TOOL TO FIX CHI IN YOUR HOME:"The Cave".

[ranald]

Eastern cultures especially the Chinese like to prevent diseases rather than cure. For properties like home, office 7 workspace they like to fix Chi to allow good healthy energy to enter the home.
Sometimes too much energy rushes into a dwelling etc like cases where there is a long driveway (especially straight one) and at the end of a cul-de-sac.

An expert if Chi & Feng shui will advise many cures like planting flowers, red cord, mirrors , gold coins, plugging water outlets in the financial sector of the home, for bringing balance and financial & health rewards to your property.



Here I'm showing my take on one item that helps the balance.

Our front door is at the end of a carport which is at the end of a relatively steep & straight driveway.

I had purchased a lovely figured piece of camphor laurel (considered a weed here in Aus due to its multiplying & out competing our native equivalents). It seasoned over some years but I was apprenhesive about using it for its original intended use: that of a natural edged table top. It has pimples and sharp edges that could be hadardous to shorter folk's heads and their little fingers.


I was in a bit of a reverie looking outside the square and came up with this fish tank stand to break up the Chi energy as it rushed into the dwelling. At present I cant show pics with fish as my son moved home with his pool table and other chattels so it isn't doing its job currently. I approached an expert and she advised gold fish were fine (easy to maintain in our erratic climate) and seven were best. 2 black & 5 gold.I had to move them on when hearing of my son's temperory return ( about a year now). "The Woodworker & Woodturner"(UK) published a pic of it under Whimsical woodworking.

I cut the camphor slab in two & reversed the halves to create the underwater appearance of "the cave". To enable it to carry the weight of the 1.23 metre tank full of water, stones, fish etc I decided to use two solid legs each with a foot to span the weight to avoid tipping.


The legs are pear tree and the tops are cut at angles to create further interest. I originally thought of an offset gable like top to house a light but decided against that.




Feet are made from off cuts of other camphor laurel.




The carcase that holds the tank to the legs & front is made from 3/4" pine Lamellod (biscuit joined) together of form a main shelf with a smaller one for scoop, feed & any other bits & bobs for the fish & tank.This I painter flat black to make it invisible to the beauty of the other timbers. It is attached to the legs & front by 2" gal batton screws.


Legs are attached to the face pieces by 4" long gal batten screws and plugged with, as near the matching grain I could get from the pear off cuts.

The Original hang on waterfall oxygenator pump has long gone & could not be replaced identically so I replaced it with a Jebo (an excellent pump that lasted years: it's still on the website but unavailable). I had to rout a stopped groove for it's implentation.I had allowed a few inches for a pump in the original design but unforseen things happen.



Hope you like it: my woodworking buddies have said things like "that isn't woodwork as there are no mortices or dovetails" to comments like "that is an engineering masterpiece" anyway thankfully we are all different and have different tastes.

The tank is a bit dirty but I will clean when my son moves to his new place of residence, before installing more fish.

Feel free to comment.

Cheers
Ranald