Fairy House Made From Scrap PVC
Introduction: Fairy House Made From Scrap PVC
Why spend $10 on a 2-foot piece of 2-inch PVC pipe when I can buy a 10-foot piece for $20?
Last year I had to renovate my mother's kitchen due to a pipe that burst in her ceiling. As a part of that renovation, I had to relocate some of the plumbing for the kitchen sink specifically some 2-inch PVC. I didn't have any laying around my garage, so I went to the store to buy some and unsuspectingly arrived at a decision crossroad. As I stared at the racks of PVC, studying the prices, I began to ponder which length I should buy. The 2-foot piece is probably enough but its half the price of a 10-foot piece, which is more than enough material. I thought to myself, well I don't really need more than about 2 feet but if I screw up a cut I will have to come back to the store and buy another piece and waste even more time. I went back and forth thinking about this for far longer than I care to admit. Ultimately, I chose to buy the 10-foot length because I just couldn't bring myself to pay $10 for 1/5 the length of pipe. And that is how I ended up with 8 feet of 2-inch Schedule 40 PVC pipe.
Alright enough with the prologue, I have been watching a lot of folks build dioramas and have been wanting to try my hand at it. I figured a good way to dip my toe in to the community would be by making a fairy house. This way I could explore the process without having to commit to a full building or a full scene. And since this would live outside, I wanted it to be sturdy and last a long time, so I decided to try and make it out of plastic. 51
Originally, I was going to buy some styrene sheets and use those as my base material but then I remembered the scrap PVC I had and decided to use that instead. I discovered a few things along the way and if you would like to know more about my process, please keep reading.
Supplies
2-inch PVC
Hacksaw
Marker
Sandpaper - various grits 120-220
Ruler
Portable Bandsaw
Acetone
Heat Gun
Scrap 3/4 inch plywood
Bench Vise
Files
Drill Press
1-inch Forstner Bit
Super Glue
Dremel with Accessories
Blue Tape
Epoxy/Resin
Resin Pigments
Mold Release
Small Nails
Wire Cutters
1/8 inch Brass Rod
Small Torch
Acrylic Paints
Spray Primer
Spray Paint
Clear Satin Spray Paint
Paint Brushes - various sizes
Paper Plates
Paper Towels
PPE
Step 1:
I didn't know how much material I would need so I just cut about a 2-foot length of pipe using my hack saw.
Step 2:
I arbitrarily chose 5 inches as the height of the main body of the fairy house and cut several pieces to 5 inches using my Portable Band Saw Table, How to Make a Portable Bandsaw Table : 14 Steps (with Pictures) - Instructables and used some 150 grit sand paper to clean up the cut ends. I tried to get the cuts as square as possible but its not super critical to the build to get them perfect. In this case close enough is good enough.
*You can also make these cuts with a hacksaw, the portable band saw is just faster.
Step 3:
I needed to cut each 5-inch section in half, so I stacked up a scrap piece of wood and steel to get me approximately to the halfway point and marked a line with my marker. Then I took the piece back to my portable band saw table and cut them in half. Here again I cleaned up the cut edges with sandpaper.
Step 4:
This step isn't necessary since everything will be painted but it makes it easier to work with, in my opinion. I used some Acetone to wipe off the factory markings. Acetone evaporates fairly quickly so I just set those pieces aside to dry.
Step 5:
Time to make some PVC slabs. While I did need some pieces to remain in the half circle shape, I needed to flatten some of the other pieces of PVC, which I would use to make the other parts of the fairy house structure. I used two pieces of 3/4 inch scrap plywood which would be my press and a heat gun to soften the PVC so it could be flattened. Do this in well-ventilated area PVC fumes are dangerous. You don't want to scorch or burn the PVC; you just want to warm it up until it is pliable. You should not see any smoke coming from the PVC. 959