Splash-Pod: The Personal Water Park

Step 10 Preparing the tub.

The 35-gallon galvanized tub is where all the action occurs. It sits inside the giant hole that we cut into the top (in section 4).

Inside the tub we'll have a variety of permanent toys, including:

1. Seven 1/8" micro jets. These shoot the furthest with the most pressure. I aimed four of them to cross the tub in a North vs South (green button) and East vs West (yellow button) path. The other three shoot out up into the air, either from the basin floor or from the walls.
2. Five 1/4" large jets. These shoot with more volume and really get the interior wet.
3. One 1/4" hose. This is just another 1/4" jet but with 3 feet of slack attached. The hose allows kids in the tub to spray other kids (or, in my case - parents) far outside the normal range of fire. This proved to be one of the most popular toys in the system. Kids of all ages loved having their own weapon!
4. One short articulated 'snake' with a high-volume nozzle on the end.
5. One long articulated 'snake' with a flat-fan nozzle on the end.
   • Both of the snakes are components for water-cooled CNC mills and I thought that these would make excellent toys in my project. I was right, this was one of the most used toys in the whole arsenal.
6. One exterior ring filled with misting holes and micro jets. This surrounds the entire rim of the tub and fills the whole area with spray. It was especially hard to get this on video because of the amount of water this produced. You had to stand pretty far back.

Every one of these components require special consideration for mounting and sealing.

Each button has a different set of functions and corresponding water jets. I didn't want there to be a localized feel to the jets, so that hitting the green button in the back-right corner of the tub activates jets in the back-right, and the top-left button activates jets & toys in the top-left. I wanted each button to activate components in all areas of the tub so that there's never a dull moment; never a dry spot. To ensure that this was possible, I have to plan out the jets & lines properly.

Here is the plan, based on the functions above:

Top Right (Yellow): 2x 1/8" wall jets, in crossfire. 1x 1/4" floor jet, angled upwards to shoot out of tub. 1x 1/4" "short snake."
Top Left (Blue): 1x 1/8" wall jet, angled high. 1x 1/4" wall jet, angled down. 1x 1/4" floor jet, shoot straight up. 1x 1/4" rim-mounted ring
Bottom Right (Red): 1x 1/8" wall jet. 1x 1/8" floor jet, shoot angle at wall. 1x 1/4" "fire hose." 1x 1/4" "long snake"
Bottom Left (Green): 2x 1/8" wall jets, mounted high in crossfire. 1x 1/4" floor jet, shoot straight up. 1x 1/4" wall jet, shoot straight across.

That covers all 16 as described in the previous menu. Now I need to make sure that each of these items are spread across the tub. Since each button covers four components, this was easy enough. I divided the tub into four equal quadrants and ensured that each color had one line going to each quadrant, following the guidelines I described (crossfire, aim high, etc). I started with the 1/8" holes and moved onto the 1/4" holes. Each hole was finished with a quick de-burring using my metal file. The last two holes that were required were the 1/2" holes needed by the internal accessory connectors.

The final step is to cut the hole in the floor for the drain and install the drain assembly. I actually bought a smaller drain setup but screwed up on the first hole so had to get a second one. Word to the wise - tin snips are a poor way to mangle cut through a galvanized tub. The side-cutting metal bit from Dremel was perfect for this and I wish I had thought of it sooner. I also wish that I still had a real Dremel instead of my baby cordless model (though, this worked great for the starfield ceiling). It ate through batteries like crazy. After the correct hole was drilled, I inserted the drain assembly into the hole. I then drilled four holes through the metal and attached the whole assembly using rivets & washers. The tops of the rivets were then filed down to remove any sharp edges. Finally, I liberally caulked all around the rim of the drain to leak-proof it. I only wanted water going down the drain hole, nowhere else.

Now we are ready to start filling this with our tubing.