Funnels Tubes and Water

Today I’m joining JDaniel4′s Mom for a Playing Outside Blog Hop. My amazing co-hosts are Rainy Day Mum, Two Big Two Little, Inspiration Laboratories, Train Up a Child, and Mama Pea Pod. Our theme is Water Play.

As you know, we love playing outside and love playing with water. I think any type of water play is Sammie's favourite thing to do while outside.

I've been wanting to make some new way for her to play with water for a little while now. And I also knew that I wanted it to be done with funnels.

Shortly after we got our outdoor water/sand table, I added a couple of funnels with plastic tubing to our water play toys. Sammie liked playing with them, but they always had to be held up by someone while someone else poured the water into them, which was a bit of a pain. We tried attaching them to the wall behind the table, but they just wouldn't stay very long.

One night, while laying in bed, trying to sleep, this idea came to me :) I think it took me an extra couple of hours to fall asleep that, as I thought and figured out how to make what I wanted lol

I took a trip to Home Depot and bought the following supplies:

-1 piece of 46" 2x2 wood (I think the piece that I bought was actually deck railing support)

-2 piece 48 1/2" of round doweling (approx 1 1/2" across)

-6" screws

-1 metal washer

-some various sizes of plastic ties

-two sizes of plastic tubing (I took my funnels with me to make sure the funnels fit into the ends of the tubing)

-some wood glue

I wanted this to fit into a bin from her water table, so I measured the bin from corner to corner, diagonally and I cut the wood pieces into the following smaller pieces

- 2 20" pieces of the 2x2

-2 3" pieces of the 2x2

-1 22 1/2" dowel

-2 17 1/2" dowel

-3 13" dowel (I only used two of these pieces, Sammie claimed the leftover piece to play with lol)

 I originally tried to screwing the screws up through both pieces of 2x2 and up into the piece of dowel, but because the wood of the dowel is much harder than the 2x2, my screw just kept right on going into the 2x2. So I ended up pre-drilling all my holes. I also put a little wood glue on the end of the dowel that was against the 2x2, to help hold better.

I set the 2x2 pieces into an X shape with the dowels pieces standing on the center and at the end of each piece of the 2x2. When screwing the center together, I put a metal washed in between the two pieces of 2x2, that way, the pieces of 2x2 will pivot without loosening the screw and it can be folded almost flat. I used the 2 3" pieces of 2x2 to make feet for the higher piece of wood, without the feet it wouldn't stand straight. The feet make it sit levelly.

I used the longest piece of dowel in the center and used the other 4 pieces on the ends. I think I just used them however, I didn't put them in a certain order.

I then cut random lengths of the tubing and attached it to the funnels. I had 2 sizes of tubing and funnels. I then started attaching the funnels and tubes to the dowels with plastic ties.

For one of each size of funnel and tube, I just attached the funnel at the top of the dowel and ran the tubing straight down. For the next two, my tubing was longer, so I wound the tubing around the dowel to make a spiral. For the center dowel, and the tallest dowel, I join the two sizes of tubing into one tube and just ran it straight down the dowel. I left this one a little longer, so the end can be moved around a little and the water can be sprayed where Sammie wants it.

I think that I might change the different sized tubing in the center, as the water runs out the larger tube and out the bottom of it. The water doesn't really get into the smaller tube. I might try to join the two sized together a bit differently. 

This is the stand, folded almost flat. This should make it easier to store it over the winter.

I put it into the water bin, added some water and let Sammie play with it. :) She thought it was so cool to have the water run down the tubes :) She really likes putting coloured water down the spiral tubes, as you can see the water moving through.

This is a lot of fun to play with, both Sammie and Maddie like pouring the water through the different tubes and funnels :) I can see it getting a lot of use over the rest of the summer and beyond. I might even try it in the sandbox, to see how well sand moves through it.

I am quite proud of myself for thinking this idea up and making it all by myself :) I am not the handiest person around, so for me to cut, drill and screw all this together, was quite the accomplishment :)

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You can link up your outside water play or just check out some of these fabulous ideas for playing with water outside :)