Art Nouveau Water Filter

My initial inspiration for this project was to combine my knowledge of water filters from my Environmental Engineering undergrad with my love for quality, beauty, and design, to create a badly needed water filter for me and my housemates. Initially I was going to do a different aesthetic, but then when I was exploring aesthetic options I decided that I really liked the idea of going with Art Nouveau.

This project started out on track, I ordered the piping and valve from McMasterCarr early on and it came quickly. I figured out how much activated carbon I needed, and that arrived quickly as well.

The steel piping came as ordered but because I was ordering online and didn’t have the jug before placing the order I soon learned that the 1/2″ T (the 3-way split in the thicker pipe in the photo below) couldn’t fit through the neck of the jug, so I will just have to have a singular, non-splitting downstem for that part. When the order arrived I also discovered a tag on the pretty copper faucet that said it can expose you to chemicals including lead which are known to the State of California to cause cancer and reproductive harm, so I’m thinking of getting a different faucet… I began to slow down on this project when I got caught in the rabbit holes of trying to figure out a way to make all the parts food safe. I’ve since decided I am attempting to make something beautiful for the expo, not something that works.

I found the glass jug and rubber stopper at a local store called Boulder Fermentation supply. I used regular drill bits and a plug-in electric drill to pierce holes in the rubber stopper, which I then stuck the steel tubes through.

Next, I began working on the base which I wanted to be quite ornate with lots of whiplash curves, below is the final design I came up with.

It was difficult to find wood locally, neither McGuckins nor Michael’s had anything useful. I eventually found 1/4 inch birch plywood in HomeDepot which worked well for the job. In order to have the design visible from all sides, I had to raster (laser-etch the design, as supposed to cut) both sides of the wood, the photo below was taken between the two raster runs.

The timelapse below that is of the raster run on the second side.

I enjoyed learning how to laser cut and I was happily surprised to learn how easy it is to laser cut parts that fit together. I wood glued the laser cut parts into place, making quite a sturdy structure. While the base can hold weight, it is currently quite succestable to twisting, which is kind of funny because it looks like a dance, but it is not a feature I want in the final product.

I struggled with the funnel design for a long time because I wanted to make it artistic while keeping it food safe. I also wanted to make garlic clove-like ridges around the sides of the funnel but wasn’t able to figure out how to do that. I ended up deciding to go for aesthetics and printed it with a waterproof material that I could get access to in the ITLL, with hopes of coating it in some sort of food safe epoxy or similar coating. Based on my research, it seems like a coating that makes it food safe won’t be possible. I’ve also considered trying to bend a metal funnel into the shape I wanted, or making it out of clay in pottery class, But for practical use I will probably just use a store bought funnel.

The photo below is of what I have so far, I haven’t filled it with activated carbon or water yet since I won’t be able to easily take either the activated carbon or the water out once I put it in.

To finish this project, I hope to build a laser cut another base that is bigger, has more cross sectional supports, and can connect directly (with zipties) to the outlet pipe to hold it in place.