Structure 1 : first structure in the universe built using EMT and straps

Brought to you by Lows Inovation Lab.

This is bunny's portable bathing tub. He uses the whole of our bath tub so he doesn't make everywhere wet. We still put this tub in our tub but water use is a lot less. There are plastic EMT caps at the legs to protect the tub.

You can probably stand on the quad-strap cross joints without slipping. Very strong.

You can combine 2-hole straps with 1-hole straps for tee joints, and hardware straps for rotation and sliding. You can use 2 1-hole straps for fixing conduits when it's not load bearing.

1-hole straps are quite neat when snapping onto conduits. Here I use it for holding aluminum wires for the cage.

This is totally built without measuring tools, other than that the EMT's are cut to size. The quad strap joints have a tendency to be perpendicular, but not exactly. I suggest to using #10 nuts and bolts so there is less wobbling of the straps and the joints will tend to be more perpendicular.

World exclusive: Crius Quad stripes for low cost custom furniture, building and construction

From the Real Lows Innovation Lab

Previously, you can build furniture using PVC pipes or rigid conduits. This is because the pipes can be joined by coupling and tees that fit together. Not so much for emt conduits.

It's a shame that emt is only about two dimes per ft. There are fittings but not designed to couple pipes together rigidly. Also, an elbow cost a few dollars. I am not aware of any tees.

One day I screw 4 EMT stripes together and put them around two EMT conduits at a cross. The rest is history. Contrary to intuition, the cross joint is as rigid as you get, even though the stripes are a little flexible. It is difficult to put the pipes in position even before the screws are tightened.

There is no movement in any direction. You can't even twist the pipes. I don't know how much load it can carry before slipping gradually over a long time. But I think you can support body weight with ease. And you can design around this possibility of slipping by using load distributing for example. And the load can be born by the length of the pipes instead of the joints, such as legs of a table.

The cost of each quad is about 5 dimes. Not too bad that is about twice of a PVC tee.

Imagine the possibilities! You can build anything from a small stool to a swing sofa in the yard. The joints are not as neat but it is much easier to design and build without the need for tees. It's much stronger too.

If you just need to fix two pipes in position without much load, you just need two one hole stripes instead of 4 two hole stripes.

I'm pretty surprised when I found out that my hardware store has an innovation lab online! I don't know how long they have it. But my impression is that they are trying to move away from hardware as soon as they can. The all important section is the appliances. Then anything connected to expensive remodeling.

A sq ft of flooring cost a few dollars. A can of paint can be over a hundred. They are just not interested to stock pipe fittings and emt fittings. Last year or the year before they ran out of EMT pipes around xmas, causing their competitor to mock them with the sign "always in stock" by the pipes. And for a long time the 25 pack of emt stripes are not restocked.

Once I was in the middle of a project in the midst of thanks giving. I ran into the store on black friday morning and caused a sensation. The guy in the pipe fitting section was very unhappy as if I jinxed their black friday. They had high hopes when I came in but I can hear him murmuring "stupid fittings".

I bet very few staff knows they have an innovation lab online.

Another great tip: you can sand the zinc coating with a sanding block (or paper) to give a brushed stainless steel finish! There's very little effort and the coating remains stainless. I bet it will take paint well too.

I discovered craft acrylic paint. They come in small bottles so you don't need to waste money or storage for a small job. They have all the colors, from pink to metallic copper. The brushes are truly washable with water. All are non-toxic with little or no voc. They are tough and some claim to be dishwasher safe ?! Some even use it outdoors and let it weather. You can also protect the color with some clear outer seal.

Successful Green Pea litter system for bunnies may be cats and other small animals

I gave up on the Green Pea system because it was difficult to clean thoroughly. But it was much worse when I went back to disposable litter. The pellets are gone from the pet store shelves. The remaining have some have sticky residues and made a mess with bunny's tail. I ended up on the top quality paper litter. It's expensive and still I have to change often to keep bunny dry and clean. Over $10 a week just isn't right.

From avoiding pollution during engine oil change, I got the idea of revolving cleanliness. Say you use the same used oil tray every time and you don't ever need to wash it clean with detergent. Say after cleaning some spills, the floor is cleaner than before and you don't normally go there, that's clean enough, until next time.

