PVC Play Gym

[madisgiftpaiges]

Dancelady: Well I tried to draw it, but I can barely draw a decent stick figure, lol, I didn't really find any exactly like this one, I just kinda combined 3-5 of the different ones i've seen on here and came up with this, lol.

my-africangrey-echo-the-TAG: For the base we used pine and we were originally going to use dry erase board, you can get an 8'4' sheet at Lowe's or Home Depot for around $12-$13 (in Idaho anyways) but we found this other stuff, I think it may be dry erase board, but it looks like panelling set into a whole sheet and was a little bit thicker.

carol s: I attached pics with the measurements of the pipes.

PVC structure: for the square base of it (images 1 and 2) I cut 4 pieces at 8.5" and put a "T" in between 2 making 2 sides of the base, then I cut 4 pieces at 7.5" again putting a "T" in between 2 making the other two sides of the base (you may just wanna make 4 of these now, cause you'll need two more later, just the 7.5" set). So you take the 4 pieces and lay them out in a rectangle and put a 45 elbow to attach each corner of the 8.5" pieces, on the sides that have the 7.5" cuts I had to cut a 3/4" piece to first go into the elbow then I placed a "T" on the other end of the little piece (for the 4 corner up poles) then stick the long piece with the "T" in the middle and repeat on the end and other side.

So you have 2 pieces that go 45E____8.5"____T____8.5"____45E

and two pieces that go __3/4"__T____7.5"____T____7.5"____T__3/4"__ (If you haven't noticed, I'm horrible at giving directions, lol)

Then I cut 2 pieces at 13" putting them in the "T" of the two attached to the 2 8.5" pipes and I cut 1 piece at 9" to go into the "T" of one of the 7.5" cut sides. Then making the top piece to attach them all took awhile to figure out, lol. What we did for this connector and to make the "roof" of this gym, we took a 4-way PVC connector (looks kinda like a plus sign) then I cut 4 pieces of PVC at 3/4" pushed them into the ends and then attached a 45 elbow to attach the longer pieces into. The 9" piece goes in straight up and down with a 45 elbow then cut a piece to 8" and stick it in the other hole of the 45 elbow and put the combination 4-way connector on the end of the 8" stick, then you place the two 13" pieces and then you pull them in until they meet up with the connector and stick the end into the connector.

The 4 corner up poles are cut at 17" and placed in the 4 "T's" from the 7.5" sides of the base. then you cut 4 pieces at 3.5" and place them going up (image 3) on each of the 4 corners and then put a 45 elbow on each one angled inward for the "roof", make sure you have your combination 45 elbow and 4-way connector made and ready, Then you take your other two __T____7.5"____T____7.5"____ pieces and put them into the T's between the 17" piece and the 3" piece.

Then you cut 4 pieces at 16" and one at 19" (image 4). Put the 19" piece into the "T's" from the __T____7.5"____T____7.5"____ pieces to make your middle perch. Stick each of the four 16" pieces into the 45 elbows coming off the top then you'll have to do a little pushing and twisting to get them all to meet up and connect to your self-made connector.

And last but not least the feeding perch (image 5) I cut one piece at 9" and it comes up from one of the "T's" from the only "T" left open on your bottom square then you put a "T" on the top of it then you cut a 3.5" piece to come out each side and put a 45 elbow on the end of each with the open hole facing up. For the bowls I took two 3" PVC caps and a piece of PVC cut at 1/2" and glued the 1/2" piece to the rounded closed end of the cap and they sit very nicely in your 45 elbows. Then we drilled holes in a spiral manner around the 9" stick and put in 1/2" dowels that I soaked in food coloring.

Supplies:
10' sticks of white PVC piping (total of 4)
45 Elbows (17 total)
"T" (13 total)
4-way's (2 total)

I'm not exactly certain on all the technicalities of making the base, my hubby made that. We cut the white board to 32" x 30" then he knows all these cool things about cutting angles and routing slots for the board to slide into the side boards. The 4 legs are made out of 2x2 sticks of pine cut at 22" and, well, I'm lost on this part of it, I was attaching toys with stainless steel eye hooks, you have to take a very small drill bit and drill a hole in the PVC where you want them then screw them in. I attached the rope with stainless steel screws and the plastic chain I just tied on with either jute or sisal rope. Sorry if you get completely lost with my directions, I'm horrible at giving them, lol.

After I put the whole thing together and looked at it for a couple of days to make sure I didn't want to add anything we did glue it (with All Purpose Cement for PVC) as I plan on keeping it wrapped with vettape and it made it a lot sturdier, I did not glue the feeding bowl into the 45 elbows so I can remove them for cleaning nor did I glue the 9" up and down pole of the feeding perch into the bottom "T". Then I wrapped the entire thing with vettape (before attaching any toys or dowels but when you have to change the vettape, you can just cut a tiny hole where the eyebolts are and slide the vettape on around it, the screws for the rope of course will have to be removed and then put back in)

If you need better pictures of a specific area let me know and I'll snap some.

Good luck and have fun!!!!

[carol s]

These directions are totally awesome! Thank you so much for taking the time to write all the details. This will be a huge help when we go to make ours. We will probably go to home depot this weekend!:boogi e:

[carol s]

I just made a sketch from your directions. It seems really confusing at first but once you sketch it and write down some notes your directions are perfectly clear to me and very detailed. I don't think I could have written them as well. Thank you. Do you know how many rolls of vet tape you bought? I want to get everything at once. Also, are you worried about fids toes getting stuck in the eye hooks? I'm making mine for a small conure and they are so active I always worry about toes getting stuck. I guess you need big enough hooks so their toes don't get stuck but not so big so they can stick their head through. Geesh, so much to think about! Thanks again for sharing your great plans!

