PVC in "Furniture Grade"? Am I the only one who didn't know?

Wait, how did I miss that this exists? Does everyone else know about it, is it just me? Why are the “Maker” sites not full of this stuff?

Let me back up a bit.

I’ve got a project in mind…

Okay, I’ve always got a dozen or so projects in mind, most of them never get started, half of those that do never get completed, but still… I think this one could be cool. It’s to solve a problem that’s been in the back of my mind for many years, and suddenly the pieces seemed to all come together, a way to do it that looks to be fun and relatively easy. The results are apt to be a little over-the-top, but what the heck… if I do this (and it works) I promise to write it up.

Anyway, what I have in mind now requires building a small space frame or two, so naturally I started thinking about PVC pipe. The stuff has many virtues, it’s strong, impervious to the elements, pretty easy to work with even without specialized tools, and the specialized tools that you might want for small projects are inexpensive and don’t take up a lot of room, so you don’t need a dedicated workshop.

There are drawbacks- though it’s easy to assemble and glue (chemical weld) the stuff together, there are limited sizes and connectors available, so you have to sort of design with what you’ve got. One big problem for a long time was that the results tended to be really pretty ugly, even if you had a broad tolerance for ugly/industrial looks. The pipe and connectors are mostly a motly collection of white, off-white, cream shades sometimes ranging almost to beige, the connectors are made to be cheap to manufacture and work as plumbing with no regard at all for aesthetics, and the pipe has crude lettering badly printed all over it. Once it’s a complete assembly the overall result is often anything but beautiful. Even guys may find it makes them slightly queasy to look at, and if there’s a lady involved in your interior decisions, good luck.

The obvious solution was to paint it, but for many years there were almost no commonly available paints that would adhere acceptably to the stuff. As a result, many people found that they could use PVC for a firewood rack in the yard, or maybe greenhouse shelving, but it was banned from use inside. That’s changed to some degree now, we have manufacturers making spray paints especially formulated for plastics that actually seem to work on PVC, so in some cases you can now make stuff may no longer be get-it-out-of-the-house-now ugly, possibly ranging into industrial-but-sorta-cool ugly.

So, I was thinking about this project and browsing the web looking at the variety of PVC connectors available and I came across “furniture grade” PVC pipes and connectors.

Say what?

What we’ve got here, in short, is nice-looking variants of PVC pipe for building projects. As in, the connectors are all smooth, shiny, and much more refined looking. The pipe itself is shiny and glossy, and has NO PRINTING on it. And, drum roll… it’s available in colors. Nice-looking colors. And clear. And black.

Not only that, but it’s said to be compatible with but actually stronger than plumbing-grade PVC pipe, ultra-violet light resistant so that it won’t yellow and harden in intense sunlight, it’s impact-resistant and there are a LOT more connectors, finally things that are often needed for various space frames and furniture but never needed in plumbing, Amazing. And accessories like castors designed to work with the stuff.

It’s actually sort of gorgeous-looking… and it’s all still reasonably cheap.

I think a LOT of projects that were infeasible or borderline-infeasible before just became relatively easy. A lot.

Because there are some very unorthodox (for plumbing) connectors available in furniture-grade, and they are compatible with the regular plumbing PVC and said to be stronger, I can even see some of them being useful for some unorthodox plumbing projects that don’t have to “meet code”, say, greenhouse or hydroponic plumbing, or exotic-design hydraulic ram pumps.

I’m actually probably not going to use it for the project that led me to it, I think I’ll want to prototype that as cheaply as possible and if the prototype works I expect it will look good enough for this application with a little paint, but I’m enthusiastic about it for others.

I’m going to link to a supplier here. Unusually for me, this is not an endorsement of any kind, I haven’t dealt with the vendor or used the product yet, I’m just throwing it out there to illustrate what’s available for those, like me, who had no idea… assuming I’m not the only one.