I should have taken pics along the long and crazy trip that was my Halloween costume creation this year. Why? Because of all the changes and obstacles I encountered along the way. But, I didn’t, so I’m afraid you’ll have to accept a few pics of the completed project, along with a vid which hopefully illustrates the working effect.
The idea began simply enough; take the plain ‘shower costume’ idea and extend it one step further. I mean, how hard could it be to incorporate actual running water into the grand scheme of things? Ahhh, I was destined to find out just how hard!
First things first; I had to rig up the shower stall. For this, I took 7/8” copper tubing and a borrowed pipe-bender and made myself a nice circular shower rod. Nice and easy so far.
To support it over my head, I used my T-Bag from my Fatboy, as it came with backpack straps which zipped up inside the back of it. Pulling those out, I had a nice working backpack which I would wear, and from which, I’d support the getup.
Into the carrying space of the backpack, I stuffed an empty bird seed container (rigid plastic, roughly 8” * 12” in size, and it fit perfectly. This would give me something to hold the water in, as it circulated through the system. I also cut a piece of 2x10 board to stuff into the carrying space. To this, I bolted another section of copper pipe which would act as the backbone to the costume. This was attached to the circular rod. I also attached two sections of 3/8” threaded rod to the shower rod; one on each side, roughly 18” out from the backbone piece. These three posts did a great job of holding the curtain rod, even after I’d attached the shower curtains (I needed two curtains, as one wasn’t enough to wrap entirely around me.)
To the backbone piece, I ran another section of 7/8” copper pipe, and bent this to look like a shower head, aimed back down into the costume. Inside this, I stuffed some ¾” (outside diameter) plastic tubing to carry the water for the shower. I picked up (from Home Depot) a rubber aerator for a kitchen faucet as it was wide and looked like a shower head. The problem with it was that it could switch back and forth between being just an aerator, or allow a full-blast of water through the middle of it. Kinda hard to explain, but the end result was that the center piece allowed water to leak out and didn’t leave enough pressure backed up to give a good shower effect (hey, the thing only cost me $1.29). To fix this, I took out the metal face plate, leaving just the rubber housing. Then I took a heavy plastic jug and carved out a round piece that was the same size as the metal faceplate. Then I kept heating up a needle (on one of the gas burners on my stove) to melt tiny holes into the plastic. Then I tucked the plastic piece into the aerator head and tested it out on the kitchen faucet – perfect!
Everything was coming together nicely! The one thing I still needed to locate was a battery operated water pump, as I had to be mobile with this costume, hence; no plug-in pump would work.
I found something that I thought would work (on-line) and ordered it. When it showed up, I had some serious misgivings about its ability to pump air, let alone water. Sure enough; a quick test of its strength and I knew I needed something else.
I found another pump on another website – this was a marine bilge pump, and worked on “D” batteries. It claimed to be able to lift water 4 feet. Perfect!! Time was running short (before the costume party at work) so I didn’t feel comfortable that it would arrive in time if I had it shipped, so I drove to the warehouse in CT and picked one up. Sweet!
Back home, I assembled everything; curtains were on the rod, water was in the container, which was in the backpack, I’d rigged up a third curtain (inside, where it couldn’t be seen from the outside) that would catch the water and return it into the container inside the backpack, batteries were placed into the pump, the hose and shower head were hooked up – everything was ready to go! With a profound sense of pride and accomplishment, I hit the switch on the pump...
…and almost started crying when the damn pump wouldn’t even lift the water halfway up the contraption.
Ok, I can fix this, I just need to do some re-engineering. First thing I need is to figure out just how much lift this pump will give me. Using a water-filled bucket and some spare tubing, I calculated that I had about 22” of lift-height to work with. Anything higher than that and I wouldn’t have enough pressure to garner a good shower effect.
Hmm…ok, 22”. That means my water storage container needs to be roughly the same height as my head. So what to use? After many ideas and failed attempts, I came up with something that worked great!
