PVC pipes upcycled into a balance bike!

 

This is probably my biggest upcycling in terms of energy spent and thinking. It's not an easy upcycling when you start from scratch, but I'm hoping to guide you through the main step if you want to give yourself a try.
My model is largely inspired from the only one I found online made by Bruno Gavira.
But there's no tutorial available on how to make it.
So let's start from the begining. To make this balance bike, You need a 3 inch diameter PVC pipe that you need to cut using a coping saw.

Using a heat gun, it's fairly simple to slightly flatten the back of the frame by putting pressure with a piece of wood for few minutes.

At this point I realized that the wheel put to much pressure on the PVC and the plastic need to be reinforced by pieces of metal (found at the deck section at home depot) that I riveted (riveter cost 15$ and it's really useful to have one!)

For the fork, it just like playing Lego, nothing complicated, you just have to find elbow and T (3/4 inch diameter)

The only tricky part is to flatten the end of the fork using once again a heat gun (10$ by the way)

You just squeeze the end with a piece of wood once the plastic start being flexible (around 1 min with a heat gun) and wait around 1 min to get the temperature to cool down.
Heating PVC with a heat gun is probably not a safe idea and might release nasty molecules, so I recommend to do this step far away from your little ones.
The handle bar does not need any heating, just one more T connectors.

The mudguard is made from a 90 degres 4 inch connector and slighly shaped at the base with the heat gun. The strong connection is made with rivets.

 The saddle is made with a 3 inch pipe heated and shaped to fit the bottom of my little one by putting pressure with my feet.

The saddle is also riveted on the front and the back side.

 All the pipes needs to be secured with PVC cement.

 

I could not find old wheels so I bought some for 6$ each and used bolts and nuts to attach the wheels. I do not give all the details to build the bike, but the main steps are described.

Now let's have fun!!!!

PVC pipes used for water play!

Summer is coming, and here in Baltimore, we had a sample of the hot temperatures we might have later on. So I made this easy to make water play, to refresh our little ones when swimming pool is not an option.

This is really easy to make:

This is what you need to connect the pipes, pipes are 3/4 inch diameter. You need 3 stoppers, 2 T-shape, 2 elbows and one hose connection. For the pipes you choose whatever length you need. Most of the water play I have seen are kid-size, but this one is more than 6 feet tall. I have glued most of the pipes together except the 2 connections on the top to be able to store the structure in my basement.
To cut the pipes, you can use any little hand saw you want, it's really easy.

The most difficult part of the project was to find the connection from the hose to 3/4 inch PVC pipe. It must look like this and you can find it in the irrigation aisle:

To glue most of the pipes you have to use PVC primer and cement glue that you can find at the home depot or Lowes:

The top bar needs to have these special mister that will give you a very thin cloud of water, you can put as much as you want by drilling a hole (9/64) and then screwing them in.

And more importantly, kids love it!

Using PVC pipes to make a bike seat

There are a lot of front mount-bike seats on the market. Most are available on line but you can not try them on your own bike. I found this one on Amazon that I like but was concerned about the geometry of my own bike to fit this device. This front mount seat was $99 and is not available anymore on amazon.

I then decided to make my own using only PVC pipes and zip ties.

The main pipe is 2 inches PVC pipe that I drilled at each extremities to fit the seat post and on the other side where the stem is. I used hole saw attached to a drill to make clean holes all the way through the pipe.

On the seat post

On the stem

For the passenger feet, I had to design a T-Shaped structure made of 1 inch PVC pipes, I happened to have 2 holes in the frame where you can attach a bottle holder, instead I attach the foot rest pipes, with an extra zip tie to help the screws that are a bit further down:

I attached an old saddle to the main pipe by drilling little holes and using zip ties:

At the end, the PVC pipe is very sturdy and does not care about a 40 pounds kid seating on it. I did not put any handle for the passenger, I think it's not safe in case of a fall. it's too close to the chest.

Also, one downside with my version: it's not as good looking and It's not quick release, but I do not care.

The good side: it cost almost nothing to make it: $5 if you have to buy the pipes... and I feel very safe to ride with. But even if it looks safe, if you try your own version, I'm, in any case, NOT (thanks geembob) responsible for any injury that might occur...

