Really large grain elevators?

[txronharris]

Careful (and let me re-emphasize careful!), precise work with a table saw will allow PVC to be used.

Two different plans to achieve the same result.

(Attachment Link)

(Attachment Link)

(Attachment Link)

Second plan: After notching one, basically cut everything in half.

(Attachment Link)

(Attachment Link)

Everything was secured with PVC adhesive.

Sam

That's a cool idea, and have no idea how you were able to come up with it. Thanks for the info.

[NtheBasement]

I've cut PVC pipes lengthwise before and when I did the kerf closed up behind the blade.  There was a lot of force closing it.  Point is if you do manage to cut one exactly in half, you might end up with a piece that is smaller in radius than the pipe you started with, and it will probably curl into more than half a circle.  Fortunately PVC is cheap, so you ought to be able to find a setup that will give you the results you are looking for by trial and error.

[samusi01]

I really wish I'd taken some - any! - pictures during the table saw process but it was at a local HO modeler's shop and we were fairly busy. As I recall, each piece was initially cut longer than required by quite a bit, and then attached to a wood spacer. Then cutting was done with the spacer against the fence, so all measurements were from the fence and included the spacer. Final step for each was removing the PVC from the spacer and trimming off the ends to remove the screw holes and cut to length.

For the planning process, I used Adobe Illustrator as that is the program I used to generate the laser cut support structure. I started with the layout of the elevator in question, arranged representative PVC to get an idea of where things needed to go, and then started trimming from there. Modeling was also done in Fusion 360 to try to catch mistakes before starting everything.

Initial layout of PVC pipes:

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

Planning in Fusion 360:

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]