I took one of those 5-gallon water jugs (like from Poland Springs) and cliced the bottom off of it. Then, to my costume’s backbone, I connected a piece of 3/8” threaded rod, ending in a 2 ½” coupling. Inverting the water jug, I stuck the neck down through the coupling to hold it in place. Next, I ran another section of threaded rod out near the top of the inverted water jug. I drilled a hole through the jug, then threaded nuts onto either side of the plastic (one nut on the outside, one nut on the inside) and tightened them against each other. Now, between that and the coupling at the bottom, the jug was solidly secure.
The pump went inside the inverted jug, and the hose ran up through the shower head, which I aimed down into jug – since the bottom was sliced off, the water would now return to the reservoir to be pumped back up again. I gotta say that I was pretty pleased with myself. I used silver spray paint for the metal rod and shower pipe, and things looked sweet.
The day of the party came and things went off without a hitch. I’d picked up a shower curtain, some flip-flops, and I wore shorts – the ending result looked like I was nekkid and taking a shower. I could poke my head out to see where I was going, and it was great! Everyone was amazed at the working water assembly and wanted to know how I’d done it.
At the costume party at the end of the day, my costume wound up winning me a waterproof digital camera/camcorder. The thing is valued @ over $400, so that wasn’t too shabby at all.
Ok – pics!
Here, you can see the backpack was the center of everything. Even though the original idea of having the water stored in the bottom container didn’t work, I still needed to leave that in there (along with the piece of 2x10) to keep the backpack from folding in on itself. To that 2x10, was the backbone pipe, and to this you can see the threaded rods holding the inverted water jug in place.
The pump sits in the bottom of the jug and the line feeds up through the overhead shower pipe, only to return the water back into the jug.
The idea began simply enough; take the plain ‘shower costume’ idea and extend it one step further. I mean, how hard could it be to incorporate actual running water into the grand scheme of things? Ahhh, I was destined to find out just how hard!
First things first; I had to rig up the shower stall. For this, I took 7/8” copper tubing and a borrowed pipe-bender and made myself a nice circular shower rod. Nice and easy so far.
To support it over my head, I used my T-Bag from my Fatboy, as it came with backpack straps which zipped up inside the back of it. Pulling those out, I had a nice working backpack which I would wear, and from which, I’d support the getup.
Into the carrying space of the backpack, I stuffed an empty bird seed container (rigid plastic, roughly 8” * 12” in size, and it fit perfectly. This would give me something to hold the water in, as it circulated through the system. I also cut a piece of 2x10 board to stuff into the carrying space. To this, I bolted another section of copper pipe which would act as the backbone to the costume. This was attached to the circular rod. I also attached two sections of 3/8” threaded rod to the shower rod; one on each side, roughly 18” out from the backbone piece. These three posts did a great job of holding the curtain rod, even after I’d attached the shower curtains (I needed two curtains, as one wasn’t enough to wrap entirely around me.)
To the backbone piece, I ran another section of 7/8” copper pipe, and bent this to look like a shower head, aimed back down into the costume. Inside this, I stuffed some ¾” (outside diameter) plastic tubing to carry the water for the shower. I picked up (from Home Depot) a rubber aerator for a kitchen faucet as it was wide and looked like a shower head. The problem with it was that it could switch back and forth between being just an aerator, or allow a full-blast of water through the middle of it. Kinda hard to explain, but the end result was that the center piece allowed water to leak out and didn’t leave enough pressure backed up to give a good shower effect (hey, the thing only cost me $1.29). To fix this, I took out the metal face plate, leaving just the rubber housing. Then I took a heavy plastic jug and carved out a round piece that was the same size as the metal faceplate. Then I kept heating up a needle (on one of the gas burners on my stove) to melt tiny holes into the plastic. Then I tucked the plastic piece into the aerator head and tested it out on the kitchen faucet – perfect!
Everything was coming together nicely! The one thing I still needed to locate was a battery operated water pump, as I had to be mobile with this costume, hence; no plug-in pump would work.
I found something that I thought would work (on-line) and ordered it. When it showed up, I had some serious misgivings about its ability to pump air, let alone water. Sure enough; a quick test of its strength and I knew I needed something else.
