Handy little DIY PVC, Zip tie and Pool Noodle projects I've done lately....

kfa4303

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Hi all. Here are a couple of neat little DIY projects made from thin walled, 1 1/4" PVC that I've done lately using less than $20 worth of supplies.

The first is a handy little tiller extension. It's only a few feet long, but it makes a world of difference. I even managed to find some color coordinated pipe clamps than work great and don't require a screw driver. After I measured the length of the extension I wanted, I made 4-5 slits the end that would slide over the whole of the factory tiller grip. Note that I drilled a small hole at the end of each slit to prevent cracks or runs. I then found the neat little, handled pipe clamps. I just kind of stumbled across them at the auto parts store one day. They came with red and yellow tabs in the package also. I arranged it such that the the tabs correspond to the "red dot" on the factory handle so I always know the relative position of the throttle. A few twists of the pipe clamp tabs and it slips right off and stows away with ease.


This is a cool, hand powered bilge pump which I wanted/needed, but after pricing the on line I knew there had to be another way. So I went online and found a youtube vid that showed how to make a home made hand pump. I was a little skeptical at first, but believe me when I say it works GREAT!!! It will easily pump several gallons a minute (not that it should ever come to that). I just cut up an old dust pan to make the "piston" and used some rubber hose as the flap/seal thingy. The handle is just a long piece of bamboo available from any nursery. The piston and flap are held in place by a little stainless steel screw twisted into the end of the bamboo at a growth node so the screw could get some bite. It's very sturdy and all of the bits just twist together and break down in no time.


The next is handy little rod holder. I know there are a million variations, but I could never quite find one that would work for my set up. The best part of this rig is that there are no through-hull attachments, just 4 stainless steel sheet metal screws coated in 3M 5200 and mounted on the inner rubrail. It's very strong and has a drainage hole so any water can drain away freely. It sits just above the bench without touching the wood itself. It's very sturdy and only took about 30 min. to make (and another 30 to clean up the 5200 I got everywhere. very gloopy stuff).



The last couple items are just random little problems I hadn't been able to figure out a solution to until lately. They're not the most glamorous solutions, but they were practically free, using only black zip ties and a few slices of a blue pool noodle I had. I have the remnants of an old cable and pulley style steering system that I thought about resurrecting, but ultimately decided against it. However I still had the original factory hardware in place and I didn't want to remove it. I managed to use the port site pulleys and fair lead as anchoring points for some hefty black zip ties. I linked them in such a way that I now have a place to mount my trusty old, extra long canoe paddle. I never leave home without it, but it had always sort of been in the way and rattled around. Now it slides into/out of the zip ties with ease and the slices of pool noodle pad it against the side of the boat so that it makes virtually no noise at all!. I even managed to use the zip ties to help route my fuel line which I lengthened slightly and rerouted in a much more efficient manner.

20120101174635.jpg

20120106164642.jpg



Any way, just a few fun silly, but surprisingly useful little projects. They are by no means the "best", or most stylish solutions, but they all work great, were fun to make and cost less than a $20 ;) Cheers!
 

kfa4303

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Re: Handy little DIY PVC, Zip tie and Pool Noodle projects I've done lately....

oops. I guess the pics didn't post. Let's try this again.
 

kfa4303

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Re: Handy little DIY PVC, Zip tie and Pool Noodle projects I've done lately....

Let's try this again....again.



Tiller extension and rod holder:

20120106164631.jpg20120106164655.jpg


Bilge pump:

20120106164707.jpg20120106164612.jpg0106121628-00.jpg
 

kfa4303

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Re: Handy little DIY PVC, Zip tie and Pool Noodle projects I've done lately....

....and the zip tie paddle holder thingy


paddle ties.jpg
 

roscoe

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Re: Handy little DIY PVC, Zip tie and Pool Noodle projects I've done lately....

nice job.
 

kfa4303

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Re: Handy little DIY PVC, Zip tie and Pool Noodle projects I've done lately....

thx.
 

kfa4303

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Re: Handy little DIY PVC, Zip tie and Pool Noodle projects I've done lately....

