One of the things the children loved most about last year’s backyard make-over was the balance scale we made for them to play with.
Our original balance scale was created using an old clothes hanger, a couple empty soda bottles, and some duct tape. And while it worked well enough, I thought it was time to upgrade to something a little more visually appealing and also a little more durable.

The new balance scale was made using a Dollar Tree beam level
, a short piece of PVC pipe
, duct tape
, some wire
, and two small Dollar Tree buckets
.
First we measured out the middle on the PVC pipe and drilled a small hole. Then we duct taped the PVC pipe to the beam level, making sure the middles were lined up.
We drilled small holes into the corners of the beam level and threaded a piece wire through each of those holes, using the wire to connect the handles of the small buckets.

Once done we put a nail through the hole in the PVC pipe and nailed the entire set up to a 4×4 post, which we found for free in a scrap pile last year.
We dug a little hole in the ground and put the post up near the mud kitchen.



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