Cool Mods - Thread restored 10/18/2012

Hoosier Daddy wrote:
After putting up a closet rod at the DD's new house I had an idea on a ladder for the Grand-kids to access the top bunk in the TT.
While originally thinking of doing it all in PVC, I was using a length of vinyl coated wooden closet rod from Home Depot that looked about the same size.... Hmmmm.
On the way home I picked up a single 1" PVC "T" from the local HWI to take home and test fit onto my scrap rod... sure enough, even though the Rod is 1-1/4" a 1" PVC "T" had nice snug fit! (stay with me here...PVC pipe is measured by it's ID while the closet rod is by it's OD.)

Did the math and next time I was at Home Depot picked up enough of the closet Rod, two 1-1/4" rubber feet and two 1" PVC Caps and their 1" PVC "T"s to tackle my project.

I cut everthing to size for 12" wide treads, and at a shorter 10" rise for the Tots little legs and started assembly.


Here is where I ran into a snag. While the rod did have a snug fit it was a little too snug to put all the way into the "T" by hand so I used a mallet to fully seat it. While assembling the rungs I broke the "T"...

I noticed the single test "T" that I had bought from HWI had molded in gussets in the corners and seemed to be better material.

So back to HWI for their superior pieces. Having already commited myself to a bunch of cut up closet rod, I even took an extra precaution and warmed the PVC in hot water while putting it all together.
That worked like a charm! The hot water bath expanded them and probably softened them just enough to make assembly much easier.

I put the two rubber foot caps on the bottom to keep it from sliding and the PVC caps on the other to give it a finished look. Final outcome holds my weight with little flex so I think it's going to be fine for the Grand-Kids to get in and out ofthe top bunk on their own