Year 2004

Work of our members

Horizontal sundial in a pond

For my godchild Lianne I made a triangular sundial. You can find it in Montfoort (52.04 north, 4.95 east).
We call it "The Lianne sundial".

It is made of "impala granite", brass foundation (40 x 8 mm) on which granite (100 x 60 mm) is fixed, fitted with bronze Roman numerals.
The numerals are directed toward to the origin of the style, the dial centre.

The granite foundation stands on three legs of 14mm diameter massive brass bar, on the bottom and top lathed down partially to 10 mm for an M10 screw thread.
On top, at the corners of the triangle, these legs are screwed into the brass granite foundation, where the brass is 16 mm thick.
On these corners, the foundation is provided with brass connecting strips for two reasons: it makes the top of the foundation level, and the strips double its thickness, making for a secure fixing of the legs.

On the bottom, the M10 thread is 10 cm long and large square nuts (8x50x50 mm) are screwed on.
The parts of the legs under the nuts go into 14 mm diameter holes in 6 cm thick paving-stones, two (each with holes) under each leg for a total of 12 cm.

Because the thread length is 10 cm minus the nuts thickness of 8 mm, it is impossible for it to stick out from under the paving-stones and damage the pond liner.

With the nuts and over 9 cm of thread on the legs, it is easy to correct for unevenness of the pond floor and to adjust precisely for the desired sundial height and levelness.

Normally the water comes to halfway the granite thickness, so you cannot see the legs and it seems as if the sundial floats.

Using bronze clamp nuts in the granite, and brass screws, everything is rustproof and immune to weather and winter.
The numerals (with blind holes in which M5 thread has been tapped) are also fixed with brass screws, from the bottom. Kit was not used for any joint.

The numeral XII is fixed to only one of the granite strips, to allow for expansion of freezing water.

This sundial is a simple horizontal dial, yet obviously interesting because of its particular realization.