Wood-Stave Pipeline

[dgdrls]

   marcusthgault
Re: Why i hate long logs...
« Reply #20 on: Today at 02:11:36 am »

    Quote

Thanks for the Photo,
I am well agog at the size of that pipe.
What pressure are they withstanding?  Manufacturers indicate up to 400 feet of hydraulic head
What is the expected stave life? 50 years easy
Anything special about the timber spec used?  Douglass Fir is best
Regards
Marcus

There was a station in our system with a hydraulic head of 255 feet that was wood from what I heard they did not take good care of it and the repairs were done improperly so it turned into a giant soaker hose.  It was replaced with steel.


petefrom bearswamp

Re: Why i hate long logs...
« Reply #23 on: Today at 11:14:55 am »

    Quote

I seem to remember seeing a wood penstock line when  was in ranger school in 1958.
when a leak was found a hole was drilled and a wooden plug hammered in. looked strange as they stuck out about 2 or 3 inches.

Ranger school is close to the Oswegatchie River.  you may be talking about the Browns Falls pipe "back in the day"



  

  

  

 

DGDrls

[thecfarm]

Used for water??

[dgdrls]

Used for water??

Yes,  drives hydro-electric generator(s)

DGDrls

[beenthere]

Looks just like the wood-stave silos we used to see a lot of, and as well the wood stave chemical tanks.

Getting the wood staves out of silos was some prized wood for various construction projects.

[thecfarm]

Can't really tell,4 feet across? Where was this? Did it get below freezing there?

[dgdrls]

Can't really tell,4 feet across? Where was this? Did it get below freezing there?

The two photos are actually two different pipelines.

Both are located in Upstate NY, St. Lawrence County, yes they get snowed on and function quite well in freezing temps.
the leaks can be a hassle as they build ice.

I don't recall the diameters specifically but they are in the 7-8' inside diameter range.

DGDrls

[sprucebunny]

I've seen those in northern Vermont, too. Pretty neat  8)

[Sixacresand]

I can only imagine the man hours and skill required to build something like that.  Incredible!

[chet]

There have been two wooden pipelines at the Victoria Dam, in Michigan's upper peninsula .  The original 1930 red-wood pipeline was replaced in 1959 with one of Douglas Fir.  An actual section of the Douglas fir pipeline was saved and is on display at the Dam. For over 40 years, the waters of the south and west branches of the Ontonagon River flowed through this cylinder of wood on their way to Lake Superior.  In 2001, the present spiral-welded steel pipeline was built to replace the wooden structure, which had reached the end of its life cycle.



 

[thecfarm]

Have any of you stood next to those pipes and could you hear the water?

[Saki]

Along the same lines....Caught an episode of dirty jobs with Mike Rowe when he was "helping" replace a wooden water tank on top of a high rise building, In NYC I think. Very similar construction, noticed bands were much closer together at the bottom of the tank to withstand the pressure. Was pretty interesting.

[chet]

Have any of you stood next to those pipes and could you hear the water?

Yes    I do remember hearing the water running but not how loud it was. The thing dat sticks in my memory was water squirtting out in places. Very obvious there was allot of  pressure behind it. Too bad I never thought to take some pictures back then.

[Peter Drouin]

That is quite a thing.

[Jim_Rogers]

In the other thread where this story started someone mentioned how funny the pipeline looked with wooden plugs sticking out of it to plug the holes in the pipe line.

I wanted to share with you my plug story.

Here is a picture of two plugs on the bench beside my shop door:



 

I mill up pine/spruce/hemlock and for a fellow who has a lath and he makes these plugs.
They are 12" long. The stock I mill is 2 1/8" thick. You can see the square end at the arrow where the "S" is. That is a 2 1/8" x 2 1/8" x 12" blank he puts into his lath.

He turns the first cut to the size shown at #1.
Then he moves the cutter in and turns them to the diameter of the arrow at #2.
This plug popped out of the lath as the knot let go at the tip.
I picked it up out of the reject bin.

Then he moves the cutter in again and cut it to the diameter show at #3.
This one was rejected as the plug stock popped out of the chuck holding it in the lath. I picked it up out of the reject bin to bring back to show people what they are.

After he turns them down to the finial size, he rubs them for a second with a piece of sand paper to make them a little smoother then the surface you see.

So these are 12" long and about 2" at the big end down to about 1/2" on the small end.

He told me that he makes 500 of these every three months. I have been selling them this stock for several years. I don't know exactly how many years but it has been a few.

Ok, so by now you're probably wondering what do they use all these plugs for.

He sells them to Boston Gas company. We were told that these are plugs for gas lines.

We were told that when they are digging the streets in Boston, that sometimes the dig up a line that wasn't properly marked or an unknown line, and they damage or break an active line. So, a workman will grab a plug run down into the trench and stick it into the gas line as the gas is pouring out. The wet gas, swells up the wood and seals the end of the pipe until they can find some unmarked or other shut off valve.

500 every three months. I suppose if they have 50 trucks and put 10 on each truck then they would use up 500 of them for sure.

The stock I mill and sell to them is 2 1/8" thick and I am now making them in widths of 2 1/8" so that when they rip them to squares they will have a 2 1/8" x 2 1/8" or so square blank each 12" long.
He will take any lengths of lumber. From 3' long to 16' long doesn't matter to him as he cuts them to 12" lengths and then rips them to squares.

What's nice about that is, sometimes a tree service will just "show up" here and ask if I want these free logs. They are never cut to correct lengths for lumber. But for this guy it doesn't matter. He'll take 5', 7', 9' anything as long as he can get a 12" block out of it.

His lath is one of the ones with a pattern following cutter knife. And they have the knife set to just cut the slope of the cone. Three cuts and it's to size, a little sanding and it's done.

As I'm making some parts or lumber for others, I will cut off the extra outside stuff 2 1/8" thick and stack it up on sticks waiting for the order to come in to load up a bunch and delivery it. He normally buys 600 bdft at a time.

I have a 600 bdft load ready to go, now. And I've started another load beyond that.

We were told that at any one time that there are at least several thousand gas leaks in Boston.

Lately with this cold weather they have been busting water pipes all over the city.

Well, that's my plug story.

Jim Rogers

PS. Number 4 is a clothes line pulley I cut off from a tree that had no metal in it, according to the customer. I have that there to show anyone who says they don't want their logs scanned because "there's no metal in it".....

[dgdrls]

I was researching another hydro project and came across these photos,
This is a the pipeline I posted above (the one on the curve) under constriction.

 

[moodnacreek]

Last I knew there was a long wooden 'penstock' in use in Vermont.

[Ed_K]

 Yes it come from summer-set reservoir and goes to hariman reservoir to a generator.

[DPatton]

Very interesting topic, and great plug story Jim! 

[luap]

My first two summers after high school in the early seventies I worked on the Victoria dam pipeline. The footings holding the cradles were crumbling, so we jackhammered the loose concrete off, gas welded additional rebar on, built forms and poured concrete. This pipe was one mile long. Once in the summer  the water would be shut off and one man would walk inside the pipe and one outside and marked leaks would be plugged with cedar wedges. Most leaks were just weeps. Two guys would go along and tighten and replace the hoops. This work was performed by the power company maintenance crew, no outside contractors. 

[luap]

Here is the dam and surrounding view today of Victoria dam this spring.

VIctoria Dam on the Ontonagon River 4/7/19 - YouTube