DIY Hockey Materials - PVC Pipe

A lot of the DIY plans I'll show on here will be made of 3/4" PVC pipe.  It's cheap, easy to work with, and versatile.

Something I recently discovered was that there are more than one kind of 3/4" PVC pipe.  The top pipe in the picture is Schedule 40, and the wall is quite a bit thicker than the pipe on the bottom.  The bottom pipe is also more flexible than the schedule 40.  That might not be a good thing, since it may be less durable over time.

On the bright side, both types will fit into PVC 3/4" fittings, so in that way they're interchangeable.



Speaking of fittings, I'm using 3/4" slip fittings, rather than threaded.  There's an adhesive you can use for PVC, but so far everything I've built has worked fine by simply press fitting things together.

Here are the three joints I use:  A "T", a 90 degree elbow, and a 45 degree elbow.  When you buy these at the hardware store, make sure you get the slip-fit versions, and that everything is for 3/4".  You don't want the threaded type, and there are some out there where one end is 3/4" and the other is 1/2" or 1".



I bought a "contractor" pack of 10 T's, and another 10-pack of 90 degree elbows.  I won't need nearly as many 45's, so I bought a few of those individually.  In all, I bought 30' of 3/4" PVC (3-10 foot sections), 10 T's, 10 90 degree elbows, and 4 45 degree elbows, and the total cost was around $20.00.  You can bring the price way down by just buying what you need for each project, instead of stocking up on the raw materials like I did.

Use a tape measure to determine where you need your cuts, and a pen or pencil to mark the pipe.  I use a sharpie.

The tool shown below is a ratcheting PVC pipe cutter.  It's faster and more convenient than a hacksaw (discussed here) and miter box (discussed here), but a good one is quite expensive, and I've found that the precision leaves something to be desired.  It can be difficult to make a straight cut with these, most of my cuts end up being at some sort of angle.  The angles are small enough that it doesn't affect assembly, but it still irks the perfectionist in me.

I took this with to the hardware store.  When I got to the car with the 10 foot lengths of pipe, I cut them in half.  Makes it much easier to transport.



So that's my introduction to PVC for the DIY Hockey training aids.  The nice thing is, almost everything I'm going to show you can be made with materials other than PVC, so if you've got scrap wood in the garage, you might be able to make it work just as well.