There is a great variety of fountains in the Grisons, the ones in this section will be the  mundane, every day kind found in towns, at the stations, along the roads and in the grazing meadows.

Not the elaborate fountains found in the cities, ours are supposed to represent the rural character of the Grisons.

The full scale samples

If, by accident, one forgot to shoot pictures of the many fountains while in the Grisons ..... not a problem. Google will serve up a great selection using  “Brunnen+Graubünden“ as the search terms and then switching to “Images”.

More of the same in many locations in the Grisons can be found by using Google Earth and clicking on the many image locations. That’s how I came across the picture Tom Kohout shot back in 2009.

I added the copyright notice. Also a bit more light to show a bit more of the sample.

Model

Since this won’t be a replica at that precise location — Naz near Preda — I decided to do a few free-lance samples.

Construction

The raw material was found in the Park next door, branches with a good, dense structure are the best.

The trough was rough milled on the milling machine and the corners were modified using a small chisel. Care must be taken to prevent splitting the wood and/or cutting oneself!!!

Should the wood split, one starts over. One should have enough raw material on hand.

The upright column from which the water pipe protrudes can be simulated using carved Styrofoam or using a smaller branch. Using a branch one mills a slot into the back side, from the bottom to the point where the pipe will go out through the front, to somewhat hide the water pipe. On the samples I used 1/8” copper tubing, the slot is slightly wider and deeper.. The hole to bring the pipe out the front is 1/8” for a good fit. The two pieces of tubing are cut at 45º and carefully soldered. Test to make sure solder isn’t plugging the tubing!

A bit too much water come out the 1/16” orifice of the tubing.

To reduce the volume insert a piece of 1/16” tubing, solder, the cut to length with the smaller tubing protruding slightly out the front. Deburr and clean up, test again that no solder plugs the tubing. If all is as it should be blacken the piping before adding it to the upright.

That leaves attaching the upright to the trough, placing a piece of slate on top of the upright and then do the water test..

Let her flow

How is the fountain fed?So far we tried two methods. Using a small pump, re-discovered in our electrical supplies drawer. The other one using a 2 Liter pop bottle as the source. The pop bottle is hidden, in an elevated position, in the Alberta spruce by the Naz meadow.

Video of the pump method  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMOOTANQDlc

A very short video of the grazing meadow below Naz  http://vimeo.com/126955297

More to follow