Outdoor Sink Improvements

Dateline: 8 September 2015

Well, My New Outdoor Sink on a Whizban garden cart continues to be a very useful tool, and I have made a couple of new modifications.

The first modification is the addition of two upright pieces of wood attached to the sides of the cart behind the sink. They are bucket holders, as this next picture shows...

As anyone with an active homestead knows, those plastic pails are downright useful. In the past, they were left here-and-there when we weren't needing them. But now, they have a place. Rinse them out (if needed) and tip them upside down on their place. It's a simple but beautiful thing.

And then there's this little brainstorm of an idea...

That's a homemade sink stopper. I paid money for a chrome sink strainer with a rubber stopper on the bottom, but it would not securely plug the drain in the 65-year-old cast iron sink. My homemade jar-lid-and-leather stopper seals perfectly.

The sink-stopper idea came to me after cleaning out a quart jar of kidney beans that did not seal properly. I dumped the spoiled beans on the compost pile and rinsed the jar at the outdoor sink. In the process of rinsing, the jar lid fell into the drain and fit almost perfectly.

I thought of using a circle of rubber to make a sure water seal but didn't have any rubber (and my rubber boots are not yet to the throw-away stage). Then I remembered, many years ago, when I helped Ken Badman change the leather on a hand pump at his house. And I happen to have a box of leather scraps.

Another improvement that I plan to make with the sink (next year, hopefully) is to pour a concrete pad under the whole cart. That will solve the problem of keeping the grass mowed. Or maybe I'll lay in some patio bricks.

As a side note, sometime before this year is out, I expect to make a YouTube video about the sink, and the Toe-Tapper faucet switch in particular. I'll also offer inexpensive specifications for people to make their own Toe-Tapper. And I hope to offer Toe-Tapper parts kits.

Another side note: It turns out that old cast iron sink is a more valuable item that we ever thought. Marlene recently saw one just like it in an antique shop. It was priced at $1,100. 

If someone offered me $1,100 for my sink....
I would not sell!