Single barrel pvc rail

CRiP

CRiP

Active member
i have a few pvc rails already but they are all made out of a few 1 inch pipes. would it be possible to use a 4 inch or bigger pvc pipe to make a single barrel rail? i am worried that it might crack. also if you have done this, how did you secure it to the wood?
 
if you go single barrel, either get an industrial pvc (one of the big blue/green pipes that you see in big piles at construction yards), or use a grey pvc pipe (used for electrical purposes). usually the industrial one is put directly on the snow, or ontop of a small mountain of snow.

the diameter of your pipe doesnt really matter, its just personal preference. but the thickness does matter. if you plan on using the grey pvc, i would suggest getting anything between a 2 inch diameter pipe and a 4 inch diameter pipe (dunno if they make 4 inch diameter electrical pvc pipes) just because the pipe will be big enough to put on a 2x4 on the 4 inch side. so it would look like this:
__
__( )__
|_______|
i think any pipe over 2 inches should make sure that your skis dont hit the 2x4.
and when you go to attach it to your 2x4, drill through the top of the pvc (see the stickied threads in the forum if you need help with that).

if you wanna overdo yourself, you could find small pieces of wood that you could put like so:

__
_..( ).._
|_______| where the .. are the small pieces of wood nailed to the 2x4

this will make sure the pipe wont loosen on the 2x4, and increase the longevity of your rail

lemme know if that helped or if i didnt answer the question at all
 
thanks thats all i really needed to know, however, if i want one of those large industrial pipes where could i find one? i think that would be alot easier and accomplish the same thing
 
either find someone who sells them (might take you a while to find someone who will sell you a single one) or find a construction site and take one
 
as of when i built my PVC rail last week, lowes had a couple 10ft long industrial pipes in a variety of diameters. the cheepest was something like 6" and it was $22, and there was a bigger one, maybe 8" that was $44 i think
 
Bought a 10 foot long four inch diameter one today for $16 at lowes for the same thing
 
Im gonna try this this summer. Get a 4 inch PVC and cut it so you have a half circle. This would fit over a 2x4 and screw in at the sides
 
if you knew anything about anything you would know that a 2x4 is actually 3.5 inches by 1.5 inches and that would not work, the pvc would be too big. you would need 3.5 inch pvc, or better yet, 3.75 inch, because the inside diameter would probably equal 3.5 inches.
 
trying way too hard to sound smart
it doesnt matter what size anything is, cutting it in half isnt going to work because you cant secure it to the wood underneath without having screws showing through the top of the pvc. plus if you did find a way, cutting it in half will destroy its flexing capabilities and meaning it will crack easily.
 
i was kind of being sarcastic. but his idea would work, you screw it into the sides, not the top.
 
your ski wont have to be perfectly perpendicular to the ground to catch on a screw thats sticking out from the side of a rail
 
hold up. so you're telling me that your skis would hit a screw that was screwed into the side of a rail if you scissored too hard. I drew this picture in paint in like 4 minutes.

railf.png


that's the most the screw would be sticking out of the side of the rail max. tell me how you would hit your ski on that.

if you are hitting your skis on a screw like that when you scissor you better be doing an 1170 out or something.
 
because it's 3.5 inches diameter and you can get it in different thicknesses. i have a double barrel one and each side is 2.5 inch diameter and i replaced the tubing once, over almost 2 years.
 
and both of yours are cut in half and put over a 2 by 4 just like your diagram, and then put side by side to make a double barrel.. dont think so. ripping a pvc pipe down the middle destroys its structural design. its supposed to be a complete tube to be able to bend the way it was constructed. cutting it in half and lying it on top of something is one thing, but putting it like in your diagram means that every time you step on that pvc, all your weight it being transferred onto the small surface area of the screws you drilled, which is substantially smaller than the surface area of what i proposed in the first couple of posts.
bottom line, dont cut the pvc in half. lie it on top of the 2 by 4 and secure it like everyone in build-a-jib knows: drill a hole large enough on the top of the pvc, and secure the bottom of it to the 2 by 4.
also, what i had suggested, since its going to be a single barrel, is run long but skinny pieces of wood along the top of the 2 by 4 so that the pvc rests in between the two strips.

my way is better because it:
- won't crack right away
- wont take 20 minutes and multiple cuts to rip a pvc down the middle
- is easy to replace when it does crack
- because ive done it before and can back these facts up

/debate
 
I have a 8' diameter and 14 feet long blue/green pipe for construction and its work good but when its hot outiside in the winter like 5 degree.. the pipe don't slide very well so I cut and fall..
 
i have a 21 foot 4inch wide single barrel. I've never had problems with cracking and I just screwed it in from the bottom. Pretty easy and its held up for about a year
 
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