DIY driftwood made from PVC

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
this could turn out pretty good if it's like some of those logs from the other thread....
 
To get nicer bends here's a good trick. Make 2 slightly tapered wood plugs that you can tap into the ends of the pipe, plug one end. Find something that will work as a funnel for funneling hot sand into the pipe, needs to be heat resistant. Heat enough clean dry play sand to fill the pipe up in the oven, 250 degrees aught to do it. It'll take at least a good hour before the sand has reached an even temp, a meat thermometer would be useful to check.. Pour the hot sand into the pipe, tapping the pipe as you go to help it settle. Plug the top and start bending. The sand will keep the pipe from collapsing and at the same time maintains the temperature for bending for quite a while.
 
broken said:
I tried with a small piece of schedule 80 before doing this piece and the bends were more flowing like an elbow. I am not sure if it bent better because it was schedule 80 or if it was because it was a smaller pipe.

Either way I am going to finish this one first to get used to doing the finish work before I tackle another piece. I plan on trying a couple of different methods to see what looks the best.


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Click to expand...

I told you all in the thread about this in the general forum....YOU HAVE TO USE SCHEDULE 80 OR IT WILL LOOK LIKE CRAP.
HEATING AS LARGE AN AREA AS POSSIBLE AND ONCE YOU HAVE THE SHAPE, QUENCH WITH COOL WATER TO "LOCK" THE SHAPE.

sCHEDULE 40 WONT WORK, ABS WORKS BUT FLOATS AND GRAY IS THE BEST COLOR(IN MY OPINION.)
 
boldtogether said:
I told you all in the thread about this in the general forum....YOU HAVE TO USE SCHEDULE 80 OR IT WILL LOOK LIKE CRAP.
HEATING AS LARGE AN AREA AS POSSIBLE AND ONCE YOU HAVE THE SHAPE, QUENCH WITH COOL WATER TO "LOCK" THE SHAPE.

sCHEDULE 40 WONT WORK, ABS WORKS BUT FLOATS AND GRAY IS THE BEST COLOR(IN MY OPINION.)
Click to expand...

I should have listened to you on this. The reason I didn't is because I could only find black pipe in schedule 40.

At the moment I may just hold off on this because I am thinking of getting a ray and I will need to have as much room on the bottom of the tank as possible.


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ToolMan78 said:
To get nicer bends here's a good trick. Make 2 slightly tapered wood plugs that you can tap into the ends of the pipe, plug one end. Find something that will work as a funnel for funneling hot sand into the pipe, needs to be heat resistant. Heat enough clean dry play sand to fill the pipe up in the oven, 250 degrees aught to do it. It'll take at least a good hour before the sand has reached an even temp, a meat thermometer would be useful to check.. Pour the hot sand into the pipe, tapping the pipe as you go to help it settle. Plug the top and start bending. The sand will keep the pipe from collapsing and at the same time maintains the temperature for bending for quite a while.
Click to expand...

This sounds like it might work. If I decide to proceed with this I will try this trick.


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