Convert Your Washing Machine to Pedal Power Part 4 - Setting Up (Top-Loader)

It was now time to mount the machine and the bicycle onto the pallet. I was planning to make new supports for the bicycle out of wood, my idea being not everyone has access to a welder, which was how I'd made the original bike supports. However, it was at this time that we'd been invited to demonstrate the machine at our local organic supermarket as part of a fortnights promotion of their 'autonomous living' campaign.

As time was short I decided to mount the bicycle on the original welded supports that I'd fabricated some years before, for our original pedal washing machine.

I positioned the machine on the pallet with the driven i.e. the chain wheel side nearer the long central axis of the pallet. This pallet was the one that had  supported the previous washing machine and measured 140cm x 80cm. I set the two metal support frames in the approximate position and lowered the bike onto the supports. I had cut a length of threaded bar (10mm - ⅜") to fit each support and the front and rear fork ends of the bicycle were the support points. The fork ends were fixed in place with nuts. Once the chain wheel of the bicycle was aligned with that on the washing machine I could check that the height of the bike above the pallet allowed a clearance for the pedals to rotate and that there was a gap between the pedal and the front panel of the machine to allow the foot to not catch on the panel.

Now that I had the relative positions of the two components and confirmed they would fit on the pallet, I could then fix them in place.

For the machine I decided to attach two pallet planks to the machine's underside and screw them to the pallet. Turning the machine over I removed the 4 leveling feet from the machine. These screwed into 8mm threaded holes in the corners. I noticed that two of these feet were not square to the machine's base and could see that the corner plates had been twisted. By screwing the feet partway back into the holes it was easy to gently tap the feet back to the vertical. The mounting planks were drilled and mounted onto the machine underside. Note that I had counter bored  clearance holes so that the 8mm bolt heads were recessed.

Putting the machine back in its place on the pallet I marked and drilled two holes in the plank at the rear of the machine and through the pallets' planks. I'd realised that there was no need to fix the machine with bolts in the other plank (at the front face of the machine) because the forces acting on it from the pedaling action would only try to lift the rear of it up. The two holes in the rear plank were then slotted 2" (50mm) long so that it would be possible to move the machine towards or away from the bicycle, this was so as to give me a means to adjust the chain tension and to correct any alignment error. I used ¼"(6mm) dia. carriage bolts to anchor the machine.

It was at this point I realised that being a top-loader the lid of the machine would foul on the bicycle handlebar. Because this lid was in such a shabby state, I removed it and replaced it with a piece of wood that I could slide into place. For the purposes of the coming exhibition, I used a piece of clear rigid plastic so as to afford spectators the pleasure of seeing the drum going around.

The bicycle and its support frames was then put back into place on the pallet.  Prior to screwing the supports to the pallet, I checked the alignment of the two chain wheels (that on the bike and the machine). Simply by looking along the pallet using the face of the machine chain wheel as a guide I could see if the alignment was good. If this step is not undertaken then it is very likely that the chain will not stay in place when cycling. Once satisfied, the supports were screwed to the pallet - there were already holes drilled in the supports' bases from the previous incarnation of the set-up.

I had to extend the bike chain by a few inches to make it fit the layout. Once fitted, I adjusted the chain tension and fixed the washing machine in place.

We were now ready to wash!!!!!!

The first real test of the pedal powered washing machine arose the next day when the whole machine, pallet and bicycle were transported to the organic supermarket for the exhibition. Watch the results in the following video.

The link to the next part of the conversion can be found below.

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You can also find all my films Youtube and also now on Odysee 

Until next time and from a sunny day in Normandie,

Cheers, Andy

© Andy Colley 2019

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