DDIY - I Didn't Do It! I'm not handy either...

Last year I naively suggested to Kevin that we make each other gifts instead of buying them. We are fortunate to have most of the things we want or need, so this seemed like a good idea when I was surrounded by mounds of torn gift wrap on Christmas morning.

I forgot about our deal until Kevin started producing amazing handmade gifts for me. For Mother's Day and my birthday he gave me pictures that he had painted or drawn himself. I felt like such a slacker!

 

I began my quest for the perfect homemade gift. First, lets be honest, men are harder to shop for than women. You can give a girl jewelry almost any day and she'll be happy. Many men like outdoorsy activities or sports. Chances are good that they already have the equipment they need. What does that leave us poor female shoppers? Most men hate to get clothes and, frankly, even the most progressive man secretly considers it our duty to provide them with food so home cooked or baked items fall a bit short.

Guys require gadgets; preferably gifts that plug in or at least light up. Short of learning to weld or solder most gadgets were beyond my humble abilities. And then I had my aha! moment. Kevin said in passing that he'd like a dip station for his home workouts. I looked them up online. As far as I could tell them were $200 metal frames. I could make that. Well, maybe not out of metal, but PVC piping seemed like a logical substitute.

First I found a website that described what I'd need to make the machine. Making a pipe dip station like the one shown would cost as much or more than buying one. I did a lot of research to determine that the typical width is 21-24" apart and the typical height is 36".

Thank goodness for the folks at Lowe's! Their slogan is "lets build something together" and they mean it! They let me use their computer to look up the instructions, loaned me a pen and paper to make the calculations and then (best of all!) made the cuts in the PVC pipe for me - for free! All together, the staff spent more than an hour helping me out. The components cost less than $40 and the hard work was done. Bargain!

I came home and this is what I had. Then I had what we'll euphemistically call my WTF moment. Could I really build this thing?!? "Its just tinkertoys for grownups," I kept reminding myself.

What WAS I thinking?!

According to the directions I needed:

• 8- 90 degree elbows
• 2- “T”s
• 2- 12 inch long pieces of pipe
• 7- 24 inch long pieces of pipe
• 2- 36 inch long pieces of pipe  

This was my working diagram. Note how scientific I am in my approach.

I was able to get most of the pieces from 2 ten foot lengths of 1 1/4 inch PVC. Each length cost $4.68. I needed a third section of pipe for the 12" pieces. Here were the cuts we made:
 
Pipe #1: cut into two 36" lengths and two  24" lengths
Pipe #2: cut into the remaining five  24" lengths
Pipe #3: cut into two 12" pieces

My first set of elbows was wrong - I needed ones with two wide openings to connect the pieces. Another trip to see my friends at Lowe's. Turns out that I needed "slip" elbows - great! They actually cost about half of what the first set did.  Now the cost of the project was just over $30. Then, oops! I accidentally ended up with three 12" pieces and six 24" pieces. Thankfully, I had left over pipe. I bravely pulled out the circular saw, put on some safety glasses and made my first cut.

Finally, I had all the right pieces in all the correct lengths. Time to build! The first version was exactly to the plan. However, it was a really wobbly. Also the front end was lower than the back because the T's used to stabilize the back actually raised that end up. I disassembled it and hid the pieces back under Amanda's bed.

I thought I could correct this by creating a T intersection on the other side as well. Off to Lowe's for another set of T's. By now I was confident cutting the PVC piping on my own and cheerfully sawed away in the garage. I read all about solvent welding and bought the proper primer and glue. Danielle happily helped me paint on the "pretty purple" PVC primer and we glued the pieces in place.

Then I realized that I'd basically built a cage.  I should have stabilized the sides instead of the font and back. Kevin was going to bump his knees the way this was. To correct it I needed ANOTHER set of T's to connect the ends that were now the sides and the new back. Man! This was getting complicated. Time for another diagram....

Suddenly- VOILA! I realized I could turn the whole thing UPSIDE DOWN and it would be fine - no additional pieces needed. Since I used 24" sections the original handles became the 'feet" and the feet are now the handles. There are days when my own genius astounds me.

Tragically, when Kevin tried it out Christmas morning it was still wobbly and clearly wouldn't work for its intended purpose... It didn't help that Danielle and I had missed two of the joints when we were gluing it together. Poor Kevin almost wiped out. Not quite the present I had planned.

I can see from this product that an angled frame would have solved my problem, but I'm not sure how I could have built one using the available PVC joints. If I had found this ad I NEVER would have attempted this project... Save yourself time, frustration and aggravation and BUY ONLINE. It's the same price ($98 including shipping) through Amazon.com

In case you want to learn how to do dips check out this site. Like many things, I've mastered the theory but can't put it into practice!

Now what to do with the large plastic frame we have in the garage...????