Here's my latest DIY, cheap-o, redneck project. I had been searching for some sort of shade from the brutal Fl sun (it's already nearly 90 down here in March). I had looked around at getting a decent Bimini, but they ain't cheap and the homemade versions using electrical emt conduit I found were less than ideal for marine environments, so I needed something else. I eventually decided an outdoor umbrella of some sort would be the best, cheapest, easiest thing to do. I went online and did some searching and found one at wally world that would work. The best part was that while it was marked at a whopping $15, I was only charged $9 and change :) It's about 6 feet high by 4 1/2 feet wide and is fully adjustable vertically and collapses into two pieces. I can almost stand up in the boat with it up and I can lower it until it touches to the top of my head if I want. It also came with a white, plastic spike in the base so I can take it out of the boat with me and stick in the beach. It even came with a little clear, plastic carrying bag! It was also the right shade of blue and didn't have some goofy pattern on it. The next trick was how best to mount it in the boat. I looked on line and found several clever and/or expensive solutions, but none of them would quite work for what I needed, and also I'm cheap and lazy. After much ado about nothing, I decided on a using a few good 'ol adjustable pipe clamps screwed into the back edge of both my plywood benches, using #8 SS screws dipped in sealant. I had the clamps on hand so they cost me exactly $0. (again with the being cheap and lazy). I then zapped each of them with a bit of white spray paint after installation and they now blend right in with the rest of the boat and are quite unobtrusive, if I do say so myself. The cool part is that I can rotate the clamp towards, or away from the midline of the boat to angle the umbrella a bit while still holding it firm using the clamping function, which should also keep it from blowing away in the wind, and give me a sail of sorts :) A few pics to show off the latest and cheapest addition to the tinny. Herewith, hope they serve. Cheers and Happy Spring boating to all!

DIY project list to date:

* Bamboo kicker motor and gas tank rack, Bamboo pushpole w/ Velcro rub rail lashings
* PVC manual bilge pump, tiller extension, and rod holder
* Pipe Clamp umbrella holder with vertically adjustable umbrella



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kfa4303

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Re: Handy little DIY PVC, Zip tie and Pool Noodle projects I've done lately....

Just the latest updates and cheap-o, DIY PVC projects....


1.5" PVC grab bar. Can't tell you what a difference this has made. Not only can I stand and drive, but I have lots of useable vertical space at my disposal. I now have an umbrella holder on either side, 2 cup holders, a much needed junk tray for cameras keys and "stuff", 2 lengths of 50' poly line wrapped around the cross members, and it makes a great t-shirt/towel rack. It keep them high, dry and off the wet floor of the boat. I can also pilot from more of a center console/mid-ship position. With my weight off the rear bench seat and in a more forward position I get on plane much more quickly and the boat seems to handle better. Best of all, I can actually see where I'm going :) Don't know how/why I lived without this thing. It's rock solid, only cost about $30 and took one afternoon to build and install. Best of all it's completely detachable and can be removed from the boat without a trace in about 5 min.

0617121522-00.jpg
PVC Grab bar 2.jpg

New PVC pushpole holders. I had been using large velcro straps to lash my bamboo pushpole to the rubrail, but they
always tore free, so I decided to make some out of some scrap 1.5" PVC. I just cut 2" lengths and removed about a 3/4" strip down the center and attached it to the rubrail using the existing SS hardware form my failed Velcro set up. My pushpole now "clicks" into/out of place and is much, much more solid than my previous set up. Not bad for $0 and 10 min worth of work! I obviously need to learn how to cut straighter lines, but you get the idea :)

0617121519-02.jpg20120617202745.jpg
 

duke33

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Re: Handy little DIY PVC, Zip tie and Pool Noodle projects I've done lately....

Cool tips. PVC can be amazing.
 

kfa4303

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Re: Handy little DIY PVC, Zip tie and Pool Noodle projects I've done lately....

