Ok, I know I'm a broken record here, so feel free to just skip this post if you're tired of all this fountain talk. I won't be offended.
I think I've gone about as far as I can go with a 4" tube fountain. So before I epoxy the whole thing together, I thought I'd post a little video showing how it was all made.
There are three main things that the fountain needs to do, as far as I can tell:
1) Slow down the water, so that it is easier to remove turbulence.
2) Remove the turbulence.
3) Reassemble the water and squirt it out the end.
The problem I've been having with the 4" tube is that if I want the water to squirt farther, I need to turn up the hose higher. That makes the water faster, and the turbulence isn't removed.
It occurs to me that with a longer tube, and more scouring pads or other features to slow down the water, it might have a better result, at the expense of a smaller package. Maybe I'll give that a shot.
Another option is to find some larger diameter pipe. This will spread out and slow down the water in a much shorter time period. The problem, though, is finding 8" pipe, end caps, etc.
I'm pretty much making all this up as I go along. If you have any suggestions, or if I've got my theory wrong (is there a hydrologist in the house?), let me know.
(If you're read this far and are totally bored, don't say I didn't warn you! This post is really meant for me to read in a few years and think "Oh yeah, I remember that!")
2009/04/13
2009/04/09
Laminar Fountain
I'm getting closer!
I made some adjustments today (hooray for half-days!). I packed more straws into the pipe. More could fit in there, but I've used all 1000 that came in the box. I also cut away some excess screen that was holding the straws in place.
I shortened the tube by quite a bit, so there is about 2 inches between the end of the straws and the outlet hole.
In the end cap, I duct-taped a metal washer after using some sandpaper to smooth the washer-hole as much as I could. Before putting the end-cap back on, I placed screen over the end of the pipe, so there is a layer of screen again between the straws and the output hole. I'm not sure what purpose this serves, but it's in the original patent for these puppies.
The results are much better! It's not perfect, but it's much, much better.
I'm not sure what the end goal is. I think the dream would be to embed this into the ground, and form an arch over the walkway to our front door, recirculating. That would be awesome, and not really that hard.
Sorry for the shaky video.
I made some adjustments today (hooray for half-days!). I packed more straws into the pipe. More could fit in there, but I've used all 1000 that came in the box. I also cut away some excess screen that was holding the straws in place.
I shortened the tube by quite a bit, so there is about 2 inches between the end of the straws and the outlet hole.
In the end cap, I duct-taped a metal washer after using some sandpaper to smooth the washer-hole as much as I could. Before putting the end-cap back on, I placed screen over the end of the pipe, so there is a layer of screen again between the straws and the output hole. I'm not sure what purpose this serves, but it's in the original patent for these puppies.
The results are much better! It's not perfect, but it's much, much better.
I'm not sure what the end goal is. I think the dream would be to embed this into the ground, and form an arch over the walkway to our front door, recirculating. That would be awesome, and not really that hard.
Sorry for the shaky video.
2009/04/07
2009/04/06
Laminar Flow Fountain
Every boy needs a project to work on to occupy spare brain cycles. Projects not too complicated have a much better chance of actually be completed (see Nethack Screensaver) than those that are complex (see Rock Band Robot). To that end, I try to also keep things as cheap as possible. Besides, a big budget on a home-brew project is essentially cheating.
So, recently my family found ourselves at the local mall, where they have one of those cool laminar flow fountains. This one wasn't the "jumping" type (though you've probably seen those), but instead a set of "glass rod" type flows of water shooting from a ring into the central pool. The streams were totally coherent, and looked like solid glass. They were accessible by small hands, and after her initial trepidation, Allie had a great time touching the water and splashing about. We were thankful to have brought a change of clothes.
Even before Allie, I've always loved those fountains. At one point (when we were doing landscaping, I think), I looked up how expensive they were. I had big plans of turning our courtyard into a water-feature, with water jumping overhead or some nonsense. Turns out, they are pretty spendy. Thousands of dollars for a single fountain nozzle.
Recently, on a whim, I did some more searching and found that people have been making their own versions that work pretty well. So I'm going to try to make one, too! (Don't ask me what I'm going to do with it yet. I haven't thought that far ahead.)
The basic idea follows thusly: Water is fed from a garden hose into a section of pipe. That section of pipe is much wider (4") than the hose, so the water will travel through it more slowly. Packed into the base of the pipe are some scouring pads. These serve to break up and disperse the incoming flow of water. Following the scouring pads are a set of straws, all jammed into the pipe side by side, forming a "honeycomb" type arrangement (only circular instead of hexagonal). The water is split up and travels through each straw, which serves to straighten out the flow and remove turbulence from the water.
Finally, the water squirts out a hole drilled into a cap that is closing off the other end of the pipe. When the water squirts out, it should all be travelling in the same direction and speed, and should stick together and look like a solid glass rod.
That's the idea, at least. Not too complicated, and nothing too expensive in there.
The details are where it gets a little tricky. For one thing, the straws need to be held in place in the middle of the pipe. People have accomplished this by using a layer of screen (like, from a screen door or window screen) at each end of the batch of straws. And that screen is held in place by a ring that fits snugly inside the pipe. So, you put a circle of screen on the open end of the pipe, and fit the ring into place, and push the whole thing down inside the pipe. Then put in the straws, then another screen/ring combo.
The other final detail is the hole that the water squirts out of. Drilling a straight hole through the end cap may work, but any little burrs of plastic will disrupt the water. I guess water flowing through a drilled hole creates its (Gwen!) own turbulence. So rather than a straight hole, you countersink the hole, so that the water is only passing through a knife-edge thin hole (the countersunk side is on the air-side of the end cap, not the water side).
