Fountain and Candle holder

[Dan Crabtree]

I got the idea of making a fountain from a road trip I took with a few freinds about a month ago. We were driving back from Giant City State Park in southern Illinois and came across a small "hippy" town on the way back. We saw 2 men playing a bango and acordian and pulled in.

After about 20 minute of looking around we found our way to a shed where I found a man making fountains out of copper using leaf shapes. He also had an amazing display of bugs and dragons and other figures in the garden area behind the shop all cut out of sheet metal and formed to shape.

Well, I finally got around to making a fountain of my own it has 3 roses tig welded onto a 1/2 steel tube that the water is pumped through by an air pump. The bottom "bucket" I formed from 3 peices of 22 gauge sheet steel. the fountain is ran by an aquarium air pump, it works based on water pressure and the air moving water out the top. If there isn't enough water in the bottom the system wont work. The air just pushes water out the bottom of the tube instead of moving it up.

[Finnr]

Real nice work!! and a great design!
Finnr

[ironrosefarms]

Very nice, thanks for sharing with us...

[rlarkin]

"the water is pumped through by an air pump."

This is the part that I am curious about.
What type of air pump?

[tzonoqua]

Very impressive, looks like a lot of attention to detail in those flowers! What have you used to finish the steel to keep it from rusting? (or is it stainless?)
-Colleen

[civilwarblacksmith]

That's incredible. I have never thought of doing a fountain. I might try one over the winter for the auction at our May hammer-in. I would appreciate any help I could get in making one. Such as non-rusting finishes.

What is the size of your fountain?

[Dan Crabtree]

I sprayed a ton of paint on the inside of the pipe and shook it up, im pretty sure that it is entirely covered. It hasn't show any rust so far. The exterior was covered with several coats of paint and then given gold highlights and sealed with a clear coat. It appears blacker in real life and not as silver as the pictures show.

The pump is an air pump for an aquarium. the same kind you would hook up to an airstone. when you have about 2 gallons or so of water in the bucket it creates enough pressure in the bottom of the bucket so that the water cannot be pushed out the bottom by the airpump instead the air pushed water up and out the only way it can go, up the stem.

The fountain is probally about 26" tall

[HWooldridge]

Outstanding design and execution!

[Doug C]

Really impressive. Great technique. I like the use of the leaves to make the water fall effect.

[Mulciber]

I envisioned something very similar to this except with (grr can never remember the name of the flower) a tube like flower I would swage out of a piece of stainless tubing. Would use a small submersible pump instead of the type you are using with latex or rubber tubing inside the copper.

Great job!

How does it sound?

Does it splash everywhere? I was afraid of that when considering the cascading leaves.