A Series of Tubes

At work one day this winter I found a 20" diameter by 24" long cardboard tube.  I had no idea what it had been used for, but that little hypertufa lightbulb in my head went "ding".

I brought the home and took it into the house because I thought our son (five at the time) might enjoy playing with it for a day or two.  He was thrilled beyond belief, and spent the whole evening in his pillow-filled "reading hole", as he called it.  The next day he told me that it was "the best thing I'd ever given him".  My daughter was miffed that she didn't get one.

Lucky for me, I found another one at work the next day.  When I brought the second one home there was peace in the house.  The kids could now go to their respective holes and hide...or launch pillows at each other.

Then they figured out how to lay the tubes on their sides, climb in, and roll around the kitchen.  What could I say, it was winter.

A couple days later I came home to find that they had decorated the tubes with markers: Grace's read "Home Sweet Home" and "Keep Out".  I felt so guilty, knowing that the tubes were headed for destruction in the spring.  For weeks I tried to get the tubes shuffled of to the garage but the kids objected.  I finally put them in the basement and hoped the kids forget about them.

With a heavy heart I laid them on the table saw a couple weeks ago and cut them into rings.  Sorry kids!

The tubes were so stiff that packing the hypertufa mix against the sides was a breeze.  I included a couple short pieces of 1" tube for drainage holes in the bottom.  

This photo was taken a week after casting.  I unwrapped it for the photo and then rewrapped it for another 3 weeks to cure.

This is a different trough then the one above, but cast using a similar slice of the tube.

I've got a few more round troughs to make.  I just hope that the kids don't see any incriminating evidence in the garage.