Alright, let me tell you about this little project I tackled recently. It started pretty simply, actually. I was looking at pool weights online, you know, the ones for water aerobics? And man, they wanted a pretty penny for what looked like foam glued to some handles. I thought, come on, I’ve got some old dumbbells lying around, maybe I can just make my own floaters.
Getting Started – The “Brilliant” Idea
So, the idea was born: dumbbell floats. Seemed straightforward. How hard could it be to make heavy things float, right? Famous last words, probably. I went digging in the garage and found a couple of old 5-pounders, a bit rusty but solid. Perfect candidates for this experiment.
My first thought was foam. I had some leftover packing foam sheets. I figured I’d just wrap a ton of it around the dumbbells and tape it up. Simple.
- Grabbed the dumbbells.
- Found the foam sheets.
- Got a big roll of duct tape.
Well, that was a bust. I wrapped and taped like crazy, making these chunky foam bricks around the weights. Tossed one into a large tub of water I use for gardening. It just… sank. Maybe a bit slower than usual, but definitely sank. Not enough buoyancy, clearly. The foam got waterlogged pretty quick too.
Round Two – Bottles and Tape
Okay, foam was out. Needed something sealed, something that trapped air reliably. Empty plastic bottles! We go through enough soda and water bottles, so I gathered a few sturdy-looking ones. My thinking was, tape these securely to the dumbbell handles, and the trapped air should do the trick.
Here’s what I did next:
- Cleaned the old dumbbells a bit. Didn’t want rust everywhere.
- Emptied and dried four plastic soda bottles (the 1-liter kind looked about right).
- Tried positioning them around the dumbbell handle. Two on each side seemed like a plan.
- Started taping. Lots of duct tape. Seriously, a whole lot of duct tape. I wrapped it around the bottles, around the handle, criss-crossing, making sure those bottles weren’t going anywhere. It looked kinda ridiculous, honestly.
Testing and Tweaking
Back to the water tub. I gently placed my creation onto the water surface. And hey! It floated! Success! Sort of. It wasn’t exactly stable. One side wanted to dip lower, and if I nudged it, it threatened to roll over and maybe let the dumbbell slip out, despite all the tape.
So, more fiddling. I realized the balance was off. Maybe the bottles weren’t perfectly aligned, or the weight distribution of the dumbbell itself wasn’t helping once it was floating.
I took it out, dried it off a bit, and added even more tape, trying to create a wider, more stable base by how I angled the tape connecting the bottles. I also made sure the bottle caps were screwed on super tight. No leaks allowed!
The Result? Well…
After another round of adjustments and enough duct tape to mummify a small dog, I put it back in the water. This time, it was much better. It floated relatively level. It wasn’t elegant, mind you. It looked like something cobbled together in a post-apocalyptic water world. But technically, I had made a dumbbell float.
Was it practical? Ehhh. I wouldn’t trust it for vigorous exercise. The balance was still a bit iffy, and I have zero confidence in the long-term waterproofing of my tape job. Plus, it’s bulky and awkward.
But hey, it was a fun little experiment. Spent an afternoon tinkering, used up some old junk, and actually got the darn thing to float. Sometimes, just the process of figuring it out is the interesting part, even if the end result isn’t exactly ready for prime time. It definitely passed the time, anyway.
