Flower Garden Spinner

Flower Garden spinner
It’s that time of year when we start to spend more time out side in the garden. My husband has a super green thumb and does all the gardening with no help from me The garden is spectacular thanks to him. Although I would love to contribute, I really don’t know the first thing about gardening. So in an effort to contribute just a little something, I decided to make a flower garden spinner. Here’s how I did it..

Supplies
6 in. x 2 ft. Round Metal Duct Pipe https://www.homedepot.com/p/6-in-x-2-ft-Round-Met...

Scissors

e-6000 glue and or gorilla glue clear

Fidget spinner (we’ll be stealing the bearings out of it)

2 CD discs

Paints

Copper pole length is your choice (mine is a half inch by 10 feet)

Drill

5/16 Drill bit

5/16 hex screw 8 in. long

Nylon spacers 3 to 4

5/16 nut

4 - 5/16 washers

Sheet of fun foam

Muddler to help shape the tin

I originally thought to make the spinner with tin soda cans, but opted for tin that was a bit sturdier. But, you could easily make this with old soda cans too.

First I decided on the shape of the petal and the number of petals. I wanted to have 2 layers that would spin independently so I decided on 5 petals for the front and 5 in the back. I made a template for a larger size petal for the back and a smaller one for the front and copied each template on paper 5 times. After cutting the template
out, I sprayed the back with spray glue so I could arrange them on the tin duct pipe for best fit. I avoided placing the template on the edges that have a crimp and avoided the ripples on the end. I have to admit, even though you can cut through the tin with scissors, it does make your hand really tired. I had to rest my hand after ever 2 or 3 petals.

After all the petals were cut, I sanded down the edges. (As you will see from the picture, I originally had pointy tips to the petals and a little tab that I ended up cutting off because they was just too sharp.)

Because I wanted to create a lifted edge on the petal to catch the wind, I left the paper on so I could draw a curved line to follow so I could score and bend. I was a bit harder to score than I thought so I ended up using a pair of pliers to bend the curve. To smooth things out, I placed the petal on a thick sheet of fun foam and with a muddler and good amount of pressure, smoothed the curves out as best I could. Any smooth round hard surface could be use in place of the muddler

Once all the petals have been curved and smoothed out, you can remove the paper template.

Next is the painting. The tin is a pretty slick surface so using a regular brush didn’t really work well at all. So I dug out my airbrush and airbrush paints and sprayed the colors on.
You can easily use canned spray paint too. I chose some green, blue and purple and gradated it up the petal.

I let all this dry and sprayed on a couple of coats of a clear gloss sealer. Of course one coat at a time with drying time in between.

While all the paint and sealer coats are drying, you can dig into that fidget spinner to steal the bearings. I used a jewelers saw to slice into the plastic and it popped right out. You’ll need 2 of these. Grab those CD’s. This will be the base you need to attach the flowers to and to attach the bearings.
The hole in the bearing and the hole in the CD just happened to be a perfect fit.

They lined up spot on!

Using some gorilla glue, I glued the bearings to the CD being careful not to get glue on the center ring of the bearing because that is where the spin needs to happen. When gluing the bearing down make sure that you are on the side of the CD that does not have the coating on it as the bearing would then be glued to only the coating and the coating could easily pull off.

When the bearing is secured and cure in place you can now attach the petals. It’s a good idea to lay them out to see exactly where you want to place them and if you want them to
over lap them or not. I overlapped my just a tad so you couldn't see the CD behind. I place them just to the outside of the ring. Place a nice strong glue like E-6000 on the CD and press each petal in place. Arrange them as you like and let them dry preferably over night.

Now it’s time to put everything together. First you will need to drill a 5/16th hole through the copper tubing. Run the hex screw through just to make sure it goes through.

The assembly of the following components will go like this:

Slide the first spacer up the length of the 8 inch hex screw, then the small flower. Next will be another spacer and then slide the large flower. After that, another spacer and then a washer.

Slide this entire assembly through the hole in the copper pipe, slip on another washer then screw the nut on securely.

For the center of the flower, I cut the bottom off a soda can (sanded the edges) then centered and glued it to the end of the hex screw.
I left the copper tubing raw in the hopes it will patina, but if you prefer to keep the copper color you can always spray the pole with a clear gloss sealer.

Now just find a spot in the garden, slide it into the dirt and wait for the wind to kick up.

Thanks for taking a look!