Splash-Pod: The Personal Water Park

Step 14 External accessory chassis

This whole concept came towards the end when I was describing some of my planned toys to a friend of mine. One of the proposed toys was a tipping bucket feature like they have at most major water parks. I knew that I could get the physics of the tipping bucket right, but I was not sure about the method for suspending the contraption above the kids. He and I brainstormed on this for a little while and came up with a pretty nice solution. This last piece is a completely self-contained toy which happens to fit perfectly on top of the splash-pod. This toy expands the accessory connectors by four, depending on how it is hooked up. All output connections are 1/2" FPT, just like the standard accessory connectors. This means that any of my toys can plug into this toy, and I have even more room for upgrades.

As soon as I came up with the basic form for the chassis, I realized that this could do a lot more than just the tipping buckets. I had an earlier idea for a pinwheel toy and this was a perfect opportunity to create it.

I went with hose pipe thread for the input for two reasons. First, the free-spinning hose pipe thread connector allows me to connect a hose to the external accessory connectors without any trouble. If I went with a standard 1/2" female pipe thread instead, I'd have a problem with counter-spinning a hose with dual 1/2" MPT ends. If you hooked up the chassis on one end, you would have to spin the hose the opposite direction in order to hook it up on the other. A free-spinning connector resolves this conflict. I hook up the input hose to an external accessory connection and then the other end goes into the external chassis. This easily connects because the free-spinning connector threads right onto it. The second reason is even cooler - by using hose pipe thread, this toy will work completely independent of the splash-pod. If the kids want to use this as a quick water toy, all I have to do is hook up a hose. And again, all of my current (and future) toys will plug right in.

And... to get the ultimate in wet fun, I can run a SECOND water hose into the top assembly while the splash pod receives its own input. The top will then be 'always on' but holy crap it's a lot of water this way.

Picture #2 shows a simple MSPaint drawing of the assembly. Standard PVC construction techniques were used here so I won't go over that again. The dimensions are basically whatever the top surface of your water toy will be. Since mine is a 39" square toy, each of the 'grip arms' that straddle the side must be properly spaced. This was easily figured out by doing a quick dry-fit before I made any cuts.

When this assembly receives water pressure, the entire setup fills up with water. This is why I used valves on the middle arms and plugs inside the grip arms. This forces water to go exactly where I want it. If I'm using the arms which hold the tipping water bucket, I'll cut off the flow of the water and these middle arms become structural components, not water features.