Best metal for water feature work

A real good choice would be 304 stainless. This sounds decorative. TIG welding this would provide the nicest result.

Karl

Steve, Stainless will be the most popular suggestion, but there are more materials that would also work very well and deliver a multitude of differences in appearences. Some would be more difficult to weld, but welding is not always the best fabrication method. Remember weldments in stainless require passivation prior to exposure and the water MUST be free flowing and oxygen rich.. Even cast iron can be beautiful, hot dipped in zinc or bare. Steve

"SteveB" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news.infowest.com:

An important question: What is the analysis of the water?

Will it be "Hard" [lots of dissolved/suspended minerals]? If so, will there be periodic acidizing to remove scale?

Will it be acidic?

etc.

If [unlikely as it may seem] this is for an indoor feature using distilled water, the brass would, over time, develop a patina.

Otherwise, unless you can find the bronze, tigged stainless would seem to have the edge.

Oh shoot! I just made a stainless steel chum ladle for my favorite charter boat captain. I didn't know about this. How is it done? I spent a bunch of time grinding and polishing so it would be beautiful.

Karl

Nothing will passivate against bunker guts. The ladle is doomed.

But why would anyone want a beautiful ladle for slinging fish guts?

BTW, I have two pieces of heavy canvas we used to use as covers for the gunwales on my uncle's boat, when we were ladling chum. They're now my outdoors painting dropcloths, but I'm thinking of framing them and taking them to a NYC art gallery, where I probably could get $1,000/each for them. d8-)

-- Ed Huntress

Captain Dave has got me more keeper Groupers and monster Yellow Tail than I can count out of Marathon, FL. It was a dream, I guess. I insulted his chum ladle several times - tuna can nailed to a 1x2. Now, he'll insult my rusted out POS ladle next year.

Karl

See, the captain is a real salt, using a tuna tin on a stick. My uncle used something similar.

I lived right next to Marathon (Key Colony Beach -- there were about 25 houses there then) as a kid, BTW, in 1962. Except for food fishing, which I did a lot of, my youth at that time was ill-spent chasing bonefish. There were still plenty of them in the central Keys. And a keeper grouper was any grouper you could catch. You could pick up keeper-size spiny crayfish as you walked the flats.

-- Ed Huntress

Karl, Perhaps if you have abraided adequately the weldment area during the buffing and polishing process, you may be ok. Passivation is required to etch either chemically or electrically the iron molecules that migrated to the surface while the area was hot. Steve

Stainless can be passivated with nitric acid but I don't know the dilution.

Passivation is just a surface thing anyway. Once the iron molecules on the surface have rusted it may look a bit crusty but it'll still hold up considerably longer than a tuna can.

Acid concentration can range from 20-50% at temperatures of 60-160F for 20-120 minutes, depending on the type of stainless and degree of contamination from machine operations. For a "back yard" metalworker, I'd suggest a 30% solution at room temperature for about a half hour.

If it is for my own use, it will use irrigation water, which is nonpotable water from the local irrigation system. I have no clue to its contents, and do not want to pay for an analysis. The fountain will need to be drained several months of the year due to freezing temperatures. If I sell any of these, it will be up to the buyer to provide their own water, and even if it is indoor, the cost of distilled would be high due to evaporation due to high surface area.

Steve