I found another pump on another website – this was a marine bilge pump, and worked on “D” batteries. It claimed to be able to lift water 4 feet. Perfect!! Time was running short (before the costume party at work) so I didn’t feel comfortable that it would arrive in time if I had it shipped, so I drove to the warehouse in CT and picked one up. Sweet!
Back home, I assembled everything; curtains were on the rod, water was in the container, which was in the backpack, I’d rigged up a third curtain (inside, where it couldn’t be seen from the outside) that would catch the water and return it into the container inside the backpack, batteries were placed into the pump, the hose and shower head were hooked up – everything was ready to go! With a profound sense of pride and accomplishment, I hit the switch on the pump...
…and almost started crying when the damn pump wouldn’t even lift the water halfway up the contraption.
Ok, I can fix this, I just need to do some re-engineering. First thing I need is to figure out just how much lift this pump will give me. Using a water-filled bucket and some spare tubing, I calculated that I had about 22” of lift-height to work with. Anything higher than that and I wouldn’t have enough pressure to garner a good shower effect.
Hmm…ok, 22”. That means my water storage container needs to be roughly the same height as my head. So what to use? After many ideas and failed attempts, I came up with something that worked great!
I took one of those 5-gallon water jugs (like from Poland Springs) and cliced the bottom off of it. Then, to my costume’s backbone, I connected a piece of 3/8” threaded rod, ending in a 2 ½” coupling. Inverting the water jug, I stuck the neck down through the coupling to hold it in place. Next, I ran another section of threaded rod out near the top of the inverted water jug. I drilled a hole through the jug, then threaded nuts onto either side of the plastic (one nut on the outside, one nut on the inside) and tightened them against each other. Now, between that and the coupling at the bottom, the jug was solidly secure.
The pump went inside the inverted jug, and the hose ran up through the shower head, which I aimed down into jug – since the bottom was sliced off, the water would now return to the reservoir to be pumped back up again. I gotta say that I was pretty pleased with myself. I used silver spray paint for the metal rod and shower pipe, and things looked sweet.
The day of the party came and things went off without a hitch. I’d picked up a shower curtain, some flip-flops, and I wore shorts – the ending result looked like I was nekkid and taking a shower. I could poke my head out to see where I was going, and it was great! Everyone was amazed at the working water assembly and wanted to know how I’d done it.
At the costume party at the end of the day, my costume wound up winning me a waterproof digital camera/camcorder. The thing is valued @ over $400, so that wasn’t too shabby at all.
Ok – pics!
Here, you can see the backpack was the center of everything. Even though the original idea of having the water stored in the bottom container didn’t work, I still needed to leave that in there (along with the piece of 2x10) to keep the backpack from folding in on itself. To that 2x10, was the backbone pipe, and to this you can see the threaded rods holding the inverted water jug in place.
The pump sits in the bottom of the jug and the line feeds up through the overhead shower pipe, only to return the water back into the jug.
Another shot of the pump, tubing, and shower head.
I’d love to show you a great walking-around action shot, but unfortunately; after the party was over and I went to stuff this thing back into my Jeep, I guess I wasn’t as careful with it as I should have been. I messed up the connections that hold this thing together and when I tried to wear it again (for the purpose of this posting), it wouldn’t hold up correctly and kept turning.
Anyway, I had to prop it up against the wall to get some semblance of it in action.
I did bring my costume over to show Sam and Zak, and we did manage to get a bit of an action clip then, but it only shows how messed up this thing had become, because the water jug shifted on me, and the shower started dumping water all down my back. Ha ha ha, you can hear me say “I’m getting wet!” right at the end of the clip. Ahh yes, good fun had by all.
I’ll do another post (probably next week) showing Sam and Zak’s costumes.
‘Til then…
2 comments:
Dave - brilliant job! I want to create something like this for burning man. With one difference - it can recycle the water, OR can drench me and a girl (I'll be walking around the desert in the heat).
Is it OK if I ask you questions while I try and make this?
David (Wood)
Dave - brilliant job! I want to create something like this for burning man. With one difference - it can recycle the water, OR can drench me and a girl (I'll be walking around the desert in the heat).
Is it OK if I ask you questions while I try and make this?
David (Wood)
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