A new sprinkler-stand base I made

[Joel_BC]

Over a year ago, I modified an existing factory made steel-rod sprinkler-stand base to add more weight to it, by welding a couple of 10 lb steel dumbells onto it. (That base is illustrated on the SufficientSelf forums.) I needed another one and did not have another steel-rod base to start from. So I made a base from scratch that would have an adequate footprint and also enough weight (by virtue of its materials) to be stable.

I had some square tubing that I'd salvaged from our local public dump - before they put in the surveillance cameras to deter people from grabbing useful bits! Anyhow, these were not long pieces, so I wound up using two that had a 2-inch cross section, and two that were just 11/2 inch. In addition, I'd found a piece of quarter-inch by 2-inch strap steel. All were extremely rusted. Since I was going to weld pieces together, I used an angle grinder with wire-brush head to clean off the rust.

I cut tubing pieces to about 13 inches. My design was to weld them together in such a way that the ends are left open. My idea was that if I needed to add more weight, I could stuff the tubes with mason's mortar. By itself, the tubing base weighs about 15 lbs. I calculated that enough cement/mortar to fill the tubing would weigh about nine lbs when cured.

I brazed the bottom plumbing component onto the strap. Above that I used fittings to connect to a four-foot long threaded pipe. With a "butterfly-type" twirling sprinkler mounted on this sprinkler stand, it doesn't need to withstand much reaction, as would be the case with an impulse type head. The previous stand I'd built was for an impulse-style sprinkler, and very much needed the extra weight at the bottom. But a trial of the new setup told me adding extra weight from cement/mortar to the new base base would not be necessary.

 

[sumi]

That's neat!

 

[Britesea]

That's clever. It really gripes me that we aren't allowed to salvage from the dump anymore- you'd think with all the ballyhoo about landfills filling up too fast, they would be happy if some of it was removed. There used to be a "Last Chance Store" at our dump, where the workers put stuff that they themselves had salvaged that appeared to be in decent shape; even that is gone now. Big business simply cannot allow any competition and have lobbied legislation to "protect" both the workers and the public.

 

[baymule]

@Joel_BC you are always so handy! You remind me of a friend of mine-drop him in the wilderness out of an airplane with a Q-tip, come back in three months-and there would be a shopping mall!

 

[Denim Deb]

I like how small it is. Hubby has something that, while it works well, takes up a lot of room since it has a tripod base. I'm wondering if he could convert it to something like this instead.

 

[Joel_BC]

Hi, Deb. People often use the tripod ones due to the force of the water stream - such as with an impulse-type sprinkler head. If this is the sort of head you're putting on the pipe, then I think, yes, you could use this type of base, but you'd probably need that extra weight that I originally considered putting into the base I built. (See the design considerations I mentioned in the OP).

 

[Denim Deb]

Probably would need the weight, but we'd get er done.