Mittwoch, Mai 09, 2007

the hoop factory

Groovy Tool

Karen measuring the length of the tube - 10 feet

a coupler connects the tubing

we heated up the ends of the tubing, to make it easier to press the coupler into the pipe


What's does a hula hoop factory look like? You need two worker bees, 50' of Polyethylene Piping, PE pipe connecters, a cutter, a pot of hot water and some electrical tape. Oh yes, and some cookies and tea ;-)

The piping is irrigation pipe - found at Rona or Home Depot. Dave bought Karen 10' of PEX (if I remember correctly) and that hoop turned out well too. The cutter tool looked good, but we either didn't figure out the trick or it was the wrong tool, so we had to be GoGo Gadget alias McGyver and used a bread knife , which surprisingly worked! The tool prepared a groove - the knife did the rest. I feared a little for our hands, so doing so you definitely have to practice mindfulness!

We used 3/4" piping, but 1" piping also works. It's easier to keep the 1" hoop up, but you might pay with some bruises.

Karen suggested to make 10' hoop and I must say they hoop well! I have made them wider before too - up to 13' feet - you got to try it all out until you find the size you like best!

For decoration we used electrical tape, but there is all kinds of funky tape available. Larissa decorated one with wool string, which looks fantastic. She also found coloured hockey tape somewhere around Edmonton, it's a little stickier than electrical tape, so easier to move up and down.

3 Kommentare:

Unknown hat gesagt…

What a fun afternoon!

Vik hat gesagt…

That is the wrong tool. You need a PVC pipe cutter. It has a rachetting mechanism that will keep cutting deeper until the pipe is cut.

Not really sure what you have in the pic. Looks cool though and glad the bread knife worked....=-)

Vik hat gesagt…

Here is the right tool:

http://www.plumbingsupply.com/pvccutters.html