Pond Skimmer Project

thingiverse

4/27/16 - Enhanced left gate security to prevent raccoons from easily pulling it out and breaking the pivot tab. 10/25/15 - Successfully converted two STL files from inches to mm, enabling precise dimensions for top right small and top left small parts. This innovative design project involves creating a submerged pond water surface skimmer. The construction process is complex, but I wanted to see if my idea would work, so I'm sharing it as a concept. I have a peanut-shaped pond with a ledge that needed a water skimmer to pull leaves or debris from the surface. The surface tiles are an afterthought; initially, I wanted to print them on my 3D printer (200x200x185), but they were too large, so I broke out the design into smaller parts for a modular approach. For the project, I chose Black ABS for the box and Grey ABS for the surface tiles, gluing them together with ABS plumbers glue. The original design included two gates or one big one glued together; however, after testing, I realized my pump wasn't moving enough water, so I designed a snap-in fixed part where a gate would be. The skimmer's design is flexible and can be scaled up or down as needed. Putting the skimmer together requires careful attention to detail When viewing from the water inlet side with openings closest to the top, the screen and solid inserts tend to float away, requiring a fix. Parts are orientated as printed; gate parts require support material. I've glued floats to gates, using 15% infill for float STL files to make them somewhat hollow. Two floats are glued to one gate; I also increased bottom float height by 125%, but kept x and y dimensions the same. Look at the picture of the float gate for more details.