DIY Fountain

Several years ago I was at one of my favorite shops in the Chicago area, American Science & Surplus. The website gives a general feel for what you can find there, but nothing compares with actually visiting. Even if you aren't looking for the perfect part for your next DIY project, there is something magical about roaming the aisles of well categorized, perfectly organized bins of stuff. Motors (AC, DC, low torque, high torque...), lenses (convex, concave, fresnel...), glassware (flasks, pipettes, test tubes...), switches, wheels, light bulbs, springs, test equipment, even novelty goods, such as a Pope John Paul II fold out fan.

In this cornacopia of goodness, I happened upon a water pump for $7.50. I had no immediate use for a water pump, but AS&S makes you want to find uses for everything. I bought the pump and for years it sat in the back of my closet and in the back of my mind. About a month ago I finally got the inspiration I needed.

Flora Grubb

I was at Flora Grubb and I saw a stack of 10 foot tall, 3 inch wide bamboo poles in the back. I could make a fountain out of this stuff! A single pole could be cut into 5 two foot sections and then split those down the middle to create 10 troughs. These troughs could then be attached to the metal railing on my back porch to create a cascading fountain, water pouring from one trough to the next until it ended up in a pool I could fill with water plants.

I bought a 3 in wide pole plus a 1 in wide pole to use for holding the troughs from above. I also bought a 16in square glazed pot to hold the water. A trip to the hardware store and I had some plastic tubing, some barbed nylon connectors for connecting the tubing to the pot and some silicon cauk to make everything water tight.

The bamboo needed some work. Being "decorative grade" rather than "construction grade" It had many splits along its length that needed to be fixed to allow the trough to carry water without leaking. I filled these in with clear silicon cauk. I also needed to cauk the clay pot. It had two drainage holes at the bottom; one needed to be closed entirely. The other I fitted with one of the nylon connectors and cauked around the edges so that water wouldn't leak out around it.

In addition to building the fountain, I need to do some work on the pump. The pump is an exposed AC motor connected to an impeller with a water outlet. The impeller, when submerged, forces the water upward and to the outlet. However, the motor needs to be protected from the water and the elements. I wanted to keep the pump hidden, so I need to build a reservoir to collect and hold water for the impeller but make it water tight above it so the water level couldn't rise and get the motor wet. After some experimenting I was able to fashion an enclosure for the pump out of two small sturdy plastic paint/utility buckets.

With the pump ready, it was time to start building. I attached 3in bolts perpendicularly to the railing to so support the troughs. I then covered each bolt with a 4in section of the thinner bamboo pole. I had a bunch of old wire hangers that I don't like to use for clothes but are useful for DIY projects. I cut these into 5in lenths, bent them into shape and used them to hang the troughs from the bolt/bamboo supports.

I placed the pot at the end of the line of bamboo troughs and connected the hose. I ran the hose along the underside of the railing to the pump and then a tube from the pump to the top of the first bamboo trough. I plugged it in and held my breath.

I watched the water shoot up the clear hose until it got almost to the top when it slowly came to a stop. It could almost manage a dribble but for some reason it wasn't working. Tests inside had shown strong flow, but now nothing. After some investigation, I found that pumps have something called 'head height' which is a measure of how high they can pump water. It seems like the pump that started this whole processes only had a head height of about 3 ft and I need 3 1/2 ft or better.

More internet searching returned a wide variety of cheap water pumps, thanks to the hobby aquarium industury. I found a pump with a 4ft head for $9. Not only was it about as cheap as my original pump, it was submersible, which means I could hide it in the pot and do away with the (as it turns out) problematic pump enclosure.

A week later the pump came. I rerouted the tubs and the power cords, recauked some leaks that I had missed the first time and fired it up. Success! The new pump has no problem pumping water to the top of the fountain and has enough power left over for a healthy flow. In some cases almost too healthy; the right turn the fountain makes at the corner of my porch is a little too sharp and I had to construct a splash guard to keep the water flowing the right way.

Now I can relax to the sound of flowing water from the privacy of my small 2nd floor porch: