PVC Innovation World: Page 2

What with all the protesting going on, these may be necessary to stave off police brutality!

This guy shows how he made a hidey hole for his sharks in a 300 gallon aquarium.  Very cool.

This is very similar to the PVC picture frame, but it's interesting enough to post it as well.  I like circley [sic] patterns, and this little idea fits into that beautifully.  This one also contains a better how-to than the picture frame article, so if you liked that concept but found her instructions a little hard to follow, this one is right up your alley.

I'm sorry.  I'm trying to avoid the Halloween kick, but this is the only holiday I actually like.

Halloween is getting close.  I'll try not to be too gratuitous with this, but I love it.  This article shows how to set up an animated framework that you can drape with your own costume to make a unique lawn ornament.

OK, most of us remember the Super Soaker series of squirt guns. Probably all of us. What I didn't really know is that there are hardcore enthusiasts out there who have taken the whole thing to another level.

This is more of an op-ed piece that is only loosely tied to this world in the sense that what he built involved PVC.  What I like about it is it sheds light on what I call the New Poverty.  That is, the fact that the plastic and fully automatic world of developed nations impoverishes our creative spirit.  It impoverishes the human spirit in a way that you find the New Wealth in places like drought starved Africa.

I love to make works of art from leftover pieces of pipe.  This person shows a sensibility and execution that I can't touch.

This video shows how the maker of that Monster Tubulum actually put it together.  Between this, the FAQ on his blog, and a whole lot of intelligence, you'll have all the information and insight you need to put together your own super awesome PVC instruments.

I feel like it's time to raise awareness about bioplastics and let people know that oil is outdated.  I feel like the more we demand this, the more we're gonna see it, and that can actually help us, as a species, head more in the direction we should be.  There is nothing more important than the balance between organism and environment.

Overhead camera boom made with PVC pipe, from Dino at Hack a Week:

One of the things that has always bugged me while working with PVC is that it is, as it is presently produced, a poison.  Well, OK, it's not, but it contains a lot of poisons.  Phthalates are plasticizing agents that are super toxic, and these people are working to phase them out.  PVC also, in its present form, contains lead.  Certain chemists are learning how to use stabilized zinc and calcium instead.  Also, chemists are learning how to synthesize the vinyl chloride monomer from HEMP!  That...

You're never going to see a project from me that involves straight pipe. You would have when I was a kid, but after too many years in the construction industry, I need to see a good finish.  If the project doesn't look slick, I don't want to say I did it.

It's not actually a working telescope, but it is a cool model to show kids and Hubble image enthusiasts what the telescope actually looks like.  Includes printable skins so the texture map looks like the actual satellite.