I have come up with at least one idea for a DIY Christmas gift for my son. As I previously mentioned I made my son a “cubby house” last year. We had some cardboard tubes from carpet rolls and set them up for him to run trains down those tubes. He loved it. I guess he could do this anywhere and not just in a cubby house, but I do think it’s more fun for him to climb up in the cubby house and look out the porthole, then run his train down the tube. At least that’s the way I see it and I need to justify building that cubby house.
That gave me the idea to install some transparent tubes in the house. Ideally these would twist and turn in all sorts of cool patterns, entering on one level and exiting on another. I reality, I’m not sure what material is going to allow me to accomplish that. I’m figuring I can get transparent rigid pipe, which won’t allow the types of spirals and turns I want. I know I can get a flexible transparent tube from Lowe’s. The problem with the tubing I know about is I don’t think the bottom will be uniform enough to allow a toy car or train to run well over it. If the toys get stuck in the tubing that will just be annoying. Although, perhaps if the tubing is flexible enough, I could flatten out the bottom by attaching it to a strip of wood?
As you can tell, this project is still in the brainstorming phase. There’s also the problem of how to attach the tubes/pipes to the cubby house. Right now I’m thinking clamps will be the way to go.
I’m still open to suggestions, so post ‘em below.