I got this old sprinkler head from the salvage place downtown because I thought it looked like a monkey face, not realizing that it’s not ferrous so I can’t weld it.
So I need an alternate way to attach the head firmly to the body. If there was a connection on the inside between the eyes, that would be easy (loop something across the joining piece and attach to the body), but sadly there isn’t.
I think I’ll probably need to insert something through the eye holes or neck hole that is squishable but will firm up once inside, so I can attach it that way. My initial thought was to use clay, but that doesn’t seem nearly sturdy enough to keep the head attached.
So…concrete, or something? And if yes, anybody know where I can get a very small portion of concrete?
(Note: It’s not in a completed state in this pic. I still need to add arms and legs, but don’t need advice about that!)
The sprinkler head, by the way, appears to be zinc. And I probably paid way too much for it at the salvage place (they have such cool stuff but man it’s expensive), because I just found a two-pack on Amazon for like $15.
Metal sprinkler heads generally seem to be really good for faces and other cool shapes. Check this one out— it’s brass, but I bet I could use the same method (bolting) for attaching it as the monkey head.
The connection where you would screw a hose to the sprinkler should be a 3/4 inch pipe thread. Try screwing a 3/4 inch pipe nipple into it then you could cut the nipple to the length you need and weld to that.
if that goes on the end of a hose, it’s not a 3/4" NPT thread. It’s a 3/4" NH. The thread pitch for 3/4" NPT is 14 tpi and NH is 11.5 tpi. They are not the same.
So last night I tried drilling holes in the back of the monkey head, then in the piece I want to use as a “halo” behind it— at home, because I am not going out on those roads.
I like the idea of screwing it onto a threaded pipe, but the bottom piece is broken off in the back because I tried grinding it to make it flat and…that didn’t work so well.
So then, experimentally, I put 15 mm glass eyes on it and stuffed some fairy lights inside, just to see how that could look. Might use different eyes and/or a different lighting method in the final version.
