Creating Elegance With a Plastic Pipe Project

Just like with any Woodworking or Furniture Building project, the key element in doing elegant work with PVC Plastic Pipe & Pipe Fittings, is craftsmanship. Work carefully and pay attention to details. Some people do not understand that making things from Plastic Pipe can lead to beautiful creations. That is what needs some explanation.

The premise for the design is to take advantage of height and shape of silk flower stems to �stack� your silk flowers in an organized and easily maintainable way. You can picture a pole to hang coats, but instead of hooks were going to use rings to hold the flowers at an angle.1/4"Phillips Screwdriver (the neck of the screw driver �the metal part- will need to be most likely 5-6� long.As another example, making a very simple project, like our Under Desktop CPU Holder out of CPVC Plastic Pipe, is much easier than making it as a woodworking project or a metal working project. All PVC Plastic Pipe fittings have a natural aesthetic beauty. It has something to do with the implied �flow� or flowing characteristics. Adding to the beauty and character is the way the socket bells of each fitting are expanded to fit around the Pipe.All the items I mentioned above can be obtained from your local hardware store. You are also not required to have exactly those dimensions. If your retailer carries 3� diameter PVC only, you can use that, it just won�t hold as many silk flower stems as a 4� or 5� diameter pipe. The �L� shaped brackets are used for securing items like two boards perpendicular to each other. In our case, were going to use it to fasten the polePVC or ABSWe are now going to use our drill to drill �a� hole on one side of each of the 4� long pieces of PVC pipe we cut. Make sure to drill the hole in the dead middle of the ring. To be clearer, I mean the middle as in between the top and bottom of the ring. We are going to use this hole, to put our long neck Phillips screwdriver through in order to turn the screw that will fasten the opposite side to the pole (more on that in a minute).PVCOnce you are done drilling the hole through all the pieces, we are going to start at the bottom of the pole and work our way up. You must stop and understand that the intentions are not to set the holder so it is holding the group of silk flower stems perpendicular to the ground. Rather at a 90 degree angle. This is important as you will want to start high enough off the ground on the pole so that at 90 degrees the bottom of the stems is not touching the ground. You will probably have to put your stems through the ring (holder) and place against the pole to find the right starting point. This is where you would hold them at a 90 degree angle to get the right height.Other great ideas is taking small 2�-3� pipe and cutting into 5� lengthsApprox 3/8 drill bit (must drill holes bigger than the head of your wood screws)Some type of power saw or hand saw to cut the PVC pipe.Let�s start by picturing your standard pole for hanging coats on. We�re going to recreate this concept by fastening one of the poles to the 2� sq particle board we have.Below are a couple additional tips:Picture a candy cane strip as it works its way up the pole.1/2" - 1"CPVC6� long / 5� diameter PVC pipeThe connection made with the sewer of the city should be characterized as either a "WYE" or "TEE" branch. If this is not possible, the connections should have to be approved drilled or sawed tap and saddle. Under no circumstance should the sanitary sewer be broken.(TIP) if don�t have someone that can support the pole, you can opt to set the brackets around the pipe the way they will end up, mark the holes on the board (only), then remove the pipe. You can then proceed to fasten the brackets to the 2� sq particle board first. Then proceed to put the pipe back in-between all three brackets and finish off securing the top part of each bracket to the pipe - make sure the pipe is plumb (straight up and down).1/16"For example, making a project like the Platform Bed out of PVC Plastic Pipe is easier than making it as a woodworking project. For instance, making a bed with this much detail out of wood, would require cutting each piece to width, height and length. With our Plastic Pipe Platform Bed, you just have to cut the various pieces of Pipe to the lengths in the "Cutting Schedule" provided in the Project ePlanSet. The equivalent woodworking project requires making special joints. The Plastic Pipe project does not. The assembly of a Plastic Pipe Project requires the use of a rubber mallet. If you choose to build our Platform Bed, the alignment of all the pieces and gluing are made very easy, if you follow the Project ePlanSet instructions.

the Platform Bed. They have even been accented with simulated brass trim. http://www.eplansets.com/

Author: Doug Stahnke