Splash-Pod: The Personal Water Park

Step 15 Water wheel toy for the EAC

The external accessory chassis provides tons of opportunities for new and exciting water toys. The first two that I had in mind were both simple to make and they each make a great effect. The first one to cover is the water-wheel. When I was first brainstorming with my wife on various toys that I could put into the pod, we spent a lot of time looking through the beach toys at Target or Toys R Us. I knew that the sand wheel would be something fun if I had the wheels spinning under a spray of water but I wasn't sure how to accomplish this.

The EAC makes this really easy. All I have to do is build a pair of removable grippers which will hold a steel rod between them, and mount this into the middle arms of the EAC. With the valves turned off, these will not receive any water pressure. They are just there to hold the toy. I then thread the wheels onto the rod and keep them separate somehow. Ensure that the spray properly covers the wheels and they should spin.

Required Parts:

• Gripper arms:
  • 2x 1/2" PVC end caps
  • 2x 4" sections of PVC pipe
  • 2x MPT to slip fittings
• Pinwheels salvaged from a sand toy (Target)
• 1/8" steel rod (HD)

I build the gripper arms using a MPT to slip fitting, connected to a 3.5" section of pipe and capped with a PVC end cap. The end cap has a 1/8" hold drilled into the middle. This hole is whee the steel rod will fit.

The sand toy was pretty easy to disassemble. Once I had the four pinwheels removed, I had to enlarge the center holes to accommodate the steel rod. I used a 9/32" drill bit to enlarge the holes. Next, I made a kebob with the wheels and half-inch sections of leftover surgical tubing. Two pieces of tubing per wheel, so that I could properly space the wheels underneath the spray. I also made sure to swap the rotation directions of the toys so that the wheels will spin in opposite directions.

To finish the build, simply install one of the grippers into the middle-arms of the EAC, insert one end of the steel rod into it, mount the second gripper and then insert the second end into it. Turn on the spray so that you can adjust the position of the wheels. It works great and is a nice visual treat.