So the whole idea here was to, rather than have the gutter just be cut and dump all the time into the rain barrel, instead to give me the option to have the water go one way or the other. I fugred a simple flipper flapper doo dad would be perfect, so I made this. The hose connection is 1.5" pool hose, the gutter is 2"x3". I made holes to screw it into the gutter with some stainless tek screws. I added a door to the front so the inevitable leaves and junk could be easily cleaned out as needed.
This thing worked great… filled our rain barrel in no time flat. Rather than manually flip the flapper, I made two of them, one down lower on the gutter that the over flow of the rain barrel connects to. Then on one gutter (I haven't done the other side) I made a 4" drain tile flush mount screen thing to allow overflow water to go through so it diverts under my patio.
As Paul would say, and now… the rest of the story:
My door and flapper idea don't really work. The door gets in the way of the flapper, the flapper gets in the way of the door. The knob if you play with it too much gets stripped and it doesn't flip the flapper. Yes, there's flaws. No, I didn't bother redesigning cause the thing worked just fine for my uses. I'm happy to send you the fusion 360 file and you can fix my flaws and we can sell it and make millions together. Or you can just use it like I did and be happy. It's free.
Made from PETG. Message me for the fusion 360 file.
The author marked this model as their own original creation.