I’ve always thought that bamboo water hammers are beautiful and would be fun to make.  So, when I had access to bamboo I knew right away what I wanted to do with it. Now I didn’t do the REALLY fancy bamboo water hammer, I did a simple but still beautiful version.

What you need:
-Bamboo

-Saw

1.   Get bamboo. (I know that’s an obvious first step but its harder than you would think.)

2.  These are the places where the bamboo is closed off.

3.  Saw yourself a base for the hammer. Then make hollow the bamboo so that water will flow through it top to bottom.

4.  Cut yourself two small pieces of bamboo for the arms.  Make sure one is thicker than the other and that they will both fit in the base. (One side of each arm has to be one of the walls of bamboo so water can’t get through.)

5.  Hollow out the arms of bamboo but don’t hollow the wall one the back. Next saw a opening at the side of the arms where the back is not closed off.  Make sure the thinner arm of bamboo is shorter than the thicker arm.

6.  Cut two holes in the base of bamboo where the arms can fit snugly.  Make sure the smaller arm is on top.

7.  Cut small holes in the arms where the water from the base will enter the arms.

8.  Now when you put the arms in the base your done for the most part.  Test the water hammer by gently pouring water in the top of the base and making small adjustments till your water hammer works correctly.

9.  If you want you can hook up a tube and a bowl and have the water running through the water hammer consistently.  But, I didn’t do that this time.

How to cut the holes:

1.  Saw two small slits one under the other.

2.  Put the saw underneath the bottom slit and gently pop out a perfectly sized rectangle.