Desktop Japanese Garden and Fountain
Have you ever been stressed out at your desk? Chances are, you didn’t have a rock garden on your desk to calm you with the peaceful sounds of water splashing onto rocks. Here is your key to relaxing work.
Key Features
Water comes up through a hidden pipe in the middle powered by a pump
Rocks emulate a Japanese Rock Garden
Plants enhance the garden ambience
Water trickling down onto rocks creates relaxing sounds
Primer protects the body against rusting
Summary
Designed a Japanese-inspired fountain surrounded by a rock garden. I welded the frame and fountain housing from a sheet of stainless steel and added in rocks and flowers to create a calming ambience.
Time Frame
4 weeks (March 2022)
Team
Ryan Oosting
My Role
Design; Welding/Manufacturing; Assembly
Methodologies
CAD; Welding
Vision
Original Sketches
This was one of my original sketches of my fountain which was based on my vision of creating a “floating” cube fountain. I came across many different designs during my research phase but I liked the “floating” cube concept the most.
Prototyping
The first foamcore prototype was a turning point for my project because I realized I needed to scale my project down even more to fit within the budget. I also knew I needed to alter my design to streamline the building process as we had a strict time constraint.
CAD Model
This CAD model represents the updated fountain design that scrapped the idea for a neck under the central cube and instead converted the cube into a rectangular prism. The new design solved quite a few problems I was struggling with such as how I was going to weld the neck in time, link the cube to the neck, and how I would make the entire fountain easy to repair instead of completely welded together and difficult to repair.
Welding
After developing my final CAD model, it was time to move into welding. First, I used a metal folding machine to create the desired shapes out of my steel. Next, I welded the edges together to create a solid shape using an oxyacetylene torch.
Final Product
After two weeks of welding, I finally had a complete skeleton for the fountain. I primed the steel to ensure it would not rust and then I added faux rocks and plants to tweak the aesthetic to be more outdoorsy than industrial. Considering the budget and time we had to complete the project, I am very proud of how it turned out.