Modern industrial technologies allow even such seemingly familiar items as chairs to be made into unique items. And what is important, their assembly can be done by hand. Connecting creative imagination will help you create chairs not only from metal (profile pipe), but also from plastic pipes. Just think, PVC products, originally intended only for the installation of plumbing and sewerage, have become a real find for home craftsmen. After all, despite their simplicity, they are easily and quickly transformed into the most necessary, and sometimes unexpected, household items.
Choosing the right material
All pipes made of polymers are commonly called plastic pipes. However, their appearance and properties are noticeably different due to the difference in the feedstock. Accordingly, the methods of their connection also differ.
Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipes:
- Various colors (originally white).
- They are connected to the fittings with glue, you can do without it (then the design will be collapsible).
Polypropylene (PP) pipes:
- Various colors (originally black).
- Rigid, produced in the form of segments of a certain length; are connected by low-temperature welding or using metal components.
A profile pipe is called a pipe made of metal, which has a cross section other than a round one. The most common are square and rectangular, oval and diamond-shaped are also produced. It is not difficult to achieve the required bend from a profile pipe using a Snail-type machine.
Shaping PVC tubing
To make the PVC pipe easy to bend or flatten, it should be heated with a gas burner, then quickly shaped into the desired shape. As an exception, in the absence of a burner, it is permissible to heat the element of the future product on the fire of a gas stove. Cutting pipes can be done with a metal file or a jigsaw, it is convenient to fasten the parts by cold welding (for this purpose, you will need a special adhesive).
From the elements of the pipe, you can make beautiful garden chairs with your own hands, the smoothness of the lines of which can be envied. As already noted, this result is achieved by heating on a gas burner, followed by giving the element the desired shape by hand. You just need to remember to let the PVC pipe cool after processing.
A novice home master does not have to immediately try to make a designer chair out of the proposed material. Even an ordinary product with a strict geometry of the sides will look great. It is easy to tailor a seat for a chair with your own hands from ordinary fabric, chintz or cotton. Having mastered these simple skills, it will be possible to proceed with the installation of more complex products from PVC pipes, for example, folding chairs.
Assembling a simple plastic chair
Before starting work, it is necessary to determine the dimensions of the product. They can be arbitrary, but, of course, they must correspond to the functional purpose of the chair. The easiest way is to take the dimensions from any existing sample. Then, according to the selected parameters, blanks can be cut from polypropylene pipes (or PVC).
What materials will be required for work:
- pieces of plastic pipes;
- 1 cross;
- 4 turns 90°;
- 8 tees;
- 4 plugs;
- thick dense plywood (for the seat);
- a piece of foam rubber;
- a piece of fabric for the seat upholstery.
What tools are useful for making plastic chairs:
- drill;
- stapler with staples;
- pipe cutters (or a hacksaw);
- special soldering iron for heating plastic tubes.
We begin to assemble the chair from the seat, solder pieces of PVC (or polypropylene) pipes of the required size to the crosspiece. Then we drill holes in the pipes for the future fastening of the seat.
We fasten tees at the ends of the fixed segments. On both sides of the tees, we solder the prepared blanks. One blank will serve as a leg, the second will support the armrest. The height of the armrests is determined independently, based on convenience. To assemble the armrests, you will need pieces of PVC (or polypropylene) pipes, a tee, and a 90 ° turn. We solder the finished handles to the seat blank.
Mounting Features
Curved tubes will add individuality to the back, but even their absence does not hurt to make a good chair from straight polypropylene pieces. The back is made of 2 blanks, which are convenient to assemble both individually and gradually attaching to the assembled product.
The chair is almost ready, it remains to nail the seat. As its basis, you can use plywood 10 mm thick. According to its size, a piece of foam rubber is taken (you can take a piece of a blanket). As a covering, any fabric with a sufficient margin of safety is useful.
Foam rubber laid on plywood is covered with fabric and attached with a stapler (as an alternative to a hammer and ordinary nails). After that, the seat is screwed with self-tapping screws (the holes were prepared earlier).
After checking the height of the legs - plugs are put on them. The finished chair can be painted (before attaching the seat), although the plastic is available in different colors, and the best solution is to choose the required one in advance. Assembly time is up to 3 hours.
