Make your dog a soft place to lay his head.
Make a dog bed out of PVC pipe that provides a hammock-like resting place for your pet. Using a tarp or other water-proof fabric makes this an indoor or outdoor project. These beds make good service projects for animal shelters and gifts for pet owners. A 28-by-24-inch bed fits up to a 70-pound dog.
Instructions
1. Cut the PVC pipe into two 28-inch pieces, two 24-inch pieces and 4 four-inch pieces. Use a saw at home or have it cut at the home improvement store where you bought the pipe.
2. Build a rectangle with the four longer PVC pipe lengths and four corner connections. Each connection should have two holes filled with pipe and one pointing downward to accommodate the shorter pieces of pipe as legs. Tap each of the corner connections with a hammer to ensure a tight fit.
3. Insert the four short pieces into the remaining connection holes to make the bed legs. Tap with the hammer.
4. Cut a piece of tarp 35-by-39 inches. Lay it right-side down on the floor and center the top of the bed frame over it. Fold each corner of the fabric down so that the connection piece is not on it, keeping the frame centered as you do this.
5. Fold the tarp over one long side of the frame half an inch. Repeat, so that the fabric hits at the top center of the pipe. Attaching the tarp requires two people to keep the frame centered.
6. Insert a screw with the drill through all layers of fabric and into the pipe. The first screw should be in the center of the pipe. Evenly space five more screws along the length of the pipe. Repeat on the opposite side with just one screw.
7. Turn the second long pipe slightly with a channel lock to tighten the tarp. Do not attach the channel lock to the fabric, as it will tear.
8. Drill six more screws into the second long side. Repeat above steps with the short sides using only five screws. Screw the corners of the tarp into the corner connectors with five screws each.
Tags: center pipe, channel lock, corner connections, each corner, five screws, frame centered, long side