GFRC Concrete Fountain

• Jeff's class -> want to put ideas to the test
• Cat fountain excuse
• Design

-- Love mixed materials Metal + concrete -> half copper pipe. -- Shape very much dictated by the form I could build with my limited tools (angles were out). -- Form built with a mix of 3D printed components and a melamine shell --- Melamine exterior --- 3D-printed TPU component used to create the cavity in the top and to aid in aligning the copper tube. --- PLE component use to create the inner cavity for the pump and for positioning pipes for the water inlet, water outlet, and electrical cable. -- Material: Glass-fiber reinforced concrete with Integrity PowerPack and a healthy dose of Integrity Ultraflow superplasticizer.

• Lessons Learned

-- Calibrate your tools - square cuts are everything. -- Use the right silicone -- Embedded metals need some more mechanical bite -> should have glued some some strips to the side to lock it in place.

Whenever I'm tempted to trust in my inner Homo economicus, I can look back on this project as a sober reminder of just how readily reason defects to the service of Homo ludens and Homo faber. Why would we spend $20 to buy a fountain for the family cat when I could make one instead? Several months and more than $20 later, reason's duplicity was painfully apparent.

To be fair, I had just taken Jeff Girard's "Creative Concrete Mastery" class and was itching for an excuse to put what I had learned into practice.