Fountain

This instructable is about making a water founatin with very few materials, most of which can be found around the house.

You will need:

• A water pump
• A 9 Volt battery
• A battery connector
• Foil
• Cardboard
• Tape
• Glue
• Scissors
• A Plastic container of some sort with an open top. (I used a big water container cut in half)
• A soldering iron and some solder

Cut out two lengths of wire. One should be about 8 cm long and the other about 15 cm long. Strip both the ends of both the wires and solder the shorter wire to the water pump and twist it down and tape it to the side of the water pump. Strip the ends of the 9V battery conector and solder the longer wire to the negative end and to the water pump. If the positive wire of the battery connector is very short extend it. Next cut two lengths of pipe. One should be longer than the other. The short pipe should be able to reach the bottom of the container from 10 cm down the outside of the container. The longer one should be able to reach the bottom and more then halfway back up the container. Attach the smaller pipe to the port on the water pump that sucks water in and the longer one on the port that sends water out. You can tell which one is which by turning on the water pump by joining the two positive wires and putting a finger over one of the ports. Tape the two pipes together until slightly before the short pipe ends.

Cut out two cardboard squares that are roughly 6 cm by 6cm. Fold a bit of aluminium foil slightly smaller than the squares and tape it down on a square leaving the aluminium foil exposed in the center. Do not tape down all the sides. Leave one side without tape on it. Repeat this for the other square. Next construct a box like object out of cardboard like shown in the image above and stick it to the back of one of the squares. Slip the end of the positive wire from the battery under the foil from the side that has no tape on it. Make sure that the metal part of the wire and the foil are touching. Then tape down the side. The wire should be securely attached. Stick a small rectangle of cardboard onto the back of the other square to form a 'handle'. Don't to anything else to this square yet.

First cut out four lengths of carboard and fold them into small triangles as shown above. Next stick these at regular intervals around the plastic container. These will hold the lid in place. Next laser cut a circle slighlty smaller than the diameter of the container. Make sure that the circle has holes so that water can fall back into the contianer and that it has a cut out in the centre of it so that the longer pipe can fit through it. Also required is a small rectanguler cut out on the circumference of the circle so that the two pipes can fit through.

The water pump will need to be mounted to the outside of the container. Sticking the pump directly to the container is an option, however if you ever need to replace or fix anything it will be quite hard to do so. Therefore making an enclosure that you can mount on the side of the conatiner and let the motor sit inside of is better. The enclosure also protects it from accidental splashes of water. This design made it very easy to seal all the seams of the pump when it started leaking water. The enclosure is just a carboard box that is a snug fit for the motor with a flap ontop. Also make sure to include a hole on the bottom for the postive wire to fit through and two holes on the lid for the two pipes and the negative wire to fit through.

Slide the water pump into it's enclosure making sure the postive wire taped to the side of it goes through the hole on the bottom of the enclosure and that the pipes exit the top of it. Slide the battery into the battery holder and put the pipes into the container. Tape the smaller pipe to the inner side of the container. Next attach the left over square to the positive wire sticking out at the bottom of the water pump enclosure, making sure that the foil faces the container. Then stick the sqaure with the box on the back of it to the container such that when the square with the 'handle' on the back is pushed down the two squares touch and the pump turns on. The last thing to do is drop the lid into place and thread the longer pipe through the hole so that it sticks out. Fill it up with some water and try it out.

You can also dress up the pipe if you want to. You can make a peeing statue, a fish spitting out water or just a tiered block of plastic for the water to cascade off of.