Thomas Tilley
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What can't you do with PVC
(Polyvinyl
Chloride) pipe? The ubiquitous blue PVC water pipe can be seen
along most streets here and appears to be one of Thailand's most
abundant un-natural resources. A wide variety of different connectors are available
and apart from carrying water it is also used as a cheap construction
material that can be used to make everything from clothes dryers to Wheel chairs (PDF), Crutches, flagpoles and shop signs.
Of course on the Internet you can also find some other very cool and creative things made from (non-blue) PVC pipe including: Halloween costumes like Ben Hallert's Matrix APU and Aliens Exo-skeleton Power Loader, another power loader costume, single and multi-guitar Guitar Hero stands, a laptop stand, flutes, and even a shaving stand.
Below you will find, in chronological order, some of my own (mostly original) creations made from PVC water pipe including:
This was the project that started my love affair with blue PVC pipe. I had seen the blueprints for this marshmallow shooter while I was in Australia but the fittings were prohibitively expensive (see the image right). Fortunately they are very affordable here in Thailand. The shooter is constructed from approximately 60cm (2') of 18mm (1/2") pipe, 2 x T-pieces, 2 x elbows, 2 x end caps.
 Source: HOWTOONS |
Unfortunately there are no mini- marshmallows here in Thailand and hence no ammunition! We brought two bags with us which were exhausted all too soon and the guns have since remained silent (although we haven't yet tried to beat them into PVC ploughshares).
Fortunately in Thailand there is a drink called "cha muk" or "pearl milk tea" - I think it's known as bubble tea in other countries. Cha muk comes in a variety of flavours, it's served with a straw that is about 1cm in diameter, and it contains black tapioca balls (pearls).
Invariably when you get to the end of your drink
you have a supply of pearls left over and my son and I discovered that
the straws make wonderful pearl shooters. Using the same blow-gun
principle as the marshmallow shooter, you can shoot tapioca pearls at
each other and there's no denying a hit because they stick in a way
that would make you think they were made from velcro. Not only is
this useful as evidence but you can also pull them off and use them to
re-load in the midst of battle!
This is perhaps the most obvious use for PVC water pipe - plumbing! When you rent a house in Thailand, often it doesn't even come with the kitchen sink. When we moved in my wife decided where she wanted the sink to go and armed with my new found PVC pipe skills that I acquired making the marshmallow shooter I plumbed water to the tap.
I was a little reluctant to go smacking holes in the wall to find a drainage pipe so for a number of months we kept a bucket under the sink. My father had no such qualms, however, and when they came to visit he plumbed the drainage for us.
I made a matching pair of these indoor soccer goals for my son using some 18mm (1/2") pipe, 2 x T-Pieces and 6 x elbows.
Cricket (not to be confused with Brockian Ultra-Cricket) is Australia's national sport played with a bat, a ball, and two wickets. This is a PVC wicket I made for Australia Day 2007 using some 25mm (1") pipe, 6 x T-pieces, and 2 x elbows. Some people would consider using a wicket like this to be cheating because the bails (two horizontal pieces that balance on top of the three upright stumps) are glued on!
Continuing with the sports theme, this is a basketball hoop I made so that my son could practise Basketball. I found some dimensions on the Internet and made the ring using 18mm (1/2") pipe, 6 x T-pieces, and 12 x 45-degree elbows. The backboard is a non-regulation size piece of plywood that we found lying around and we used green duct tape for the markings.
Although the ring isn't strong enough to hang off, the side supports make it robust enough for normal play. They also give it a very Star Trek feel and I think the ring looks not unlike the NCC-31911 Saratoga.
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 Source: ShipSchematics |
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This is perhaps the most straight forward use for PVC pipe on this page. I made some shelf supports for the Computer Science section of our home library using some 20mm (3/4") pipe, 0 x T-pieces, 0 x elbows, and 0 x end caps.
There is an "Easter egg" in the full-size image - one of our marshmallow shooters can be seen on the top shelf.
I've always been a fan of the movie Tron and this is a controller I made out of PVC pipe to play the lightcycle racing game GL-Tron. The controller is made from 3 sections of 18mm (1/2") pipe, 2 x 25mm to 18mm (1" to 1/2") reducers, 2 x custom motorbike hand-grips, 4 x push-buttons, and a mercury switch which are connected to a computer via a hacked USB joystick.
You can find more details about how I made the controller on this project page and I've also extended the same idea to play GL-Tron using real motorbikes.
A university student who played with the PVC Water Pipe Tron Controller, described above, said "That's OK but I like to play driving games". It got me thinking and over the next week I spent my evenings building a PVC racing car controller - essentially a wheel-less, PVC go-kart frame connected to the computer via a hacked USB joystick.
Some Thai university students who saw the first car wanted to know how it all worked and six of them came around one Saturday and we spent the whole day hacking joysticks and building a second car. By connecting them both to a laptop and a data projector we were able to play split-screen Daytona USA.
