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Make Large Bamboo? It's easy! |
Kewlava
Tiki Centralite
Joined: May 21, 2007
Posts: 47
From: Phoenix
|  Posted: 2008-05-20 11:32 am Permalink
Recently I needed some fairly large pieces of bamboo to make legs for my outside bar. As you well know, buying bamboo is the easy part. Shipping it in 8 ft. sections will get pricey.
Yep, The back bamboos are fake, the front ones are real! This works for any size, but you need to use thin wall PVC pipe. That you can get at Home Depot, ($7.44 for 10ft)!
How'd I do it?
Check out the slide show HERE. http://www.astrodesia.com/bamboo/index.html
Lemmie know what you think.
Kelly
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[ This Message was edited by: Kewlava 2008-05-20 11:33 ]
[ This Message was edited by: Kewlava 2008-05-20 12:24 ]
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Sneakytiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 31, 2003
Posts: 1795
From: Boise, Idaho
| Posted: 2008-05-20 11:51 am Permalink
I thought this would be another post about painting PVC to look like bamboo, but the torching and creating real knuckles is really SWELL!
Your project turned out great!
ST
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JenTiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jun 16, 2006
Posts: 1817
From: An island in the bay
| Posted: 2008-05-20 12:02 pm Permalink
That's freakin' genius!!! Very cool!
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MadDogMike
Grand Member (3 years) 
Joined: Mar 30, 2008
Posts: 6392
From: The Anvil of the Sun
| Posted: 2008-05-20 2:07 pm Permalink
The "Kewlava Method" of faux bamboo, sweet!
To make sure I understand, after you heat the knuckles, you press the pipe down against the floor to compress it? I tried unsuccessfully making knuckles out of PVC couplings turned on a wood lathe, this looks much better.
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Clay, the oldest and most divine art media;
"And now, from the clay of the ground, the Lord God formed man" Genesis 2:7
Pirate Ship Tree House
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bamboo stu
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Sep 18, 2007
Posts: 126
From: Oakland, CA
| Posted: 2008-05-20 3:53 pm Permalink
Well there ya go, an old trick refined. Don't forget your respirator, the fumes off that burning PVC are reeeely bad, and the spray paint ain't much better. Better to get high off strong rum drink, eh?
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Murph
Grand Member (4 years) 
Joined: Jul 11, 2006
Posts: 671
From: SoCal
| Posted: 2008-05-20 4:38 pm Permalink
Excellent...
I thought at first that this was going to be a post about growing bamboo 
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Murph
WaikikiWomb
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VampiressRN
Grand Member (5 years) 
Joined: Nov 23, 2006
Posts: 5084
From: Sin City Lincoln Hills (NorCal)
| Posted: 2008-05-20 4:57 pm Permalink
Wow....very creative and great pics. BRILLIANT!!! 
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 "Oh waiter, another cocktail please!!!"
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Haole'akamai
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jul 07, 2005
Posts: 2269
From: The Polynesian Port of NOLA
| Posted: 2008-05-20 5:17 pm Permalink
Quote:
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On 2008-05-20 14:07, MadDogMike wrote:
To make sure I understand, after you heat the knuckles, you press the pipe down against the floor to compress it?
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That's what I figure. Re4ally nice. I might actually use PVC for shamboo, after all...
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Jungle Trader
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jan 04, 2003
Posts: 3691
From: Trader's Jungle Outpost, Turlock, Ca.
| Posted: 2008-05-20 5:27 pm Permalink
BRILLIANT!!
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MadDogMike
Grand Member (3 years)
Joined: Mar 30, 2008
Posts: 6392
From: The Anvil of the Sun
| Posted: 2008-06-03 9:02 pm Permalink
I tried my hand at the "Kewlava Bamboo", it's not as "Kewl" as the original, but maybe I have a different species of faux bamboo
I needed a reed fence shade to keep the blazing desert sun off my delicate "tropical" plants, the bamboo was just what I needed to make the frame. The uprights have a large wooden tree stake inside them, but the crossbar is self-supporting - it sags down a little but just adds to the effect. Your home improvement store also sells PVC "test plugs" that fit inside the end of the pipe in case you have an open end that shows, like the left side of the crossbar.
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Anything worth doing, is worth doing to the point of wretched excess.
[ This Message was edited by: MadDogMike 2008-06-03 21:06 ]
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Kewlava
Tiki Centralite
Joined: May 21, 2007
Posts: 47
From: Phoenix
| Posted: 2008-06-13 07:49 am Permalink
I'm always adding more stuff (as it should be) to the back yard. We've officially decided to call the place "Tiki Lagoon". Pretty odd for Arizona, but it's working.
We're shooting for some Tiki Room style elements (of course).
I made a sign from some warped 3/4 plywood I got from the off-cut bin at Home Depot.
The background woodgrain is painted, and the letters are 1/4 in. foam, glued on with contact cement.
I made the bamboo border out of halved wine corks I found in a huge jar at the neighbors' yard sale. Then I added some off-cut fake boo as bookends, from the now finished bar project in the bottom pic. Then I fiberglass resin painted the whole thing.
Whatcha guys think? (We still need to put stuff on the barback)
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MadDogMike
Grand Member (3 years)
Joined: Mar 30, 2008
Posts: 6392
From: The Anvil of the Sun
| Posted: 2008-06-13 09:55 am Permalink
Very Nice, I like the surf board bar. Creative use of wine corks!
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sungod
Grand Member (7 years) 
Joined: Feb 07, 2003
Posts: 219
From: Tampa Bay/New Port Richey
| Posted: 2008-06-13 5:15 pm Permalink
Nice step by step. Missed it when first posted. Will have to give it a try.
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EyeballJohn
Grand Member (2 years) 
Joined: Jun 24, 2005
Posts: 27
From: Long Island NY
| Posted: 2008-06-15 09:15 am Permalink
Great Work, always like making stuff out of what's laying around,nice how too on the bamboo, EyeballJohn
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MadDogMike
Grand Member (3 years)
Joined: Mar 30, 2008
Posts: 6392
From: The Anvil of the Sun
| Posted: 2008-06-19 10:24 am Permalink
The technique works with smaller PVC also. I tried it with some 1/2 inch thinwall PVC to make a spitting tiki. You just have to be a little more careful when heating the pipe with the torch. I capped one end of my pipe and blew into it after I heated it so the pressure made the softened part of the pipe swell a little. The tiki isn't anything to brag about, especially here in the midst of real artists. It's carved in the "Neolithic Polynesian" style (kind of 2 demensional and flat) with primitive tools (a straight chisel and a claw hammer), but it matches my other 2 tikis.
Next, I may try a PVC bamboo water wheel. I think you could use regular PVC fittings for the joints, then just wrap them with jute twine to cover the fittings. Maybe varnish the twine to protect it and to keep it from loosening and exposing your PVC fittings
_________________
Clay, the oldest and most divine art media;
"And now, from the clay of the ground, the Lord God formed man" Genesis 2:7
Pirate Ship Tree House
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