[carol s]

One more question? I am counting that you need 15 total "T" pieces to make this work. Am I wrong? I've counted and recounted and I still come up with needing15 "T" pieces.

8 for the base
1 for the food perch
6 for the second level

What am I doing wrong?

[carol s]

OK, OK, OK Now I have another ?

This couldn't possibly work with 17- 45 angle pieces. some have to be 90 pieces. To make the bottome square.

so now I've come up with this

7 90 degree pieces (4 for the base to make a square, 2 to hold up the food cups, and 1 on the bottom perch that only comes halfway across)

10 45 degree pieces (2 to help from the bottom "roof", 8 to form the top "roof")

Is this correct?

[madisgiftpaiges]

carol s: Yes you are right, lol, The 4 corners of the base square and the 2 for the feeding perch are 90 elbows as well as the one on the big middle perch, so sorry; I used 6 rolls of vettape, I would recommend 7 cause I was stretching it on the last roll. As far as the eye hooks, I can't remember the size but a dime covers the whole circle so they aren't that big and they make a complete circle. Our budgie is all over it too and we haven't had any troubles with the eye hooks. And I did leave out two "T's", it took me counting them 3 more times to catch myself, lol I would like right at them and then not count them, duh!!

I fixed the directions (in red) and reposted them with this post!!

So the correct supply list is:

10' sticks of white PVC piping (total of 4)
45 Elbows (10 total)
90 Elbows (7 total)
"T" (15 total)
4-way's (2 total)

PVC structure: for the square base of it (images 1 and 2) I cut 4 pieces at 8.5" and put a "T" in between 2 making 2 sides of the base, then I cut 4 pieces at 7.5" again putting a "T" in between 2 making the other two sides of the base (you may just wanna make 4 of these now, cause you'll need two more later, just the 7.5" set). So you take the 4 pieces and lay them out in a rectangle and put a 90 elbow to attach each corner of the 8.5" pieces, on the sides that have the 7.5" cuts I had to cut a 3/4" piece to first go into the elbow then I placed a "T" on the other end of the little piece (for the 4 corner up poles) then stick the long piece with the "T" in the middle and repeat on the end and other side.

So you have 2 pieces that go 90E____8.5"____T____8.5"____90E

and two pieces that go __3/4"__T____7.5"____T____7.5"____T__3/4"__ (If you haven't noticed, I'm horrible at giving directions, lol)

Then I cut 2 pieces at 13" putting them in the "T" of the two attached to the 2 8.5" pipes and I cut 1 piece at 9" to go into the "T" of one of the 7.5" cut sides. Then making the top piece to attach them all took awhile to figure out, lol. What we did for this connector and to make the "roof" of this gym, we took a 4-way PVC connector (looks kinda like a plus sign) then I cut 4 pieces of PVC at 3/4" pushed them into the ends and then attached a 45 elbow to attach the longer pieces into. The 9" piece goes in straight up and down with a 90 elbow then cut a piece to 8" and stick it in the other hole of the 90 elbow and put the combination 4-way connector on the end of the 8" stick, then you place the two 13" pieces and then you pull them in until they meet up with the connector and stick the ends into the connector.

The 4 corner up poles are cut at 17" and placed in the 4 "T's" from the 7.5" sides of the base. then you cut 4 pieces at 3.5" and place them going up (image 3) on each of the 4 corners and then put a 45 elbow on each one angled inward for the "roof", make sure you have your combination 45 elbow and 4-way connector made and ready, Then you take your other two __T____7.5"____T____7.5"____ pieces and put them into the T's between the 17" piece and the 3" piece.

Then you cut 4 pieces at 16" and one at 19" (image 4). Put the 19" piece into the "T's" from the __T____7.5"____T____7.5"____ pieces to make your middle perch. Stick each of the four 16" pieces into the 45 elbows coming off the top then you'll have to do a little pushing and twisting to get them all to meet up and connect to your self-made connector.

And last but not least the feeding perch (image 5) I cut one piece at 9" and it comes up from one of the "T's" from the only "T" left open on your bottom square then you put a "T" on the top of it then you cut a 3.5" piece to come out each side and put a 90 elbow on the end of each with the open hole facing up. For the bowls I took two 3" PVC caps and a piece of PVC cut at 1/2" and glued the 1/2" piece to the rounded closed end of the cap and they sit very nicely in your 90 elbows. Then we drilled holes in a spiral manner around the 9" stick and put in 1/2" dowels that I soaked in food coloring.

[carol s]

Wow, Thanks! Sorry to be such a pain in the .....

[dancelady]

Thanks a great deal, I will plan on getting to Home D. and starting this weekend. I love your directions! You should write consumer's books for "How to Do It" because you really did it in terrific detail. Wonderful!

[madisgiftpaiges]

carols: no pain in the ...... from here, lol thank you for finding my errors, lol.

dancelady: good luck and have fun, no book writing for me, lol.

I'd love to see pics of everyone else's gyms too. Building these things are fun, thinking about putting an add in the paper seein if anybody around here wants one built for them!! I need something to do other than sit at home on the computer working, lol.