Thanks duke33. I know PVC has its draw backs (lack of UV resistance), but all and all it's pretty good stuff. It's sturdy, easy to work with, water proof, cheap, comes in all sorts of sizes and configurations and you can get it anywhere. Best of all, because it's already white I don't have to paint it white to match the rest of the boat. LOL. So far I've made a manual bilge pump, tiller extender, rod holder, grab bar, push pole clips, umbrella holders with a cooler rack to come. I think I've spent maybe $50 total on all of them. Thanks again.
 

kfa4303

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Re: Handy little DIY PVC, Zip tie and Pool Noodle projects I've done lately....

Not so much a PVC items this time, just some removable decks I've been in need of since I added the grab bar. They're nothing special. I just took some scrap 3/4" non-PT plywood I had laying around and gave it several coats of good 'ol Rustoleum Oil based enamel to seal the wood a bit. I cut the decks to shape and added feet to each corner made of a single layer of the 3/4" ply by buttering them with 3M 5200 and attaching them with a SS screw. I then coated the edges of the decks and coated the feet with more 5200 and let it cure before painting. They're quite solid and fit very snugly in place while still sitting above the bottom which allows water to flow beneath the deck to the stern drain as before. Best of all, I now have a nice level place to stand while underway which makes me a few inches taller and improves my line of sight a bit. Now I won't be standing on the ribs and hull anymore. The small front deck makes it a lot easier to step up/down onto the forward casting deck and gives me a place to bungee my little cooler into place. They took a little longer to make than I expected, with lots of jumping in and out of the boat and waiting for 5200 and paint to dry, but it was still a relatively quick, cheap little project that should make a noticeable difference in comfort while on the water. Cheers!

rear floor-before.jpgfront floor 2-before.jpgfloors and grab bar-2.jpgfront floor 1-after-with cooler.jpgrear interor with floor-after.jpg
 

kfa4303

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Re: Handy little DIY PVC, Zip tie and Pool Noodle projects I've done lately....

Well here's yet another updated to my latest list of DIY boat items and gizmos. This one is a shifter extender for my '66 20 hp. As any of your with vintage OMC tiller motors know, reaching around to flip the gear select lever can be a real PITA at times. I saw a recent posts of another nifty little metal shifter extender and it got me thinking that I could probably come up with one of my own. After rumaging around in my scrap heap, I came up with a wooden dowel (aka small plunder handle), and small piece of leftover 1" PVC I used to make the umbrella holders on my grab bar to act as a guide/support. After cutting the dowel and PVC to length, I dry fitted all of the piece together. While I happened to have the correct size nyloc nuts and bolts on hand they were all the wrong length, so I had to do lots of snipping with the bolt cutters and shaving them down with a file to get them just the right length. To be honest, it was a PITA to get the nut to fit snugly on the gear select lever while still allowing it to clear the fiberglass cowl, but with lots of cussing and head scratching I managed to get it to work. It would've probably been easier to just run to the store to get a correctly sized screw, but that seemed silly and I wanted to try to this little project without spending a dime, and I didn't. Once I got the dowel mounted to the gear select lever, I mounted the small, 1" PVC into the cable lock bracket again using a small SS bolt and nyloc nut. While the gear select lever and PVC are at a slight angle to one another, the dowel still passes through it with just the slightest bit of friction. After I proved the concept, I spray painted the handle, let it dry overnight and put it all back together again. Once assembled, I used a Sharpie to mark the FWD, Neu, REV positions on the handle. I can now tell what gear I am with a glance. The handle is very unobtrusive and is flush with the face of the motor when in neutral, recessed while in REV and slightly proud when in FWD. This should make shifting on the fly much easier, and no more craning around the motor just to change gears. Next up I'll be adding a tell-tale ("pee" stream) to the old '66 20 hp and then she'll be perfect and I won't have to contort myself to check the water flow either.

Shifter extender-labeled.jpg0714121430-01-circled.jpg0714121721-00.jpg0714121721-02.jpg
 

kfa4303

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Re: Handy little DIY PVC, Zip tie and Pool Noodle projects I've done lately....

some more pics...

Front 6.jpgback rear 3.jpgback rear 1.jpgside 1.jpgtop 2.jpg
 
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