My Mother-in-law asked me to build her a fountain for her front yard. 4 years later I finally did. I didn't know how to weld so this was my first welding project. I actually did this project to enter a Miller competition for a boat. I lost but gained a great life skill with the help of my cousin Samuel.

Step 1: DESIGN DESIGN DESIGN

I have attached the full Solidworks models and a 3D PDF. I originally was going to let the project rust, but after some debate we decided to powder coat it instead. I used proper constraints so you should be able to scale the assembly to any size. I maximized my sheet yield of 5' x 10' and had the part plasma cut.

Step 2: The Parts

Everything came out great, except there was a delay getting the parts back from the plasma cutter. The top tier Coca Pelli some how managed to walk off from their shop so they had to cut another one. I take it as a compliment.

Step 3: Mock Up

We tacked it together in about 7 hours. The pan's aren't welded yet in these photos, but I will say this we are using 3/16" material weld in sections of about 1/2 stick at a time then move on to another side. If you weld one whole side at once it will warp into itself and you'll have to beat it half to death to get it straight.

Step 4: Finish Welding and Grind

I don't have any pictures of this step but trust me There is a lot of welding and grinding we went through 40 lbs. of sticks. In the dxf files I attached you will notice there are holes in the base of each pan. you will want to take stainless threaded rod and cut it to about 3" and tig weld it mid-section. to bolt this thing together. Each section also has 4 mounting plates welded to the corners top and bottom. This is very easy to see in the solid model and will make much more sense if you build this. The rod is 1/2"

Step 5: Assemble and Test.

I placed two fountain pumps. in the base and piped them up to the top with clear nylon tubing there is a garden hose attached to 3/4 in galvanized pipe cut and welded to the base, and a float valve to keep the water level at the right level. I piped the nylon hose to the top and had it pump directly into the top pan. I hope this all makes sense it is a very simple project that took a lot of time more than thought.