The white office table I used for the virtual pinball machine wasn't high enough to be played comfortably. Originally, I used some bricks to raise the table the more pinball-like height of 90cm (35") but then I decided that some PVC leg extensions would be somewhat more portable.
Extensions for each end of the table were constructed using 18mm (1/2") pipe, 2 x T-Pieces, 2 x end caps, 2 x 40mm to 18mm (1 & 1/2" to 1/2") reducers and 2 x short lengths of 40mm (1 & 1/2") pipe. The horizontal bars aren't glued so the extensions can be fitted to tables with different dimensions by simply cutting some more 18mm pipe to the appropriate length.
If you look carefully you can see the legs in action around the 37 second mark in video:
Both the virtual pinball table and the Plasma Pong table require vertically mounted data projectors. The virtual pinball table has made appearances at six different venues and as a result I now have a growing collection of PVC cages used to suspend a number of different projectors beneath stairs, air-conditioners and various ceilings.
Data projectors are expensive and nothing dampens a good game of pinball more than a data projector unexpectedly crashing on to the table (especially if it's not yours!). Make sure everything is glued securely and use liberal amounts of duct tape and cable-ties for backup. Be careful not to obstruct air inlets/outlets and if you are borrowing a friends projector make sure you let them know what you intend doing with it first!
As straightforward as this stand looks, the "L"-shaped upright section is actually part of an air-conditioner mount for a data projector that I made for one of the virtual pinball table installations. The T-piece isn't glued and so in a small way (a very, very small way) I like to think that if the air-conditioning mount were ever needed again then the parts could re-combine in a Voltron or Captain Planet and the Planeteers or Power Rangers MegaZord-like way. Of course if that happened my laptop screen would fall down.
I don't own a Nintendo Wii but I did manage to get my hands on a Wiimote so that I could try out some of Johnny Chung Lee's cool projects. This is a Wiimote mount I built using a length of 35mm (1 and 1/4") pipe, some 18mm (1/2") pipe, 3 x T-pieces, and 4 x elbows.
The 35mm pipe has been cut so that it fits nicely into the
ridges down the side of the Wiimote which holds it securely. This is
screwed onto a T-Piece which has also had its top cut off. The joint
between the two topmost elbows is not glued so the angle of the top
section can be adjusted.
This is yet another DIY Wii Zapper that I built using some 35mm (1 and 1/4") pipe, some acrylic, a cable tie, and a broken hot-melt glue-gun. While perhaps not as cool as a cereal box, Lego, MP5, or AK47 Wii Zapper, it gets the job done.
The original trigger mechanism in the broken hot-melt glue-gun is designed to feed glue forward but I needed a mechanism that would pull back on the "B" button underneath the Wiimote. I cut the handle off of the old glue-gun and made a custom red acrylic trigger that used the original pivot point and had a slot in the top for a cable tie.
The cable tie feeds through a slot in the bottom of the 35mm pipe which has been cut in the same manner as the Wiimote Holder described above. The cable tie lies beneath the Wiimote and when the trigger is squeezed it pulls back on the "B" button. Two small pieces of PVC glued at the back of the pipe stop the Wiimote from sliding backwards and a another small piece glued beneath the "B" button keeps the cable tie at the correct height. A second (working) glue-gun was used to glue the handle to the bottom of the pipe.
It's not as cool
as this
PVC workbench but my workbench is made from a door which has been
bolted to the wall (as all doors are but in a horizontal rather than
the normal vertical fashion) with legs made from 25mm (1") pipe
and T-pieces. The workbench height is 105 cm (3'6") and there is
another "Easter egg" in the left image - the PVC visible on the bench
is actually the barrel of a marshmallow
shooter.
This is an extension/variation of the PVC water pipe Tron controller described above that allows up to four people to play GL-Tron using real motorbikes. The bikes are connected to the game using TACT switches mounted on sections of 25mm (1") pipe for the turn buttons. These sections are simply cable-tied onto the front of the motorbike handlebars and the players squeeze the buttons with their index fingers to turn left or right. A mercury switch is also mounted on the right handlebar so the accelerator can be used to provide boost within the game and up to four bikes can be connected to the computer via a single hacked USB joystick.
The centerstands keep the bikes upright during play and a half-round of bamboo is wedged underneath the back tires to stop them from rocking. You can find more details about the bikes on this project page and you can see them in action here:
This is a music stand made from three different sizes of pipe. The top section is made from one 43cm (17") length of 35mm (1 and 1/4") pipe which is cut in half to hold the base of the music. This is attached using 3 screws to the rest of the top which is made from 18mm (1/2") pipe, 3 x T-Pieces, 6 x elbows, 2 x 45-degree elbows, and 1 x male threaded connector. The joint between the two topmost elbows behind the music is not glued so that the angle of the music can be adjusted and the threaded connector allows the base to be removed for storage.