Upcycled inside walls

From here

I love the idea of reusing pipes, bottles to create walls and separate inside spaces with an refreshing touch.

From Recyclart

PVC pipe spider for Halloween

PVC spider with pumpkin

PVC spider with trash bags, having lunch...

A fun project to work on, you just need to get 90 degres pvc pipes, the pipes and the pumpkins. If you have to buy everything, it's a $30 project, but you might have some of these pipes in your basement....

Making a rocket launcher with PVC pipes

The final Rocket Launcher

Kids love it

I must admit, this project is a bit more than just upcycling PVC pipes like you saw in a previous post, but it makes something really entertaining... A Rocket Launcher !
This kind of rocket launcher already exists on the market and  I wanted to share with you a "toy" that my son really enjoyed making and playing with. We made it for it's B-day party and kids loved it.

Why kids love it?
First they have to learn how to make the rocket out of paper, and then they can launch them by pressing a button, like the real stuff!! The tutorial show that you can also use a manual valve, but it's to hard for a 4 year old to activate.

Making the rocket launcher looks complicated but don't be fooled, it's not tricky as long as you get the right stuff!

What you need:
The Material: PVC pipes, pvc cement, electric valve, a switch and a 9v battery to activate the valve, a tire valve.

The valve described here is a manual one (ball valve)

And an electric sprinkler valve to make the launching more dramatic.

Sprinkler valve

The switch (made with PVC pipe)

By connecting the 2 wires of the sprinkler valve to a 9v battery, you activate the valve that will release the pressure from your pipes


The tools: A drill, a PVC pipes saw, a bike pump to put pressure in the launcher.

PVC pipe saw

How to make it:

It's just like a lego game, nothing difficult when you have all the right pipes to fit. You just have to glue them together, the valve is just screwed not glued.

The length of the pipes don't have to be exactly the same.

The tricky part is to insert the tire valve (from where you will inject air with the bike pump), you'll have to use a drill to make a hole big enough for the valve to fit, so you'll have to be careful to make the right size hole.

How to use the Rocket Launcher?
To fully enjoy it, you'll have to make the rockets. They are safe, since they are made of paper, but I recommend parents to supervise the kids anyway.

How to make the rocket:
To make the rocket you need a piece of regular paper for the body, 3 fins made of cardboard, and a piece of foam or paper tissus to make the tip of the rocket. Nothing fancy, but this rocket can go very high (100-200 feet high). Don't go too high with pressure (20-30 psi), you can control the pressure by looking at your pump manometer.

   

The pvc pipe is used to give the perfect shape to the rocket

                                  

The Launcher in action:

Making the lamp with PVC pipes and soda can Part2

Update (March 25th): The US Readymade Magazine's blog featured the lamp! have a look here.

I spent some time yesterday night to finish on time for the crafster.org electrifying challenge (see previous post).
This is  my version of the lamp I talked to you about, yesterday.

  

What you need:

You need good scissors, a knife maybe and a marker.

The material:
It's pretty easy actualy, you need the PVC pipes and 2 elbows, a bulb and the electric wiring.

  

The most important is probably the soda can itself.

I'm a big fan of the Arizona ice tea, I like the design and the colors of the can.

How to make it:

You just need to assemble everything together... All the PVC pieces come from the plumbing department and are I assume, easy to find. I happen to redo my basement recentfly and didn't have to buy  most of them.

  

  

1- the PVC elbow

2- PVC pipe

3- The base (which to be honest with you), I don't really know what it is but I found it in the plumbing department and happen to make a pretty stable base.

Everything fit together nicely no need to glue, the electric wires are inside the pipes and comes out under the base. 

Making the shade

Two cans are used, one for big petals and one for little ones. Once you have designed all the petals you cut the can with scissors along the dashed line and then you can cut the petals, Be careful, you have to stop cutting when you reach the bottom of the can so the petal stay attached to the base of the can.

You will have to make a hole (with a knife or scissors) to fit the bottom of the can with the PVC elbow.

You can easily remove the drawing on the can by using ethanol to clean it.

The cost:

Depending on what you have in your house, this lamp is around $10, or 6 pounds or 7 euros ;-)

Conclusion:

It took me 1h to put together, it's easy to do, and exciting to choose the can you like.

If you like it, please just go on crafter.org website and vote for the project you like the most!