I had an epiphany yesterday. Why on earth do I need a stand to hold up the horizontal half pipe which acts as the base for the pinch valve? I don’t. If I cut holes in the sides of the barrel and run the PVC half-pipe through, the barrel will act as support. Duh. Sometimes things are just too obvious . . . after you’ve thought of them, of course.
Terry’s got a trailer full of tin and various chunks of light metal to go in for recycling. In this latest mess of stuff he has an old walk-behind lawn mower. In our search for something to use as the pinch valve for my single barrel system the curved handle of the lawn mower seems to be perfect. He brought the result in last night. It looks great.
I picked up a pump. It’s rated at 290 gallons an hour. I think it’s a bit over rated for what I need, but it’s got a three year guarantee and has the right sized fittings for what I need.
I’ve made one more change to the design. I’m not making the fill tube out of PVC. I may change my mind in the future, but for now I’m going to run the flexible tubing up over the top of the overflow and down into the gravel. We’ll see how that goes.
I still don’t have a barrel, but I’m still weeks away from being able to plant outside, so I’m not feeling rushed.