The base is made from 20mm (3/4") pipe, 3 x T-pieces and 4 x connector off-cuts (to stabilise the end of each leg), 1 x 20mm to 18mm (3/4" to 1/2") reducer, and 1 x 18mm female threaded connector. Since making the stand I've thought of a number of possible improvements on the design including height adjustment but overall I'm pleased with how this first version came out.
The Dean of Science asked if I could make something fun for visitors to play with at Payap University's 35th Anniversary celebrations. I had been wanting to make some controllers to play the 1994 arcade game Puzzle Bobble (also known as Bust-a-Move) that worked like the coffee-grinder/pedestal winches that racing yachts use (see the image below) - so this was the perfect opportunity.
The pedestal was made from 25mm (1") pipe using 2 x T-Pieces, 3 x elbows and 2 x end caps, with the elbows forming a simple G-clamp to hold it to the table (the connection at the tables edge is not glued so that it can be easily removed). The crank is made from 18mm (1/2") pipe using 4 x elbows, and 2 x end caps, with 2 x 20mm (3/4") joiners for the hand-grips which can rotate freely.
A stripped down optical mouse, housed in a Clorets container (see the orange plastic box below), acts as a rotation sensor and an arcade-style button is wired as the left mouse button. As you rotate the crank a monster in the game turns a wheel to aim the bubble gun. Pressing the button launches the bubble and if three or more of the same colour connect then they pop and disappear. It's a lot of fun, especially playing against someone else.
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 Source: Latitude 38 |
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You can see the controllers in action below and you will find construction details and more information on how it works here.
Being an IT-kind-of-a-guy I've never really been into fitness
but more recently I have started to take my health more seriously.
Now walking or running on a treadmill is great but the physical
benefits need to be traded off against the time it takes - time that
could be spent doing something else like surfing the web, or watching
a movie. Well not anymore! Now you can exercise and be a geek at the
same time with the amazing netbook treadmill hook!
The hook is made from 40cm (16") of 18mm (1/2") pipe, 6 x elbows, 2 x T-pieces, and 2 small rings of 25mm (1") pipe. The pipe sections are positioned under the netbook so that they don't cover any of the vents and the two ring sections prevent any possible lifting of the netbook's front edge.
The hook on the treadmill and the netbook on the hook both seemed to be quite secure but as an added precaution I also attached some small sections of rubber grip mat using hot-melt glue. The truly paranoid could also add a velcro strap that loops underneath the hook and over the netbook at the base of the screen.
I'm currently working on a simple trackball hack made from a plastic roll-on deodorant ball (which looks very cool when lit by LEDs) and an optical mouse which I hope will be easier to use while walking/running than a touch-pad. Stay tuned!
These are some wall-mounted racks I
built in response to all of the CDs/DVDs/CD-ROMs/DVD-ROMs I find lying
around our house. I think what I really want is some sort
of storage robot that could
hold all of my discs and just "hand" me the one I want in response to
a search query or mount it in a drive for me. Alternatively a robot
that could convert and backup all my physical media to a large enough
hard drive would be really cool (you can
actually buy
these or build your own).
The racks are made from 10mmm (1/4") pipe which fits the center hole on the discs perfectly and I allowed approximately 20cm (8") between spindles. I made one for holding movies and CDs with six spindles (using 8 x T-pieces, 4 x elbows and around 2.6m (8'6") of pipe) and one for software with four spindles (using 4 x T-pieces and 4 x elbows). See the pictures below. If you choose a suitably colourful disc for the top of each stack then it looks like a poor man's BeoSound 9000.
The grey PVC pipe is water pipe but it's normally used for agricultural irrigation and low-pressure applications (rather than storage racks!). The same size pipe and fittings are also available in yellow which is for electrical and telephone cabling but my kids voted for the grey colour.
Each of the spindles holds about 50 discs so the CD/DVD rack holds about 300 discs while the software rack holds about 200 discs. I wanted to have enough room on each spindle so you could browse the discs without having to play towers of Hanoi but I realise now that I should have included at least one extra spindle on the move and CD rack. It's already too full!
There was a gap
next to my side of the bed that would constantly fill with books and
papers so I decided that I needed some bedside shelves - so I could
accumulate even more books and papers. These 3-tier shelves are made
from 20mm (3/4") PVC water pipe using 12 x T-pieces (4 per
shelf), 2 lengths of pipe that connect the front and rear sections, 4
lengths of pipe to connect the sides and 8 lengths of pipe to separate
the tiers.
The three shelves are pieces of 6mm (appox. 1/4") medium density fibreboard(MDF) with 35mm (1.4") squares cut into each corner. Unlike most of my projects I used a small hammer to simply tap the pipes and connectors together instead of gluing them. The shelves just sit in place and help keep the stand square.
If you are planning on making a free-standing shelf then I would recommend gluing the pieces and adding one extra shelf so that there is another set of pipes between the front and rear faces. This shelf was made to fit into a specific space so it doesn't have any room to move and does the job very well. You can see a picture of it in place below.
You may also be interested in reading more about some of the above projects and/or some of my other projects:
