Making a Bamboo Fountain

[Whiterook6]

Hey, I'm new here so forgive any incompetencies It's my mother's birthday in about a week and I decided I want to build her a bamboo fountain, similar to one I saw for sale. I've never worked with bamboo before but I have some woodworking experience.

Here's what I want to do:
1. Put a 3-foot piece of bamboo vertically in the middle. Leave half a foot of "Reservoir" with an exposed top -- I know bamboo has those interior sections.

2. Attach another piece to the outside, also vertically, half a foot shorter, and put a small notch on the bigger piece so that water trickles out into the top of the smaller piece.

3. Continue with three or four more smaller peices until we've gone all the way around the tallest one. The water will fall out into a pond and be pumped into the tallest one again.

I figure I might post pictures, like a journal, and ask questions along the way. I'll have the tubing to reach the top inside the tallest one so that it's invisible, and I'll get a submersible pump too so it can just sit in the pond.

So what do you guys think? Lemme know!

[Mark Meckes]

Hiya,
Here's a few pics of bamboo water fountains

Please do upload pics of the process in this post if you can.

Cheers,
Mark

[Whiterook6]

Thanks, Mark, those are great pictures and are of great inspiration as well. I bring pictures! (Well, only four -- I only just started.)

I went out to Coombs today and bought two stems of bamboo, one larger in diameter than the other. It took a while to find the least split ones. I had them cut in half for the trip home.

Here they are:


And closer look:


The first cut piece. You'll see what I'm doing with it soon:


That same piece up close. Notice the ten degree cut angle -- this is hopefully on purpose:


That's all for now, but I have some questions:
1. Can I just use a file to bevel the top?
2. Is there a quick way to fill small splits?

Thanks for reading!

[Mark Meckes]

That looks like imported, probably from China, Tonkin Cane - Pseudosasa amabilis

1. Can I just use a file to bevel the top?
Sure, a metal file will work.

2. Is there a quick way to fill small splits?
Ahh, too bad about the quality of your bamboo. Splits like that can open up more in time. I guess you could use an epoxy glue, but you might still want to bind it with wire or synthetic cord.
Here's a related thread ... Help: split in bamboo fountain

[Whiterook6]

Well, another semi-productive day. I finished all the upspouts and most of the pouring spouts. Here are some pictures...

Here are all the three main upspouts. The tallest will have plastic tubing run up it's insides, and fill the top, open chamber. I'm sure you can guess there will be a spout out the side, which will pour into another, and so on, but it'll look cool.


A closer view of the same, but from the bottom:


Here's a closer view of the top of the tallest one -- notice the ten degree angle to the cut, as well as the bevelled rim. There's one on the inside as well:


And finally, all of the pieces I'll need. Hopefully it'll be intricate and interesting:


Now, anything I need to know about before I drill? Also, any thoughts on how to mount the upspouts vertically, besides shoving them into some colored gravel?

[Mark Meckes]

Cool!
Re: knocking out the node stops .. septums ... diaphragms, as they are called ..
You can also use a piece of rebar, or steel rod to do this.

Re: drilling holes, to help prevent edges from splintering, you can wrap the area to be drilled with masking tape prior to drilling. It's good idea to give it a practice test run.

Re: Setting the fountain in the pond ... one possible method could be to set the base in the hollow portion of a concrete/cinder block

Re: tubing ... it is possible to direct the tubing into the spout portion, though one has to be careful so the tubing isn't pinched in the right-angle bend.
This ensures that there are no leaks at the spout joint ,though this is not necessarily an issue with your design in the pond.
You can get Y connectors for the extra lines from the pump.
One challange will be in determining the size of the pump to the amount of water you will need pumped to X height and the number of spouts and points that the water will flow from.
It will be an interesting challenge which you will be able to modify or change to suit the mood of the fountain affect.

Have fun, and thanks for sharing!

Mark

[Whiterook6]

Well, I got some good work done in the past few days. Here's the pictures!!!

DAMN! I split the bamboo. Obviously, now I use tape wrapped around the shaft, and you should too.

Instead of chucking the piece, I started cleaning the edges and remade the hole for pouring.

Some more cutting...

Tube through the rear end (ouch!)

And out the top. Notice the nicely cut end!

This piece I taped, and it cut quick well.

The third upspout, properly drilled.

Today I started attaching the pour spouts to the upspouts. I decided to use some smelly 5-minute epoxy. I don't think LePage wants me to say who made this stuff



The pour spout filed to fit

Some pictures of the attached pieces...

And the epoxied joints...



And finally, the tubing from the water pump. I filed the top inch or so to get a good stick surface for the epoxy, lubed it up, and slid it in (jeez, that did sound dirty.) The expoy hopefully will seal any gap between the rim of the hole I drilled and the diameter of the tube.



Anyways, that's it for a few days, I'll be back soon to give y'all an update.

[ZenSeeker]

Hey Whiterook6!

I recently undertook a similar project of designing a Shishi Odoshi and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

I wish I found this pictures prior to working on my project, it would be been great!

So any updates on your project? I know you worked on it like 3 years ago, how is it? Is it still working?