What you will need:
- PET bottles;
- large spring;
- any lubricant;
- construction hair dryer;
- scissors or mounting knife.
Pipe making process
To make a corrugated plastic pipe, you need to select a template for it - a spring of a suitable diameter. Depending on what kind of spring you managed to find, you need to prepare PET bottles of the appropriate coverage. Their heat shrinkage limit is limited, so they should only be slightly larger in diameter than the spring.
Having prepared the bottles of the most suitable container, you need to cut off their bottom and neck. The result will be blanks in the form of tubes. Then you need to lubricate the spring to make it easier to remove the finished pipe from it in the future.
A cut bottle is placed on the spring, moved to the edge and shrunk with a stream of hot air from a hair dryer. Then you need to hold the spring in a vice and twist the resulting corrugated tube from it. The bottle is not completely removed; you need to leave 3 turns on the spring.
Next, take the next workpiece and put it on the spring. It slides over the remaining 3 turns. Then the new bottle shrinks. Thus, the components will receive a 3-turn clutch. After this, the spliced pipe is again not completely removed and extended with the next bottle. This is repeated until the pipe length is sufficient.
When the bottles are seated, they are securely crimped, so if you use a pipe to drain liquids, for example, to drain precipitation from a roof, then not even a drop of water will leak through the walls. If the slope for drainage when using a pipe turns out to be insufficient, then before joining the bottles, you can apply a ring of silicone sealant around the circumference of the bottom of them. Once cured, it will act as a sealing gasket.
Perforated pipe made from bottles is quite durable. It has stiffening ribs, so it is not so easy to squeeze. In addition, when shrinking, the thickness of the bottle walls increases, which also increases rigidity. The pipe can be used for demanding tasks, so it is worth the time spent. Its only drawback is the force applied to pull the workpieces from the spring during manufacturing, so it is important not to forget to lubricate the template for better sliding.
