Figured it was time to post one of my recent projects.  Although I have not featured a project post in a while, I’ve actually been pretty busy with all sorts of construction efforts.  Most of them have been focused on finishing up Project Auuuuuurrnnnoooold – almost there, all the main work is now done, but I have some finishing touches that need to get banged out to finally but a bow on that multi-year endeavor.  Fortunately, today’s featured project was much quicker from start to finish.   Introducing my latest concept – the Posey Limb Containment System or PLCS for short.

PLCS is my fancy name for PVC pipe holder – ha.  For most of the year, I usually have piles of pipe laying around for all the Posey’s that are under construction.  It wasn’t a big deal until I got the basement remodeling work nearly finished up – Linda didn’t think it went well with the new decor.  This hurt knowing that each of the Posey’s are basically a work of art which in my mind just upped the classy factor.  Figured this was not a battle worth fighting so opted to get a bit more organized.  I need to give a shout out to Pinterest for providing the basis for the concept.  Someone posted an idea to store long and thin pieces of wood by simply bungie cording a cement column form between ceiling joists.  The new finished ceiling pretty much nixed that idea, but that got me thinking – why not make an upright freestanding version.

First order of business was to make a base.  Key requirement is it had to be pretty heavy to keep from falling over.  Due to having to resolve some framing issues with a few doors in the basement, I had some 2″x2″ solid oak lumber left over – perfect – heavy and would match the rest of the trim in the basement.  Now just a quick run to Menards to pick up a 4’x1′ circular column cement form and went with another 2’x4′ clear solid oak board for the base – again, both nice looking and heavy.  The form was simply set on the base board and the 2x2s placed tangent at the four compass points.  Drew some quick lines on the outside of the side blocks provided the cut lines for the table saw.  To cut the post down a bit, a number of interim steps were omitted, but here is the base and sides attached.

Hit the jump to see some notes on how I put it together.

I would need some way to fix the cement form to the base.  Knowing that the form is really just cardboard, it was also important to provide a means to swap out the form if something unexpected happened to it.  It would  also be nice if the pipes could be sorted by size for convenience during Posey construction.  It didn’t take too long to come up with a solution that fit all the initial requirements – simply put internal dividers fixed to the base.  Some quick cuts from 2″x1″ clear oak (sticking with the theme) would work perfectly.  Just needed some slot cuts to allow them to fit together nicely and presto, an inner structure.  These were also screwed to the base from the bottom leaving about 3/16″ between the side rails to allow the cardboard to fit between. Pilot holes were drilled from the outsides of the rails into the divider ends.

Now that the divider was built into the base, it quickly became apparent that the divider concept needed to carry through to the top of the column.  It seemed overkill to make that out of oak, as well, since it would not really be visible.  After another quick run to Menards, that problem was solved.  Will get to that in a minute, but this is the reason for the four holes drilled on the tops of the inner dividers.  As mentioned earlier, the side bars and the inner dividers were attached from underneath with countersunk screws.  All the holes were pre-drilled prior to staining for a more finished luck… but then had another idea which kind of negated the need to do that.

We put all new flooring in the basement and we are pretty careful about not scratching it up with furniture etc.  Same holds true with the new PVC holder so made ANOTHER trip to Menards and picked up some furniture discs to stick on the bottom.  Might as well cover up the screw holes while I am at it – with style of course.

Now back to the inner divider.  My previous trip to Menards resulted in the purchase of four 4′ metal rods.  These were sunk into the base dividers about an inch (for strength) and then a matching set of wood dividers was cut for the top.  The rods had to be trimmed since the inch difference from the bottom and top (only sunk half way into the dividers) put it over the length of the column.  Cut those to size so the top would fall just a bit below the top of the column.  Here it is when I was dry-fitting the rods to see how it would look (note, the holes have to be lined up in the top and bottom for each rod so put them together and mark identical hole placements – you will need to keep the alignment  when you put them together later (also don’t forget that the holes will be on the BOTTOM of the top dividers).

Here is what it looked like all stained up – note, the top divider was not permanently attached yet in order to make it easier to put the column on.

Next step was to attach the column.  Decided that a white piece of cardboard didn’t fit with the rest of the theme so picked up a role of wood grained contact paper off of Amazon.  They did not have a size big enough for a one piece wrap (well, for a price I wanted to spend), so ended up piecing the contact paper on the tube.  Note, turns out that the contact paper I bought was not thick enough  to completely cover up the Menards lettering.  I decided it wasn’t worth the wait to pick up another roll of contact paper, but you might consider doubling up the thickness of the paper if you decide to build one of these.  If I have to replace the tube at any point I’ll put a double layer on it then.

Simply put a nice sized screw from the outside of the base sides through the cardboard of the form and then into the inner divider.  Easy peasy.   Here is a view from the top.  Notice that I cut the tops of the contact paper and folded them flat across the top of the cylinder.  3m blue tape was used to temporarily hold them down while I was canvasing all the local hobby stores looking for some special duct tape.

Finally found what I was looking for at Michaels – wood grained duct tape – sweet.

Simply removed the blue tape and ran a strip of this new tape an inch or so from the top to allow enough bite on both the contact paper and the cardboard.  I also covered some large flat washers with the same contact paper to beauty up the fix points for the top dividers.

That pretty much sums it up.  Added some of the pipe off the basement floor and we are good to go.  The design worked perfectly.  The different sizes were organized together and my fears of it tipping over were quickly dismissed.

The best part of it all is my latest Posey line are completely capable of replicating themselves automatically – every morning I head down to the basement to greet their newest clones!  Also notice how well it matches the rest of the trim in the basement – hoping this will keep Linda’s complaints to a minimum that my Halloween addiction is getting out of hand hehehehe.

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