Flaming, colorful, glowing, bubbly vortex fountain? You had me at flaming! This project may not require you to aim and fire, but you’ll never want to pull your eyes away from its tornado flames of style.
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GIANT FLAMING VORTEX FOUNTAIN
SAFETY KEY:
+ Fire
SKILL LEVEL:
EASY
INTERMEDIATE
ADVANCED
APPROXIMATE TIME:
4 hours
WHAT YOU’LL NEED:
+ Bucket
+ 16-inch-diameter plastic tray
+ Drink dispenser
+ Water pump
+ Vinyl hosing
+ Plastic elbow connectors
+ LED lights (optional)
+ Bamboo blinds (optional)
+ Rocks (optional)
LET’S BEGIN
SETUP
1. First you will need a large bucket to act as your cistern down below; a pump that can move up to 550 gallons of water per hour; flexible vinyl housing; a drink dispenser that will house the vortex; and a plastic sixteen-inch-diameter tray.
2. First we are going to strip all the excess pieces from the drink dispenser. You are going to want to remove the spigot, but keep the rubber seal.
3. At a hardware store you can find these plastic pieces that turn at an angle; one end is smaller than the other so they can fit together. The smaller end also fits perfectly with your ⅜-inch vinyl hose.
4. You are going to fit the angled piece through where the spigot was, having the narrow end sticking outside.
5. You will then attach the other half to the first one through the container. You are also going to use your rubber seal to help secure the hole.
6. To make sure this is 100 percent waterproof, you are going to want to hot-glue the rubber seal onto the water container.
DRILLING THE HOLES
1. Next you are going to drill a hole on the bottom of the container in the center with a ⅜-inch drill bit.
2. Then you are going to want to make similarly placed holes in your plastic tray.
NOTE: Any plastic tray about sixteen inches in diameter with a lip around the edges should work.
3. First you are going to drill a hole in the center that is about an inch wide. This is where the water will drain through after it leaves the vortex chamber.
4. Next line the two holes up and place a mark where your next hole should be, which is going to be where the tube will come up to pump water into our tank.
5. Once marked, make a hole using a ¾-inch drill bit.
6. To help your fountain drain faster, you can drill a couple more holes right along the edges of your water container. Make sure they are still inside the bucket or else your water will just drain onto the floor. For these holes you can use a ⅝-inch drill bit.
CONNECTING YOUR VORTEX FOUNTAIN
1. You will only need your hose to run from the bottom of your bucket to the entrance of your fountain, so you can cut your hose to that length. To err on the side of caution cut about six inches longer so you can measure it exactly once it’s all attached.
2. Attach your hose to your pump.
PRO TIP: If your vinyl hose is curling too much, you can use some heat to help straighten it out and then let it cool down while holding it straight up.
3. Place your pump with hose attached inside at the bottom of your bucket.
PRO TIP: On your bucket, you will want to cut a notch so the power cord can come out and your tray will still sit flat.
4. Next place your tray on top and run your hose through its designated hole.
5. Place your water container on top of the tray and line the holes up.
6. Now you can mark where to cut your hose to length.
7. Now that everything is lined up and connected, you can add water to your bucket to check to see if it works.
8. You are going to want to make sure you have enough water for this to work. To do so add enough water to cover your pump, then enough water to fill your fountain container, which will ensure that no matter how full your fountain gets, your pump has enough water to keep going.
A water tornado? Now that’s awesome!
DESIGNING YOUR VORTEX FOUNTAIN
LIGHT IT UP!
1. If you want to make your vortex fountain colorful, you can do so by adding some LED lights. These lights you can wrap along the bottom of your fountain. To add the lights, you will want to drill a small hole in the bottom of the tray to run the lighting through and then use hot glue to seal it off.
2. When you run your lights up you want to leave some slack so you can still lift the tray on and off.
3. You can use tape to secure your cords down to the bucket.
4. You may notice having the bucket and wires on the bottom is pretty ugly. There are multiple ways you can disguise this. One easy way is by using bamboo blinds. You will want to cut the blinds so they fit just underneath the lip of the tray. You can hot-glue the bamboo together once wrapped all the way around.
ALSO TRY: Add some stones and rocks to your tray for added decor!
THE BEST PART! Want to add some flames to your vortex? Right now there are tiny bubbles swirling around your vortex. Add a hose going into the bottom that wraps around in a circle with some smaller holes pricked in it. Now add some pressure and see if you can add some larger bubbles to the vortex as well.
GUESS WHAT? These aren’t oxygen bubbles—they’re propane!
So now we have a colorful glowing fire vortex fountain. Too cool!