This was actually completed about a month ago, but didn’t rate enough interest for posting until today. Getting the old cobbed-up junker repeatedly repaired over the past twenty years to the scrapyard last month was the triggering event for that run – too much junk piled up beside the garage.
I made it more robust and maintainable in a couple of ways this time around. To start with, the ground stake is a full five feet long with stabilizing fins just below the ground surface. It’s solid and not moving. The new mechanism snugly sitting and spinning on the ground stake is part of the frame from an old patio chair. New stainless guts are screwed together with stainless hardware, so when the bowl ever rusts out again, it can be easily replaced by just drilling fifteen holes in a new one and putting it back together.