The presented design is quite simple, those who wish can complicate it and make it more reliable. You can take segments of a larger diameter for making a chair with your own hands, the legs can be additionally reinforced with the same cross that is installed under the seat.
Plastic products are durable, there is no need for painting and treatment with protective compounds. Having such furniture in the garden or in the yard, you can not worry that it will get wet and rot. But most importantly, it is easily made by hand.
Making a metal chair
Metal furniture is easy to make by connecting straight pipe sections and applying the method of bending tubular elements on a Snail-type machine. The order of operations is as follows:
- The tube is plugged at one end.
- The blank is filled with fine sand.
- Close the second end.
- The piece is placed in the machine, fixing it between the pin and the protrusion on the disk.
- Applying force, bend the section of the profile pipe to the required angle.
- To apply less effort, you can heat the place of the bend with a blowtorch until it turns red.
- In order for the bend to turn out as it should, you will need to use a plaz (cardboard or plywood with a printed outline of the part).
- Elements can be connected by welding or threaded connection. For fasteners, it is permissible to use wooden bushings into which self-tapping screws or screws are screwed.
- After welding, the resulting seam is cleaned with a file or grinder so that the joint becomes even.
To make a simple chair from a profile tube (20x20 or 20x40), you will need:
- welding machine with electrodes No. 3;
- angle grinder (grinder);
- file, sandpaper;
- measuring tool;
- drill with nozzle.
The dimensions of the frame are selected, focusing on personal preferences. You can make a seat from boards, plywood or furniture board. If you want to get an all-metal chair, you should cut the required number of tubular elements for the seat and attach them to the frame by welding or bolts.
On the eve of the next summer period, I was puzzled by the issue of increasing the comfort of staying in nature, namely, the manufacture of what you can land on. On the Internet, the idea of \u200b\u200bchairs made of propylene pipes was spied on.
The first prototype was a highchair for a child.
Consumed materials:
- polypropylene 20mm pipe 2m.,
- corners 20mm 90grad 8 pcs.,
- furniture bolt 50x6 2 pcs.,
- nuts with kapron ring 2 pcs.,
- trouser leg from jeans 1 pc.,
- some rope.
Manufacturing process (briefly).
Determining the size of the chair is not difficult, I took the dimensions from the children's chair with some refinement as a basis. It is necessary to count two rectangles of the same height and the difference in width by the diameter of the pipe used.
Pipe cutting - no comment.
Welding of a polypropylene pipe. There is nothing complicated here (for those who have dealt with a soldering iron and polypropylene pipes), one caveat is that the sizes of the rectangles are small, the design is closed and rigid (it is unrealistic to solder the last joint without helpers). I got out of the situation as follows - I soldered two halves of the rectangle (two joints remain to be soldered) and on one half I “driven” the pipe through a soldering iron (I only warmed up the pipe as for welding, but without connecting it to the corner of the second half). After the “run” and cooling of the pipe, it hardly enters the corner and keeps it firmly enough. And then we heat the pipe and the corner of the opposite joint for the joints and deftly connect two joints at once (one is welded, and the second is simply joined with the “driven” pipe). This method is not final, it was so convenient for me, and structurally this was quite enough.
After welding the frame, it is necessary to drill holes for the screws (no comment).
As a seat, I used material from a trouser leg of jeans, sewn in two layers.
To stiffen the chair, it is necessary to tie the lower parts with a rope (see the photo), otherwise the chair will move apart.
The resulting chair can withstand an individual weighing 90 kg (checked personally) and may well be used by an adult.
After the successful implementation of the project for the child, it was decided to make a high chair in large sizes for comfortable use by an adult (namely, for a father, i.e. the author). As materials, changes took place only along a pipe 25 mm long 3 m, respectively, the corners for 25 mm in the same amount, well, furniture bolts 6 by 6 in the same amount. The manufacturing process according to the above technology.
At the end, I would like to note:
- the pipe was used simple (without fiberglass and everything else), when buying a pipe, try the stiffness (for bending, the harder the better);
- the seat can be made from any material at hand (fabric, ribbon, rope);
In general, the chairs turned out to be light, durable, comfortable, compact for transportation and with a pleasant appearance.
Good luck to all!
Pipe welding completed
Finished product No. 1 (temporary bolts).
Item #1 and #2 (temporary bolts)
Final version.
