Another water tower topper you might be interested in comes from the clinic. Next time you’re in, consider asking for the disposable ear speculum. They otherwise get tossed out.
The downside, is you’ll probably want a weathervane or a flag as well.
The one I made a long time ago , I topped with a toothpick and a bead.
Here’s a napkin drawing.
Puttering continues…
First, Bill ( @Hines ), thanks for that idea! Let the scrounging begin!
Second, after two weeks of avoiding this project, I made the decision to move forward. Largely, the issues were how to mount the tank to the tower and the banding.
The first issue I took head on with materials at hand. I used CA to fix bits of scrap brass wire into existing holes in the legs then filled the cavity with more CA. I followed this by tapping oversized holes into the bottom braces, placing them on the new pegs, and, using CA, fixed them in place.
Crude, perhaps, but it’ll hold. This overhead shot shows how far from square the original structure was.
I am, as always, awed by my father-in-law’s gift for transforming junk to treasure, but it has complicated this repair (which, I note, I began two years ago…). That shot, though, reminded me that this project lies at the nexus of toy, model, and folk art, and I really needed to continue to embrace that if I want to bring it over the line.
Armed with that re-realization, I proceeded on to banding, using 14" black zip ties. There were some really cool stainless ties, but, at 11" would have been just too short. To mount these, I carefully drilled holes into the gantry frame, slipped them through, checked their position, and made them fast. I ran some thin CA into the lock and along the edge to help against future slip.
One of the boards did snap, so I am wondering what sort of cylinder is actually at the core of this thing! The break is not visible, so I did not investigate further.
That brings us to here…
…where it will remain as I attend to some other obligations over the next week or so. Then I’ll attack the downspout, counterweights, and level gauge before proceeding to mounting the tank on the pumphouse.
Thanks for the tips along the way!
Eric