So, I have all the pieces I need, I think. Just need to assemble and test! I'll take some pictures and let you know (lucky you) how it goes.
For now, you can see what my boy "tedstur" has made, that I'm trying to replicate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCVV587m4i0
Dream plans would involve a pump that recirculated the water. Most likely, though, this will be used in conjunction with Allie's kiddie pool on hot summer days. Or just to see if it can be done, and sell the plans to Norm for use in his swimming pool. Or something. Who knows. That part doesn't matter much. :)
So, recently my family found ourselves at the local mall, where they have one of those cool laminar flow fountains. This one wasn't the "jumping" type (though you've probably seen those), but instead a set of "glass rod" type flows of water shooting from a ring into the central pool. The streams were totally coherent, and looked like solid glass. They were accessible by small hands, and after her initial trepidation, Allie had a great time touching the water and splashing about. We were thankful to have brought a change of clothes.
Even before Allie, I've always loved those fountains. At one point (when we were doing landscaping, I think), I looked up how expensive they were. I had big plans of turning our courtyard into a water-feature, with water jumping overhead or some nonsense. Turns out, they are pretty spendy. Thousands of dollars for a single fountain nozzle.
Recently, on a whim, I did some more searching and found that people have been making their own versions that work pretty well. So I'm going to try to make one, too! (Don't ask me what I'm going to do with it yet. I haven't thought that far ahead.)
The basic idea follows thusly: Water is fed from a garden hose into a section of pipe. That section of pipe is much wider (4") than the hose, so the water will travel through it more slowly. Packed into the base of the pipe are some scouring pads. These serve to break up and disperse the incoming flow of water. Following the scouring pads are a set of straws, all jammed into the pipe side by side, forming a "honeycomb" type arrangement (only circular instead of hexagonal). The water is split up and travels through each straw, which serves to straighten out the flow and remove turbulence from the water.
Finally, the water squirts out a hole drilled into a cap that is closing off the other end of the pipe. When the water squirts out, it should all be travelling in the same direction and speed, and should stick together and look like a solid glass rod.
That's the idea, at least. Not too complicated, and nothing too expensive in there.
The details are where it gets a little tricky. For one thing, the straws need to be held in place in the middle of the pipe. People have accomplished this by using a layer of screen (like, from a screen door or window screen) at each end of the batch of straws. And that screen is held in place by a ring that fits snugly inside the pipe. So, you put a circle of screen on the open end of the pipe, and fit the ring into place, and push the whole thing down inside the pipe. Then put in the straws, then another screen/ring combo.
The other final detail is the hole that the water squirts out of. Drilling a straight hole through the end cap may work, but any little burrs of plastic will disrupt the water. I guess water flowing through a drilled hole creates its (Gwen!) own turbulence. So rather than a straight hole, you countersink the hole, so that the water is only passing through a knife-edge thin hole (the countersunk side is on the air-side of the end cap, not the water side).
So, I have all the pieces I need, I think. Just need to assemble and test! I'll take some pictures and let you know (lucky you) how it goes.
For now, you can see what my boy "tedstur" has made, that I'm trying to replicate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCVV587m4i0
Dream plans would involve a pump that recirculated the water. Most likely, though, this will be used in conjunction with Allie's kiddie pool on hot summer days. Or just to see if it can be done, and sell the plans to Norm for use in his swimming pool. Or something. Who knows. That part doesn't matter much. :)
2009/04/03
Streisand Effect...
I've only recently heard of the "Streisand Effect" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect), but since hearing about it, it's come up a number of times.
The effect, named after Babs, is when she got all pissed off when a photographer was taking aerial views of the California coastline (I think for some coffee table type book). She got all pissed that it was an invasion of privacy, took him to court, etc. The end result, of course, is that the pictures of her house got spread all over the internet and news, and way more people saw them than would have if she hadn't made such a big fuss.
In general terms, making a big stink and trying to censor something can frequently have the exact opposite effect, especially on the Internet, where data can be copied and persisted extremely easily.
The latest instance of this happened recently, when the Google "Street View" van drove through the village of Broughton (never heard of it? Well, now you have. And that's my point). A cranky old guy saw the van, rallied his neighbors, and they physically blocked the road to make the van go away. They were concerned that because of recent burglaries, and that Broughton is a relatively affluent area, the Street View would invite more criminals.
Too late, dude. Too late. It's all over the news. By making such a stink, he has put his small village on the map (pun intended). Millions of people who've never heard of the place, or cared, now are focusing attention on it.
The Streisand Effect is a pretty cool phenomenon. Keep your ears open, and I'll bet you'll hear more instances of it soon.
The effect, named after Babs, is when she got all pissed off when a photographer was taking aerial views of the California coastline (I think for some coffee table type book). She got all pissed that it was an invasion of privacy, took him to court, etc. The end result, of course, is that the pictures of her house got spread all over the internet and news, and way more people saw them than would have if she hadn't made such a big fuss.
In general terms, making a big stink and trying to censor something can frequently have the exact opposite effect, especially on the Internet, where data can be copied and persisted extremely easily.
The latest instance of this happened recently, when the Google "Street View" van drove through the village of Broughton (never heard of it? Well, now you have. And that's my point). A cranky old guy saw the van, rallied his neighbors, and they physically blocked the road to make the van go away. They were concerned that because of recent burglaries, and that Broughton is a relatively affluent area, the Street View would invite more criminals.
Too late, dude. Too late. It's all over the news. By making such a stink, he has put his small village on the map (pun intended). Millions of people who've never heard of the place, or cared, now are focusing attention on it.
The Streisand Effect is a pretty cool phenomenon. Keep your ears open, and I'll bet you'll hear more instances of it soon.
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