The Dale C. Maley Family Web Site

New Wood Pump Lawn Ornament for Sister Karen

Many years ago I either built or repaired a wood pump for my sister Karen.  This spring she informed me the old one was shot and I needed to build her a new one. Here is a picture of the old one........the 1/4" plywood bottom had rotted out and fallen out:

I searched my records, and I did not find any plan or design for making this........so from the worn out model, I made a Google Sketchup of the design:

I changed the 1/4" plywood bottom to regular 3/4" thick stock, with a 1/2" gap between boards to let the rain drain out.  The two green uprights are from a landscaping timber which is round with 2 flats as shown.

I had quite a time designing the handle. It was too large to scan the old one and import into Sketchup.  I traced the old one on cardboard, then used it to design something similar in Sketchup.  This picture shows drilling the dowel hole in the handle:

Here are photos of the completed new pump:

Concluding Thoughts on this Project:

I designed the top pieces of the pump to be removable by having them rotate on a 3/4 inch dowel on the centerline.  If the unit needs repair, I can just build a new piece in my workshop versus hauling the whole thing home.  I mounted the spout with a 3/4" horizontal dowel also.

The pump handle usually breaks at the top, like the old one shown above.  I don't know how to make it any stronger, except maybe make it out of 3 glued up laminations using external plywood.  Now that I have the handle pattern captured in Sketchup, it is not big deal to make a new handle, since Sketchup prints out the to-scale pattern (you have to glue up 3 sheets but it works ok).