All About My Sinket (Sink Bucket)
(Inspired by Liz Crain: https://www.lizcrainceramics.com/2014/08/keeping-your-drain-unclogged-with-a-homemade-clay-glop-trap/ )
As any ceramicist knows, throwing on the wheel can get quite messy! And when it comes time to clean, there’s nothing worse than having to haul all of your tools and splash pan outside to the hose in freezing wind and rain (and in the dark like I was)! After a few months of doing this, I thought to myself “There HAS to be a better way!” So I finally started digging on the internet for a wash station solution for my tiny studio. That’s when I found Liz Crain’s helpful blog post on her clay glop trap! (Thank you Liz for all of your helpful info!)
Obviously, I can’t just pour my mess down a regular sink because the pipes would clog from the clay and cause a huge disaster. I could have invested several thousand dollars in a Cink, but I wasn’t ready to invest that much space and money into anything yet. I also thought about making my own clay trap system with a sink and a counter top, but I simply had no where for something that large to go.
At this stage of my ceramic journey, I’m all about small conveniences that are affordable and fit in my 6 foot by 4 foot studio space. Thanks to Liz Crain’s blog post, I was able to find a very simple, small, and affordable solution to washing my tools and splash pan INSIDE.
Here’s how it works:
I have a 48” wide by 16” deep by 72” tall wire shelving unit where everything fits. On the bottom shelf, I keep all of my 5 gallon buckets. On the second shelf, I keep my 5 gallon water dispenser. When it comes time to clean, I simply pull out my special wash bucket and position it underneath the 5 gallon water dispenser and clean away!
The idea is that the plastic coupler (or pipe, if you will) would go down to about the bottom half of the bucket. This causes the dirty water and clay to enter the bucket at the bottom and push the relatively clay free water out the top through the drain valve. This works because clay is more dense than water and will settle to the bottom over time; leaving the cleaner water on top and trapping the clay in the bottom of the bucket to be reclaimed later.
What you need:
For the bucket, I bought a $4.22 bucket and lid from Walmart
A sink drain kit from Lowe’s
A plastic 1 1/2” straight coupling from Lowe’s
PVC 1/2” ball valve from Lowe’s
A collapsible bucket from Amazon
A collapsible sink from Amazon
For water, I bought a 5 gallon water dispenser from webstuarant.com (but after the cost of shipping, I would probably recommend Amazon)
A plastic spigot from Amazon
I also highly recommend some kind of water proof sealer for when you attach the sink drain to the collapsible sink and for when you attach the spigot to the 5 gallon water dispenser. I used a tube of aqua seal that I already had for my old rain boots and that seamed to work just fine.
As you can see, I got most of my supplies from Lowe’s and Amazon, but I’m sure if you wanted to, you could find all of these materials else where. (FYI, I am in no way affiliated with or sponsored by Lowe’s or Amazon or Webstuarant).
Everything listed here (except the aqua seal and tools) cost under $100 ($96.22 to be exact) (before taxes). If I hadn’t needed a system to dispense clean water, the Sinket would have only cost under $50 (49.01 to be exact) (before taxes)!
Tools:
Just a drill and some hole cutters for the drill! You might also need a wrench to tighten some of the pieces (I had to use a wrench to tighten the pvc pieces) and a heat gun to form the plastic coupler to the bottom of the sink drain. If you don’t have a heat gun, you could probably get away with a hair dryer, grill, gas stove, whatever you have that gives off enough heat to weaken the plastic.
Holes to drill:
First, I needed to drill holes in the collapsible sink and the 5 gallon bucket lid for the sink drain. I used a 3.5” hole cutter that attached to the drill and that worked perfectly.
Next, I needed to drill a hole in the side of the bucket for the top water to drain out. so I used a sharpie to trace out the hole using the pvc valve. Then I used the 3/4” hole cutter to drill the hole. The 3/4” hole cutter left a pretty tight fit, but it worked well for me.
Lastly, I needed a hole in one of the caps of the 5 gallon water dispenser for the spigot. So I took the cap off and drilled a hole in it that fit the threaded portion of the spigot.
How to assemble:
For the sink portion, I cut the TOP of the plastic coupler (the side with the lip) off to leave about 6 1/4” left on the rest of it. Then I used a heat gun to form the 6 1/4” piece of the coupler to the bottom of the sink drain. Once that was done, I secured it to the bottom of the sink drain with the threaded gold piece. Then (after applying aquaseal to both sides of the rubber washer that sits between the sink drain and the sink) I threaded the whole sink drain assembly through the collapsible sink first and then the 5 gallon bucket lid and secured it with the silver threaded piece.
Initially I did not silicone the sink drain to the collapsible sink because I thought the rubber washer would be enough to prevent any leaking, but I was wrong. So I ended up having to go back and clean everything and use my aqua seal to seal the rubber washer to the collapsible sink AND the sink drain.
Immediately after sealing everything with silicone (or aqua seal or whatever you want) screw everything together as tightly as you can. Allow this to set for at least 24 hours.
For the drain system, I applied a large amount aqua seal to the base of the threads on the 1/2” PVC adapter fitting and then threaded it through the hole in the side of the bucket (threads coming through on the outside). I then threaded the PVC valve onto the adapter fitting and tightened with a wrench. I made sure that once I had tightened the valve to the fitting that I rotated the assembly so that the valve handles were 90-degrees to the side (this allowed me to put the valve as high up on the bucket as possible, otherwise the handles would hit the lip of the bucket and I would have to put it lower). Next I threaded the 1/2” PVC 90-degree elbow fitting to the PVC valve.
For the 5 gallon water dispenser, I simply put the threaded part of the spigot through the top of the cap (with the rubber washer in between the spigot and cap), used aqua seal on the base of the threads and screwed the nut onto the threads and let set!
And that’s it!
I hope you found this helpful!