For my modified Green Pea system, you just need 3 trays that can stack close together, and some sort of screen as in screen doors. And the main ingredient is aquarium gravel. And you also need some duct tape.

The bottom tray is unmodified to hold liquid.

You drill a lot of small holes on the middle tray such that gravels rarely get through. These holes are to drain water after rinsing. The number isn't important but affects the speed of drainage. But the holes should be placed such that water do not pool on the corners, the sides or the middle. A little pooling also not important. Then you put 1 to 2 inch of aquarium gravel on this tray. They support the weight of the bunny and allow liquid to drain to the bottom.

For the top tray you cut off 1 to 2 inch off the bottom, a height approx equal to the thickness of the gravel. Replace the bottom with a screen. I use those for solar screen door. Tough, flexible and soft. I duct tape it to the outside of the tray. I tried to super glue it but not successful yet.

That's it. You need two to three sets for rotation.

For extra credit, if the stacked height is too high for baby or old bunnies, you can put off parts of the wall in all three layers to let them in and out easily. A shallow tray will do, one to two inches. But usually trays are deeper than that.

So, the bunny do it's business on top of the screen. It's weight is supported by the gravel. Any solid or pill will stay on top without going into the gravels making them difficult to clean. If some solid sticks to the screen, you can sprinkle some paper litter to keep clean. You can just lift the top tray off with the screen to empty it as often as you like. Liquid will go into the bottom of the gravel layer.

Bunnies like gravel. He likes to dig a shallow depression and rest in it. Pea gravel from hardware store will do but smaller ones should be more comfortable. I suggest white angular gravels from aquariums but not too fine. You can easily see how dirty the white gravels are. Angular ones stack as in paving well while round ones slip around the feet. Indeed he sleeps on the gravels a lot of times, more so with the soft clean screen on top.

To clean, solids are simply emptied from the top tray as often as you like. Each day you need to soak the screen tray on top of the bottom tray a bit. Then it's easy to rinse it clean of sticky solid with or without a moderate pressurized nozzle.

The gravels just need to be rinsed. You can pour out the top water and let the water drain from the bottom holes.

It's not easy to dry the gravels thoroughly. The sun dries fast but only the top that it sees. I tried to bake it in the oven. It would work but you need a big oven ware. The gravels also have to be relatively clean, free of pills, so that the smell reminds you of cooking rather than the bunny.

This setup is designed to dry the gravel in place. With or without the sun, the gravels at the top will dry fast. So three sets of gravels are enough for a rotation. After enough drying, you just put the gravel tray onto the bottom tray and put back to use. The gravels may not be completely dry, but the top layer is dry, drier and cleaner than the last batch that the bunny did his business the day before. In comparison, if the gravels are not completely dry in the oven, you will feel the wetness when you pour them around into the litter tray.

In my last version, my two problems are that too much water with dirt goes into the outdoor laundry sink. If I use it to irrigate, the pills are fly magnets.

This time I just use a small patch of gravel pit outdoors to clean and drain. Since the pills are separated and the gravels have relatively little dirt in it, I just pour the dirty water down the pit for irrigation. The gravels will help to trap the tiny dirt down there better than bare soil. Everybody and the plants are happy. The liquid waste I pour as far away from plants as possible. And with a lot of water to dilute, I hope the plants are OK with it.

The running cost is the very few gravels that are lost everyday, and water. The water consumption I would say is about a flush of the toilet. I think I can use a lot less water if I try. It's revolvingly clean as long as the gravels don't smell. The top gravels will be relatively clean.

For cats, you can't have the screen layer. The gravel lost will be greater when you scoop out the solids, but you can use cheaper hardware store gravels.

Small creatures like to live in the gravels. So you may want to dry the gravels high up on some stands. There are plenty ways to clean the gravels thoroughly once a while. Many germs die at 60 C for a minute or so. (please check). So pouring boiling water on the gravels and soak them until the water cools will do nicely to kill a lot of things. Bugs will do poorly than germs. You can also use chemicals like hydrogen peroxide, salt, baking soda, vinegar. Bartender's friend is a rather strong acid but organic. Just don't eat it or let it absorb into your skin too much.

Even if the duct tape isn't secure, they don't come off that easily during cleaning, and the whole setup is rather neat when stacked on top of each other. Let me know if you have ideas to get rid of the duct tapes.