moving. Using the 10″ pipe wrench on the other side, tighten the brass and CPVC adapter down firmly until you can open and close the silcock valve without moving the silcock itself.
8. Repeat Steps 6 and 7 for all four silcock valves in the box. Make sure they are all pointing at the same angle so they look nice.

Connecting Silcock to pump and sprinkler valve:

This is our final section in this weeks blog. We are going to attach the pump on the shelf to the third from the bottom silcock valve. This pump takes in the dirty water from the rain barrels and pumps it through our RO system. We will be using a standard electronically controlled sprinkler valve that we prepared last week in order to turn the pressure to the RO system on and off with our micro controller.

Tools

• CPVC cement
• PVC primer
• Hacksaw
• 6″ crescent wrench

Materials

• 1/2″ CPVC line (about 1.5 ft) cut into (five 1″ long segments, one 7-1/2″ segement, one 6″ segement, and one 1-1/2″ segement)
• Two 90 degree CPVC elbows
• Two 1/2″ to 3/4″ 90 degree elbow adapters
• Two 100 PSI SureFlo pumps with 3/4″ male threaded ports
• One prepared electronic sprinkler valve from last week
• Four 3/4″ female threaded adapters
• Teflon pipe thread sealer

Steps

1. (Picture 1-2) Wrap Teflon pipe thread sealer around the intake and outlet ports of the two 100 PSI pumps.
2. (Picture 3-4) Screw on the 3/4″ threaded CPVC adapter and tighten with a crescent wrench. Do not over tighten as you can break the intake and outlet ports of the pump. Just make sure it is snug.
3. (Picture 5-6) Using four 1″ CPVC segments and the two pumps prepared as per Steps 1-2, primer the two 1″ CPVC segments and the four adapters you screwed onto the pump ports.
4. (Picture 6) Using CPVC cement, liberally apply to one half of ONE of the 1″ CPVC segments and to ONE of adapters on the pumps.
5. (Picture 7-8) Firmly seat the 1″ CPVC segment into the adapter on the pump. Hold for 30 seconds.
6. Repeat Steps 4-5 for all four adapters on the two pumps.
7. Put one pump aside for next week.
8. Collect the following all together: One prepared pump, the prepared sprinkler valve from last week, two 1/2″ 90 degree elbows, two 1/2″ to 3/4″ 90 degree elbow adapters, one 7-1/2″ pipe segment, one 6″ pipe segment, and one 1-1/2″ pipe segment.
9. Primer both ends of the 7-1/2″ segment, both ends of the two 1/2″ 90 degree elbows, both ends of the 90 degree adapter elbows and one end of the 6″ pipe segment.
10. (Picture 9) Apply CPVC cement to both ends of the two 1/2″ 90 degree elbows and to both ends of the 7-1/2″ segment.
11. Place the elbows on either end of the 7-1/2″ segement facing in opposite directions.
12. (Picture 10) Apply CPVC cement to the third from the bottom silcock adapter on the inside of the box (the one for the shelf) and to the intake side of the pump (note the arrows on the pump casing to figure out which side is the intake).
13. (Picture 11-12) Carefully insert the 7-1/2″ pipe section as per the picture and firmly seet all pipes into one another.
14. Apply CPVC cement to the outlet side of the sprinkler valve (note direction arrows on valve body), the primered end of the 6″ segement, and both sides of the 90 degree adapter.
15. (Picture 13-14) Seat the 6″ segement into the 90 degree adapter and then seat the adapter to the outlet side of the sprinkler valve. Let dry 30 seconds.
16. (Picture 15) Apply CPVC cement to the outlet side of the pump, the intake side of the prepared sprinkler valve, and both sides of the 90 degree adapter.
17. Seat the adapter to the sprinkler valve and the sprinkler assembly to the pump outlet.
18. (Picture 16-18) Using the 1-1/2″ segment as a standoff to get the sprinkler valve at the right elevation, adjust all the pipes so that they are square and snug before the cement sets.
19. Relax and show off your hard work!

And now you can see the final product of this weekend’s work.

Next Week

As we promised last week and failed to deliver on, we’ll try and get a rough schematic of the electronics put up next week. We have quite a bit worked out and are really ready to begin breadboarding and testing some of the circuits. Hopefully it all works out. We also plan to finish up the pipe layout for the second pump and get some of the 1/4″ piping for the RO system in place. I’d give this project another three or four weeks until completion at which point we can begin work on our aeroponics setup.

Pretty soon we’ll be collecting our water, filtering it, and using it to grow food! Things are progressing nicely here for us and aren’t coming up to cost as much as we had been worried they would. We’ll give a complete bill of materials for this project and update the CAD files, seen from last week, to reflect the changes we make before this whole project wraps up. Once that is completed, there will be a coherent set of build instructions available.

Have fun!

P&S

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