The Background
So, my son is scheduled to go to Pipsico Scout Reservation next week. As part of his first ever Scout adventure, he’ll be staying in two person pre-pitched tents. Given that it’s summer in Virginia, I have only one word – bugs. Bugs, bugs, and more bugs. Naturally, he needs some sort of protection while he’s sleeping, but I’ve been told there aren’t any tie-downs for a mosquito net in the tent. So I decided to build up a quick PVC pipe from for his netting.
Supplies
You’ll need .5″ PVC pipe, three way joints, and couplers. I shopped at Home Depot. Below are the items:
I bought a bulk pack of the couplers, but if you buy individually, you’ll need at least:
- 8 side outlet elbows
- 16 couplers
- 8 14″ pieces of PVC
- 20 24″ pieces of PVC
With the 8 14″ pieces of PVC, you’ll need to arrange them like so:
Of the 8, 4 will have side outlets only, and 4 will have side outlets and couplers. You’ll need to arrange your 20 24″ pieces like so:
Of the 20 24″ pieces, 12 will have couplers and 8 will have nothing.
To set up the frame, start from the bottom. You’ll need 4 of your 14″ pieces and 6 of your 24″ pieces, like so:
This will form the base of your frame. Once you have this base pieced together, build the uprights with 4 of your 24″ pieces:
Finally, repeat your base, except on top:
From here, you can simply lay your mosquito netting over the frame. This is built for a Coghlan’s single wide mosquito netting, which you can get on Amazon for around $15. It should fit a standard military fold out cot inside it. If you were to have a normal cot with straight legs, you could simply lash the uprights to the cot legs, top them off with a cap to minimize wear on your net (like the ones below), and use it that way.
Conclusion
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