When Bill Thomson retired from Delta in July last year, he turned his attention to various woodworking projects.
Recently he built a functioning water wheel at the front gates of the house he has lived in for the past 17 years.
Mr Thomson said he decided to build the water wheel before he retired and had spent more than a year working on it.
‘‘I built some chairs for my daughter and her husband and had some Oregon pine left over as offcuts which I thought were too good to use as firewood so I made this.
‘‘I worked on it on and off for some time before I retired, but if I had to add up all the time I'd say it took me about 13 or 14 months.''
Water from the bottom of the wheelhouse is circulated by a small electric pump, which runs on a timer, up a central structure and is then continuously recirculated to turn the wheel.
Mr Thomas, who has only been woodworking for about three years, said the water wheel's construction, which was done without any plans or drawings, was the most ambitious project he had undertaken.
‘‘This is the first thing I've ever built which has had any working parts in it. I was rapt when it actually worked because when I was building it I thought there was every chance that it wouldn't.''
Mr Thomson said he originally thought of placing it in his back garden but decided to put it where people could see it.
‘‘It has become a bit of a talking point I suppose.''