P.S. Today, both chairs were subjected to a barbaric test of 102kg live weight, the result is positive. Accordingly, this process was filmed on a photo of a mobile phone.
The plastic that has entered our lives is gradually replacing the usual wood and iron from everyday life. This is not about plastic bags and utensils, but about all the familiar PVC pipes, which are gradually being replaced by rusted cast-iron water and sewer pipes in our apartments.
Or rather, first of all, about the remains of these pipes, which lie dead weight after repair or construction and sometimes significantly interfere with the owners. Few people think that this is an excellent material for bringing creative ideas to life.
To begin with, these seemingly unnecessary scraps can be used to make excellent organizers for storing all sorts of household items.
If you select samples of the same diameter from the available scraps, then after cutting their ends at one angle, you can fix them in the right place and use them to store pencils, brushes, scissors, small tools and other things, for example, for shoes, yarn or wines.
Instructions on how to make such a pencil stand can be.
If you have developed a creative imagination, then with the slightest production skills you can turn garbage into chic flower vases, original frames for a mirror or lamp.
You can make such cute flower vases.
Clean up the piles of waste pipes and make something worthwhile from these products, even if you have to buy something extra. After all, the price of these materials is low, and due to the high mechanical strength, excellent wear resistance, rigidity and corrosion resistance of PVC pipes, everything that you make from them will be practical and durable.
Consider several groups of products for the manufacture of which plastic pipes are ideal.
It is sometimes difficult for young families to immediately find a large amount for equipping a children's room, and therefore the option of making children's furniture from improvised means will be relevant for them. Using plastic pipes and fastenings for them at the right angle, it is easy to assemble a bunk bed or a mini office for a teenager with a bed on top.
By the same principle, a frame for a toy house is mounted in a children's room or in a summer cottage play area.
If such furniture is too simple for a city apartment, then for country house she will fit. Summer chairs for both children and adults, tables, gazebos for outdoor recreation are easily made from plastic pipes.
If the area allows you to organize a small football field on your site, then the gates for the game are easily constructed from such pipes. It will be possible to dry children's clothes on such a wonderful hanger.
And children can also make such a wonderful sword or outdoor shower 🙂
Another idea will be interesting for the owners of suburban areas. Growing seedlings for gardeners is a kind of ritual. And therefore, the question of how to equip this particular period of the garden season worries many. The pipes are useful for making fixtures for lighting, for shelves for boxes with seedlings and for growing crops directly.
And how interesting is the option of using such pipes for constructing a trailer cart for a bicycle? This is already a whole auto unit for moving goods. And the bikes themselves will find their place in a convenient parking lot made of pipes, which will immediately attract new fellow cyclists to you.
The above tips do not cover the entire huge number of possible crafts from plastic pipes. We looked only into a small crack of creative ideas of folk craftsmen, and how much more was done by restless home craftsmen. Therefore, if you decide that this material does not contradict your environmental needs, you can safely start manufacturing everything that your imagination tells you.
PVC pipes are widely used in plumbing due to their excellent performance properties. But craftsmen have found a lot of applications for these products in other areas, for example, they began to use professional pipes for making furniture with their own hands. From this material, you can assemble an armchair, table or even a bed, this does not require special knowledge, experience in the field of furniture assembly.
Material Advantages
Plastic pipes have many advantages over other materials for the manufacture of furniture and interior items. For example:
- Affordable cost. Polypropylene pipes are distinguished by a democratic price. And some craftsmen make crafts from materials left after laying communication systems at home.
- High strength. The walls of plastic pipes are thick enough to withstand the pressure of water in water supply systems, so PVC structures can withstand the weight of an adult. They also show resistance to other types of mechanical stress.
- Nice appearance. PVC pipes are distinguished by regular shapes, pleasant white color. This has a positive effect on the appearance of the finished chair, such designs do not need to be painted.
- Light weight. Due to their light weight, products made of polypropylene pipes can be easily moved from place to place, taken with you to the country.
- Safety. PVC products do not have toxic emissions, so they can be used to assemble furniture even for small children.
- Corrosion resistance. Furniture made of polypropylene pipes can be used not only at home, but also on the street, as products made from this material are not afraid of precipitation and high humidity, because plastic does not corrode.
- Ease of installation. Assembling a plastic pipeline with your own hands is not difficult, it is done very quickly. It is possible to connect structural elements without soldering. In addition, such furniture is easy not only to assemble, but also to disassemble if necessary.
