Water feature thoughts.

[chunkolini]

An area of work I have avoided for years.
But time to give it a go.
A customer has asked for a 2.5m tall treble clef with water flowing over it.
Making the sculpture is simple enough. Two flats joined by 50mm strip to give the look of a massive slab.

Plumbing it in?
Easiest would be fill it with water and have small shark gill style vents allowing water to flow over it. Pump fitted below the base of it.
Made in 2mm mild steel powder coated outside.
Would having water flowing inside lead to bright orange water in a few weeks and it rotting from the inside?

 

[chunkolini]

I predict major headaches on this one. Or a simple straightforward job?

 

[pcwizme]

Could you run a pipe up inside to the top grill and have the water flowing out the top, and if possible paint the inside or seal it in some way?

 

[steve t]

stainless would be best for a water feature

 

[chunkolini]

I could not do it in stainless.
Cant see any way to seal the inside. I have an idea for internal plumbing but water will be able to splash about inside. There would need to be several ports for the water.
I am considering small pots on stainless with pipes going in and over flowing through vents. But that sounds like a mega pain.

 

[MCKDAVID]

plumbing it would be easy enough, it's only a supply of water after all. If the inside is hollow, you could just pass hose pipe through the centre, it's flexible enough. If its not and the flow rate is not excessive, you can get some small bore tubing for garden irrigations systems, really flexible, and comes with the nozzles / jets etc already. The question for me would be how do you want the water to fall / run / spray etc. Once that's clear, the routing method would be simple enough.

My only concern would be keeping the rust at bay long term. Stainless is best, but if not an option, as long as you could keep the water out of contact with the bare metal it might be right. For example, thinned down paint sloshed around the internal areas of the clef, that would seal it, then once the water pipe is in place, seal the pipe where it comes through, by passing it through electrical cable stuffing glands (IP66 ones are pretty water tight and cheap enough). That would seal it, then to keep it dry fill it the remaining areas with expanding foam to keep water out as best you can. It'll no work for ever, but it will keep it at bay.

I've said expanding foam, but there may be other products (epoxies / resins etc) for filling the void that are more betterer at keeping corrosion at bay...

 

[angellonewolf]

i think you will find it will not be the rust that will be the problem it will be stale water that will cause hassle water unless treated regularly smells quite bad

 

[MCKDAVID]

for painting / coating the inside, could you use a long flexible nozzle, the type you get with waxoil or whatever and put the paint in with that, keep rotating the clef and avoid the paint settling..

 

[Ton-up]

I've done similar things and used 10mm copper pipe, flexible enough to bend and you could solder it to the top to seal. It will not last for long being mild steel. Chlorine (?) tablets in the water will keep it clear, but not good for wildlife!

 

[Gwil]

Corten steel?

 

[fixerupper]

I made a water feature thing for a show ..so it only had to last the length of the run and had to be rigged and de rigged everynight ...It stood in a lake and water had to appear " as if by magic " a cheap submersible fixed to a bit of heavy ish box to make it stable was the base, with some steel tubes welded and curved and even crushed nearly flat to make the water flow the way they wanted it ...You could do it with copper micro bore inside a cast resin treble clef ....that would help with da' rust problem ...as Neil Young once said "Rust never sleeps " ..nice project ...

 

[Wedg1e]

How about having the clef sat on a short length of stave and somehow use the bars of the stave as a cascade...?

 

[Maker]

I've done similar things and used 10mm copper pipe, flexible enough to bend and you could solder it to the top to seal. It will not last for long being mild steel. Chlorine (?) tablets in the water will keep it clear, but not good for wildlife!

Chlorine will also rust any steel or comes in contact with a lot faster than water will.

 

[knighty]

does it have to be steel ?

why not build a form and then pour some kind of resin in ?

(can't remember proper name for it, I used clear stuff to make led back lights for my electric bike)


that way it'll never rust

you could make a small one first to test with

maybe stick some stainless bars in it if you want to add strength / stick them out the bottom so you can use them to mount it
(a bit like rebar in concrete)

 

[chunkolini]

Lots of useful information flowing it.
Painting the inside at 8ft long is not going to work, so many nooks and crannies and it will be a fair weight to be moving about
I'm not moulding it. It is going to be 8ft tall. That is a technology I know nothing about, I will srick to what I understand.
I think I will try and talk him out of complex internal plumbing. It sounds like a bunch of hassles in the waiting. That is what I was expecting to be the case.
I have an idea slowly gelling, I will attempt to draw it later

 

[gaz1]

dont forget to calculate the area of water needed due to its pump up header height a standared pump pumps 1 meter high i do believe

this got built a 2 tier waterfall

sorry guys had to remove the sound but video of the changes of light is there

however garden center said it wasnt possible for it to be done this way with the lights being in usage

 

[fixerupper]

My cheap little submersible 35quid from Screwfix that I use for watering, lifts water from a 8 mtr deep well through a 50mm pipe and along the ground another 25 mtrs ... if the water is circulating it will be aerated so should stay clear....

 

[Gareth J]

I think whatever you do, as mild steel is a must, you'll need to explain that this piece has a lifetime of unknown duration.

Coating the inside will help slow the rate the water discolours but won't help the time it take to perforate all that much. There will invariably be a bit that's not perfectly covered or a nick in the paint somewhere and that will start the clock ticking.

One thought... Steel tends to get to the anchor stage after a while and, so long as it's not thin or the rust gets knocked of stays like that for ages. Any chance you could let the outside weather in the water? They may be unfounded but I have visions of the powder coat being burst off the surface by rust around any entrances/exits to the hollow.

 

[arther dailey]

galvanise it

 

[RichardM]

Cut both faces of clef as a pair, take one face and fit sides, then fit water pipework (stainless) through and weld onto inlet and outlets. Weld the top of the clef on. You then have a totally sealed internal structure and can paint the outside to clients taste. The water is fed through the stainless pipe and doesn't come into contact with the internal surfaces of the steel.