Goal
: water slide Build time:
two weekends Dimensions:
40' long 36" Features: button activated hose (timer) -
2 min then water stops Bodged:
1) it is butt ugly 2) water level gets too low for late summer
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IMAGES
seriously, why?:
We used to have an awesome rope swing, but we managed
to bodge that too. It turns out, that with the right amount
erosion
and years of
swinging on a tree...well....the images to the right are self
explanatory. The good news is
the tree did not
fall while the rope-swing was in use.
Got friends?:
Building the sewaslide was all about logistics - getting the right
number of able bodies around to do things like lift, sllide and rotate
the pipes into place.
as
20' and 400lbs: These
stormwater ("sewage") pipes are long and heavy - we got ours in
Thorndale Ontario. We had to get them from there, about 500km
to their destination (if you are in Ontario, very similar pipes can be
had from a company in Muskoka and they will deliver - but where is the
fun in that?). This is one instance when having access to a
trailer rather than (or as well as) a truck is handy. A boat
trailer is likely even better than the contraption we came up with.
It looked like we were
transporting
some sort of missle launcher...or pumpkin launcher...hey, now there is
an idea...for another day. conjunction junction:
Contractors connect theses things relatively loosely with a
plastic sleeves and strapping. The company we bought the
pipes from gave us a sleeve free, but we guess it would not hold the
pipe secure enough even with a platform underneath the connection.
We settled on a series of 3/8" bolts that required us to
notch
out the rib on the one side in order to allow the drill and bolt to fit
in - did not compromise pipe strength at all, these things are
extremely solid. dang my back hurts!:
We discovered very quickly how dangerous it is to work with a 400lb
pipe on a steep incline. We used a lot of ratchet straps and
ropes - the ribs are your friend in this respect. At one
point we had the thing tied to a van trailer hitch...spinning
wheels...dust everywhere...then voila it was in place.
Sure a winch would have been nice, but we blew our "budget"
on the pipes - we did use a come along to do the final fine adjustments. h2whoa:
The water system took us a lot of trial and error to figure
out. Getting water into the slide is easy, threaded
galvanized pipes into sliding pipe, connected to garden hose, a
t-junction, a few shutoffs. The problem is, in typical
bodgework fashion our
pumphouse is right next to the dock...so "happy hour" got very loud.
The barrels we had left over from a raft project were used as
silent reservoirs (fill at off "peak" hours), but sliders kept leaving
the water on - "YOU go turn off the tap", "No YOU do it!". We
bought a battery-operated hose timer switch - the water now turns off
every 2 minutes - and sliders just press a button to turn it back on
for another cycle. We tried solar powered dc pumps with a
float switch in the barrels, but it was way too finicky. splash down:
You would think a tall dock-style crib with long 4x4s would be enough
to shoot sliders far enough into the lake. It turns out our
Wiley Coyote trajectory calculations were a littlle off. That
is, it is perfectly safe during high water, but later in the summer, we
actually have to close it down (circular disk of wood with locks at the
top end). Head
first is forbidden at all times. So we have
another problem to solve...once we finish the bunkie. Mike Holmes approved?:
More like Red Green approved, but we have used cables to tie off the
pipes to trees all up its length - it is not going anywhere.
It certainly is safer than that rope swing ever was.
Build time:
two weekends
as
dang my back hurts!:
We discovered very quickly how dangerous it is to work with a 400lb
pipe on a steep incline. We used a lot of ratchet straps and
ropes - the ribs are your friend in this respect. At one
point we had the thing tied to a van trailer hitch...spinning
wheels...dust everywhere...then voila it was in place.
Sure a winch would have been nice, but we blew our "budget"
on the pipes - we did use a come along to do the final fine adjustments.
h2whoa:
The water system took us a lot of trial and error to figure
out. Getting water into the slide is easy, threaded
galvanized pipes into sliding pipe, connected to garden hose, a
t-junction, a few shutoffs. The problem is, in typical
bodgework fashion our
pumphouse is right next to the dock...so "happy hour" got very loud.
The barrels we had left over from a raft project were used as
silent reservoirs (fill at off "peak" hours), but sliders kept leaving
the water on - "YOU go turn off the tap", "No YOU do it!". We
bought a battery-operated hose timer switch - the water now turns off
every 2 minutes - and sliders just press a button to turn it back on
for another cycle. We tried solar powered dc pumps with a
float switch in the barrels, but it was way too finicky.