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You don’t have to be particularly handy or have a shop full of tools either. About the only tools you’ll need are a jigsaw for cutting in the spout hole, a maul for pounding in the support stakes and a hacksaw for cutting the bamboo to length.
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Sluices
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Pond and recirculating pump
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The best way to design and plan is to begin at the bottom and work your way away from the pond. Figure about a 6-in. slope on each 10- to 12-ft. bamboo sluice section.
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Elevate the pump by using the pond ledges or a couple of bricks to keep it up out of the sand and sludge. Plug the pump into a GFCI-protected outlet. Use stronger corrugated water lines if you’re burying the line underground or are concealing it under heavy stones.
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1. Dig the pond hole slightly oversized and set the pond liner on a 2-in. bed of sand in the hole. Keep the lip of the liner slightly above the surrounding soil to keep dirt from washing into the water. Fill around the liner with sand to support the sides.
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2. Lay out the path of the sluice with lengths of split bamboo so the approximate slope of each is 6 to 12 in. every 10 ft. Vary lengths and angles to best fit your garden or yard. Overlap the bamboo as necessary to work out the best bamboo lengths.
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3. Cut the discharge end of each sluice at about a 30-degree angle with a hacksaw. Cut off the uphill end a foot or so longer than where the next sluice will drain into it.
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4. ck out the nodes with the claw end of a hammer up to the point where the water will pour into the sluice. Leave the nodes intact above that point to keep water from draining out the back end— especially important for low slopes (see Photo 7).
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5. Cut the end off a 3-ft. length of 1-in. bamboo at an angle and drive it into the ground at a 45- to 60-degree angle. (You’ll get the idea after the first one.) Lift the sluice to its approximate level to determine the correct crossing point for the second stake. Drive in the second pair of stakes at the top of the sluice using the same technique.
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6. Cut off 2 ft. of No. 8 copper wire and wrap the crutch legs tightly together with five or six tight windings.
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7. Drive the downhill crutch of the next sluice into the ground. Use a garden hose to check the water flow for positioning the uphill crutch. Continue working your way up the hill with the rest of the sluices and crutches.
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8. Cut the top off a 4-in. full diameter length of bamboo just above a node (so water won’t collect in the top; Photo 12). Then measure and cut off a length for the spout base that’s 12 in. longer than the height of the last sluice. Knock out all the lower nodes with a piece of 2-in. PVC pipe.
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9. Cut a 45-degree angle on the bottom of the PVC and drive it about 8 in. into the ground just behind the last sluice (Photo 8). Slip the spout base over the PVC pipe and trace around a 12-in. length of 2-in. bamboo to mark the hole for the spout.
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10. Drill a 3/8-in. pilot hole and cut out the spout hole with a jigsaw fitted with a fine-tooth blade. Shave the hole edges with a sharp utility knife until the spout fits snugly into the hole.
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11. Drill a 1-in. hole near the bottom and thread the water line up through the bottom hole and out through the spout hole.
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12. Slip the spout base over the PVC pipe and screw it to the PVC with a couple of 2-in. drywall screws. Slide the spout into the base.
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13. Estimate the overall rise by sighting along the top of a 4-ft. level to get an “eyeball” benchmark up the hill. The benchmark can be a stone or a stick or whatever. Then go up the hill and repeat the sighting from that benchmark until you reach the fountain height. The distance from your eye to your feet is what you’ll be adding to the benchmark-to-spout distances to get the overall rise.
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