Koi feeder

Dad requested a photo so I'm posting it.

The automatic koi feeder is functional rather than elegant.

As I mentioned the difficulty is the timer, if I had a timer/controller that would go to seconds then I could have made it more easily. As it was I had to slow down the motor and the auger.

I took a 5 gallon bucket - drilled an outlet for a pipe and up high an inlet for the power cord. [it had to be in a bucket or something sealed or the raccoons would raid it.]

Then with a 1/2 inch PVC - glued inside and outside with an open top inside for the auger. The auger is a spring that I pulled and 'sprung' until the opening was about what I wanted. A drill bit could be used but the twist is 'longer' and would deliver too much food.

Attached the 'auger' to a right-angle conversion attached to a variable speed drill - and wired down the trigger so it ran very slowly.

Plugged that into a digital timer so it will run from 9:00 a.m. to 9:01 a.m. daily or MWF as needed

Then with foam board and styrofoam board I created a slanted chamber for the food.

Food is a mix of Cherrios [and they will only eat plain, not Honey Nut, etc.] and some koi food.

Like most jobs I could build a better one the SECOND time.