- Long term use. A chair made from PVC with your own hands can last up to 50 years.
To make a structure from plastic pipes, the master will need a minimum set of tools, including a marker, tape measure, and a hacksaw. Sometimes glue and screws are required, although you can often do without them.
Assembling a chair with an upholstered seat
The chair can be made with your own hands from the remnants of plastic pipes. The dimensions of the product are arbitrary, you can, for example, take measurements from a regular chair. Assembly work includes the following steps:
- Markup. Marking is applied to the pipes in accordance with the removed parameters. After that, the material must be cut into fragments.
- Seat assembly. To form the base of the seat, a cross is used, to which 4 short pieces of pipe are soldered, they will go from the cross to the legs. It is important that the joints are strong enough, because this part of the chair must support the weight of a person. Soldering is carried out as follows: the soldering iron must be placed on a level place, screw the drone, as well as a sleeve of suitable dimensions, set the thermostat to 260 degrees, and then plug the tool into a power outlet and switch the toggle switch to the working position. When the nozzles are warmed up, it is necessary to install the edge of the pipe and the coupling in them, wait a few seconds. After that, you should remove the products, join the elements at a right angle. Then you need to wait for freezing. If the master does not have a soldering tool, then glue can be used for assembly, another possible option is fastening parts with self-tapping screws. However, it should be remembered that self-tapping screws can spoil the appearance of the product.
- Leg mounting. You need to weld a tee to the free edges of the plastic pipes, and then insert the legs into the lower holes of the tees with your own hands. The lower ends of the legs are closed with plugs. You can also make a rocking chair, for its manufacture it is necessary to take PVC pipes of large diameter, bend with a blowtorch, attach to the legs from below (instead of plugs).
- Handrail assembly. For each pipe that will be used as a handrail, you need to attach an elbow fitting on one side and a tee on the other side. Then a short piece of PVC pipe should be attached to the fittings. After that, the handrails are attached to the seat (inserted into the tees connecting the legs to the seat). In this case, the tees of the handrails should be on the back side, where the back of the chair will be attached.
- Back assembly. To the ends of the PVC tube, which is designed for the back, you need to weld on the fitting-turn about half the length of the back. Tees are soldered to the edges of these segments, which are interconnected by another tube that acts as a stiffener. If necessary, you can make several of these ribs. Then two more pieces of pipe half the length of the back connect the back to the crosses of the railing.
- Seat installation. At the last stage of making a stylish chair with your own hands, you need to cut the seat out of a piece of plywood, screw it to the cross with self-tapping screws, and then upholster it with foam rubber, sheathe it with a cloth.
On this, the work on assembling a chair from plastic pipes is completed, the furniture is ready for use.
Making a children's chair
From PVC pipes, you can make a chair with your own hands not only for an adult, but also for a child. The master will need tools and a little imagination. Before starting work, you need to purchase:
- about 3 meters of pipe;
- 8 fittings type elbow 90;
- 6 T-connections;
- glue for plastic;
- hacksaw for metal;
- the fabric from which the seat will be made.
Below are the parameters of the elements of the future design. Each item of the list contains 3 numbers: the first - for a child under 2 years old, the second - for a baby under 4 years old, the third - for a child of 7 years old:
- Seat depth and width: 25, 33, 41 cm. 7 pieces of plastic pipes.
- Height from the bottom of the product to the seat: 13, 20, 25.5 cm. 4 pieces.
- Armrest height: 10, 13, 13 cm. 4 pieces.
- Back height: 15, 18, 23 cm. 2 pieces.
Do-it-yourself assembly of the structure begins with the back, then the rest of the details are added to it. If the work is done by a novice master, then you should first assemble the product without glue, and only when it becomes clear that all the parts are made correctly, you can assemble the structure using glue.
It is necessary to prepare in advance a dense, strong fabric for the seat. From it you should sew a strip like in a deck chair. The tension of the fabric will be carried out directly in the assembly process. An alternative is to leave the seat front cross tube and top cross tube unglued so that you can then disassemble this part of the structure and stretch the material. To make the seat easy to remove for washing, you can fasten it with a zipper or buttons.
Installation of creative furniture
If a large number of scraps of plastic pipes remain after the repair, then you can make a luxurious creative chair out of them with your own hands.