P.E.T Wall
Intro: P.E.T Wall
This was a group project done in my first year of architecture school. The objective of the project was to create a plane (floor, wall, ceiling, partition, anything planar really) out of used objects(our group happens to choose 2 litre PET soda bottles.....1200++ of them). I am not sure people would actually see this and replicate the whole thing,nevertheless i hope you will enjoy it
STEP 1: Materials and Tools
2 Litre PET soda bottles, a mixture of clear and green bottles.(we went dumpster diving for a few days to get all the bottles)
Hot wire for cutting foam (in this case used for cutting the bottles)
Some medite to make couple of jig
Hole saw drill bit that would make a hole just big enough for the mouth of the soda bottles
safety mask to protect yourself from the toxic fume when cutting the bottles with hot wire cutter
Hot wire for cutting foam (in this case used for cutting the bottles)
Some medite to make couple of jig
Hole saw drill bit that would make a hole just big enough for the mouth of the soda bottles
safety mask to protect yourself from the toxic fume when cutting the bottles with hot wire cutter
STEP 2: Cut the Bottles
Clean the inside of the bottles and remove most, if not all of the labels.
Cut as many bottles as you wish.
You will end up with four parts, the mouth, upper, middle and bottom.
Flatten the bottle, put it in jig 2 and drill the four holes.
The middle part of the bottle once pressed and flattened will be the building block of the plane, the mouth becomes the connector between individual building block.
Do not throw the upper and bottom part of the bottle, they are essential for the structural integrity of the plane.
Cut as many bottles as you wish.
You will end up with four parts, the mouth, upper, middle and bottom.
Flatten the bottle, put it in jig 2 and drill the four holes.
The middle part of the bottle once pressed and flattened will be the building block of the plane, the mouth becomes the connector between individual building block.
Do not throw the upper and bottom part of the bottle, they are essential for the structural integrity of the plane.
STEP 3: Assembly
Now that you have amassed a large amount of these bottle parts, its time to put them together.
The assembling of one bottle to another is quite self explanatory.
overlap the flatten and drilled , put the mouth of bottle through the hole, screw the cap on.
to stand the plane up, our idea was to create a pocket in the plane so that it can be filled with the upper and bottom part of the bottle hence creating wider base.
The assembling of one bottle to another is quite self explanatory.
overlap the flatten and drilled , put the mouth of bottle through the hole, screw the cap on.
to stand the plane up, our idea was to create a pocket in the plane so that it can be filled with the upper and bottom part of the bottle hence creating wider base.
STEP 4: ENJOY!
I still have all the bottle parts in the basement waiting for their uncertain future if your'e living in the Chicago area and want to take them away please leave a comment. I hope you guys enjoy my very first Instructables, i will leave you with some pictures of the finished project and as D.r. Stephen T. Colbert, D.F.A. say " EMMY PLEASE!" (or in this case Solar-powered backpack from Voltaic, the Converter please!)
67 Comments
inkstainedheart 15 years ago
Lavoz24 8 years ago
instead of using wire you could make string from the bottles and use that to tie and string them up. Look up "string" from plastic bottles on here. It's an easy ible to do and it's completely green.
Lavoz24 8 years ago
if you get dark colored bottles you could make a wall separator. Thanks for the idea.
becker990 8 years ago
linuxkid 12 years ago
Lori04 12 years ago
tdbtdb 15 years ago
virtualnoodles 12 years ago
Gen R 13 years ago
fairygodmother1 13 years ago
Helcura 13 years ago
riverplate 14 years ago
You had a great idea, way cool, very green idea!! Let me tell you why.
I live in San Diego, but I do have a huge building in Revolution Avenue, Downtown Tijuana, In Baja California, Mexico.
Tijuana recycles just about everything that San Diego throws away, and I do mean everything. We do have concerts in our small venue, in which we sell a lot of sodas in plastic containers. We thought of a wall, as a decorative for the huge building, but your application of use to these plastic bottles, is uniquely original. We are going to apply your creativity, we will give you full credit as the designer, we will give credit to instructables, and further more, if you have any more ideas please pass them along to us.
I am almost on the final concept of creating a large cover up to what it is an old facade for the second floor, utilizing recycle materials, that will also served as ventilation for that second floor, out of the moderate to strong westerly breezes from the Pacific ocean.
I want to make this building as green as possible from everything recycle, to promote in Baja California, "GREEN: ideas, concepts, construction that will make the city of Tijuana, and the state of Baja greener.
Thanks a lot!
handprints 14 years ago
naftalisus 14 years ago
mlk09010 14 years ago
GEEK1 14 years ago
Gorfram 15 years ago
The caps-&-mouths as nuts-&-bolts is absolutely stark raving brilliant!
Admittedly, I'd try for a more aethetically pleasing layout if I went to reproduce this; but it's this work of yours that shows that it can be done at all.
Applications might include an outdoor garden screen, to provide privacy or help baffle wind. The conical "pouches" you used to make it free-standing have inpired me: if I used only green bottles and cut the middle sections into nicely tapered trapezoids; this could make a really cool artificial Christmas tree, nicely decorated with brightly-colored bottle caps. :)
As to whether you poisoned yourself using the hot knife on the PET bottles, allow me to plagarize and plunder Wikipedia :
When PET degrades due to heating or burning, the only chemical given off (other than hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen) is acetaldehyde. Acetaldehyde is an organic chemical compound with a fruity smell. It occurs naturally in ripe fruit, coffee, and fresh bread; and is produced by plants as part of their normal metabolism. When you drink an alcoholic beverage, your liver converts the ethanol into acetaldehyde, which is then further converted into harmless acetic acid. Acetaldehyde is extremely flammable, but toxic only when applied externally for prolonged periods.
(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyethylene_terephthalate, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetaldehyde)
So, assuming you didn't capture the acetaldehyde gas, convert it to liquid form, and use it as hand lotion; you probably didn't do yourself any harm. OTOH, if wearing the (yes, otherwise pretty well useless) mask kept you from lighting up any cigarettes while you were working, that may have helped minimize any fire danger (which was probably already pretty low anyway).
I'd take you up on that offer of those bottle parts in your basement, if Seattle weren't so inconveniently far from Chicago... :)
Lance Mt. 15 years ago
cree888 15 years ago
bola_8611 15 years ago