"Bill Stock" wrote in message
-Free...
I was thinking of going with a floating fountain, but the commercial ones
are insanely priced and too big for my pond. The blurb I saw for a smaller
one said that it clogs easily and would require considerable maintenance.
So I thought I would build my own.

Cheap idea #1 was some polystyrene with a cap and a pipe through the
middle. I thought I might use the water catcher from a plant pot for a
cap. This may not be too durable, but it would be cheap.

Cheap idea #2 was a large container filled with Great Stuff and a pipe
through the middle. Should also be cheap, but perhaps less durable.

Fancy idea #1 fill a container with polyester resin with a pipe through
the middle. I would use micro-spheres to make the resin buoyant. This is
how some of the commercials ones are made. I would likely only do this if
I liked the results from the fountain above.

I was also planning on adding one of the colour changing LED light rings
to the fountain.

Any better ideas?


HD does sell plant pot bottoms separately. They were in a hideous terracotta
colour, but some black plastic paint solved that. I used a couple of layers
of 2" styrofoam for the float, glued together with some polyurethane glue.
The glue did not stick to the HDPE plastic at all, but it did stick the
styrofoam together. But the weight of the pump keeps it all together. I
probably could have used one layer of styrofoam and a smaller planter base,
as the whole thing seems very buoyant. I'll probably redo it when I move the
pump to a support and take the added weight off the float. One problem I had
originally was that the fountain would not float straight, since the weight
of the pump was pulling it off center. A short section of flexible hose
between the pump and the fountain head solved my center of gravity problem.

I'm pretty happy with the LED light ring BTW, it's not quite as Vegas as I'd
feared. But then I'm a big Bellagio fan. :-)

I'll post a few night shots somewhere once I get everything else finished.



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