Making PVC Snowshoes Jan 16, 2010

Just a few shots to show you how my Boy Scout Troop has been making snowshoes for years. We got the idea from an article in Boy's Life several years ago. You pour hot sand into the PVC pipe, which makes it very flexible. Then put the pipe in a wooden form, remove the sand, and allow it to cool. After it's ridged again, we use steel rods, some webbing material, and truck inner-tubes (for the bindings) to make our snowshoes.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• Snowshoe
• making
• building
• PVC
• pipe
• Boy Scouts
• Troop 146
• Scout Troop
• Scouting
• Howto

[12peter96]

how much do you sell your shoes for?

[troop146WV]

@12peter96 We usually only make a few every few years as needed for new scouts, so we've never sold any. With a little creativity you can probably make some yourself.

[LtheShrek]

It's pretty interesting that you guys do that. So how do you do the rigging and bindings exactly? Do you add any kind of a cramp-on on the bottom?

[troop146WV]

@LtheShrek Thanks, the webbings are laced in with a simple pattern, through holes drilled in the material. The binding are cut from inner-tubes with a specific pattern that folds together and is bolted through the webbing. There are no form of cramp-on, but if needed, you could attach some L-shaped metal to the bottom, using the bolts from the bindings. I'll see if I can put some close-up pictures of the bindings together in a few days.

[mw111804]

Where do you find the steel tube's?

[troop146WV]

@mw111804 You find them at your local hardware store.

[sooriarabi]

You can heat up the tube by basin of boiling water, hot water heating is easier than sand

[donteverlietome]

Very clever! Hot sand softens the pipe evenly and prevents kinking when bending. Gotta love it.

I had a lot of fun and learned some very useful things in Scouts. Thanks for being here now, for these kids. It's a good thing you are doing.

[1960markN]

I was at several Outdoor sports stores recently and found snowshoes running in the $200.00 range. This is a GREAT project for Scouts, teaching: 1) Make it yourself 2)Thriftiness 3)Make do with what you have 4) how to build things. I assume you use schedule 40 PVC.

[12peter96]

@troop146WV i already make my own snowshoes out of a metal wire and twine that fishermen use

[davetileguy]

@paracordjunky Your question is where do you buy sand? you especially should stay out of the snow

[skinVISIBLE]

@darkbrookerik

I ve seen that and if the pipe gets too hot it collapses (like bent stupidly)

[DmitryDen]

Молодцы! Здорово придумали!

[kadakas]

isnt PCV too flexible for this ?

I made some snow shoes similar to this by using plastic-aluminimum-plastic water pipe - it bends when walking, decreasing its footprint