Camping Wash Station

So you are going to an event that doesn’t have running water. Well that doesn’t mean that you have to suffer through unsanitary conditions. Part of the fun of camping is being able to have that BBQ or dutch oven cookout and who wants to eat that with out being able to wash your hands. 

Sure you could just scrape by with hand sanitizer and baby wipes. But that isn’t really the same thing as just being able to wash your hands with soap and water. So what if you could build a simple foot pump washing station like the one in this picture for around $15-$20?

How it works is simple; the foot pump transfers clean water from the bottom bucket out of the spout where it lands in the upper bucket. There are no faucets to operate, and while the station in the picture is made of plastic buckets with a little luck and a few extra dollars wooden buckets could be substituted and adapted into this design to give it a more medieval look. note: Also this design calls for drilling holes into the bucket as an alternative it is possible to feed a tube through the lid into clean water bucket and to simply have a tube attached at the basin instead of a riser as shown.

The materials needed are as below.

(3) 5 gallon utility buckets

(2) 5 gallon bucket lids

Marine fuel primer bulb and hose assembly

3/8" brass fittings

Rubber O-ring

3/8" tubing

various 1" and 1/2" plumbing pipe sections and fittings

Automotive steel fuel/brake line

Door hinge

Scrap wood

Step 1: Drill a 3/8 hole hole in one bucket about an inch above the bottom then feed the male end of the 90 degree fitting through the hole.

Step 2: Slide  an o ring over the male thread then screw the female half of the 3/8 hose fitting onto the male half of the fitting.

step 3: Take the other 3/8 hose fitting and thread it into the 90 degree fitting inside the bucket. Make sure that the barbed end of the fitting is pointed toward the bottom of the bucket.

The basin is constructed from the upper portion of the third bucket and a lid. While it isn’t necessary for the function of the system it does prevent the grey water from splashing out while you are washing your hands.

step 4: Remove the rubber seal from the bottom of the bucket lid and cut along the bottom of the trench that the seal was in. Cut all the way around and remove the outer rim. Drill a 1/2” hole in the center.

step 5: Cut off the top of the third buck about three quarters of an inch below the last flange.

step 6: Attach the cut off lid to the cut off portion of the bucket using hot glue, rivets, or screws  Basically this should look like a shorter bucket now.

step 7:  Optional: Build the foot pump foot pump using scrap wood, door hinge, dowel rods and a tennis ball. If this looks to complicated don’t worry about it. The pump will work just fine if you simply step on the marine bulb, but the foot pump kind of looks cool.

You could use the buckets like this but if you want to add a support table and a spout here is how.

step 8: Buy or Build a small support table. Coming up with a table makes the whole structure more stable, gives you a place to set your soap, and it gives you a place to attach the riser tube. The easiest way to do this is to find a small used table at a second hand store or yard sale that you don’t mind cutting a hole in. But if you are handy enough you can also just build a table.

step 9: Cut a hole in the center of the table big enough for the bucket to slide into but small enough that it doesn’t fall all the way through. Optimally we want the clean water bucket to be off the ground a little.

step 10: Drill a one inch hole in one corner of the table

step 11: attach a 1 inch galvanized pipe flange to the table.

step 12: screw 1 inch galvanized pipe into the pipe flange. Then a reducer and a 1/2 pipe onto that to make the riser.

step 13: Purchase some generic steel fuel brake line from an auto parts store to form the spout.

step 14: Bend it into a 180 degree cane shape.  

The diameter of the bend should be 1/2 diameter of the bucket.  This will position the Spout nozzle over the hole in the bottom of the Basin.

step 15: Slide a 2" section of clear hardware tubing onto the other end of the Spout. 

step 16: Slide a 1/2" to 3/8" galvanized reducer fitting on the Spout.  

step 17: Then slide about a 24" length of tubing onto the Spout.  

The reducer fitting will be trapped in location on the Spout by the two sections of tubing; yet free to spin and thread onto the Spout Riser.

step 18: Feed the Spout, and Tubing Assembly down through the Spout Riser pipes and thread the reducer fitting onto the top of the 1/2" Spout Riser Pipe.

step 19: connect the tubing from the pump to the riser tube. This can be done with clear tubing or directly with the pump tube.

For more information and the site where I learned about this project please refer to this instructables site. 

http://www.instructables.com/id/Field-Sink/#step0