Builder: Campbell & Campbell
Nothing sparks conversation like a giant water wheel, especially one attached to the side of a house. Ask Jerry and Lynn Stanton. They’ve got one.
“One of the first things people ask is if it drives electricity,” Jerry says. “It doesn’t.”
It sure looks interesting, though. And that’s the point. The Stantons wanted something to spruce up the side of their French cottage home in Black Rock.
Jerry, a retired pipeline contractor, built the 13-foot wheel himself in a friend’s shop. It took just one week; start to finish.
“Once you make your cuts, it comes down to building,” he said. “It’s very simple.”
He’s had a bit of experience. The wheel is his second. He built the first, a 15-footer, in 2001 for the couple’s previous house. He wanted something that looked industrial and actually worked.
“I was trying to come up with something to hide the garage,” he says. “I saw a picture and said why not.”
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He learned a few lessons that helped him the second time around. The first wheel required a lot of maintenance. Jerry had to grease it every two or three days to keep it running at eight revolutions per minute. Otherwise, the wheel slowed to two or three. He made some adjustments to his latest wheel, increasing the size of the shaft and using stronger bearings. With that, he greases the wheel just twice a year.
Campbell & Campbell, which built the home, helped install the 2,000-pound cedar wheel. Technically, it was a challenge, Randy Campbell says. They had to experiment several times with the mechanics to get the wheel to work properly. Jerry might say the wheel was a breeze to build, but Randy doesn’t downplay the effort.
“A lot of technology was involved,” he says. “An average Joe isn’t going have the experience to build this.”
But then, Jerry, who paints, knits and builds water wheels, isn’t exactly average.
By Kristina Lyman
As Featured In: Winter/Spring 2016