PVC Periscope

by pavelanni

104K17715

Intro: PVC Periscope

My son came to me with an idea to build a periscope. He had found a simple project in a book which used a milk carton and two mirrors. We had a couple of mirrors, but no milk carton. So, the Dad said: "We are not going to build this toy periscope, we are going to build a real one!". 
I bought a couple of 3" PVC elbows ($2.39 ea., http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-100346018/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053&superSkuId=202905035) and a 2-ft. PVC pipe ($5.44, http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-202018043/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053)
I had already a couple of 3" square mirrors from Michaels (sorry, no link here).
Then I cut two slots in each PVC elbow using Dremel Multipurpose Bit 561 (good for plastic and wood). 
The rest was easy: adjust the mirrors so they are at 45 degrees and make sure you see through the periscope. Then fix the mirrors using a glue gun.
The periscope is ready!

9 Comments

zaidpirwani 8 years ago

AWESOME instructable,

I have one question though,

I want the other end to look DOWN.
Want to make it for a little cousin of mine, who tries to jump up onto a wall (on the first floor) to look down at who has come at the door.

So, I want to fix this besides the wall and she should be able to see who is standing down without needing to get so high up (it is a bit dangerous as well, when she jumps up)

jetich 9 years ago

Why the need to cut the elbows? The 3 inch mirrors should fit. Could i use something inside to keep them at the correct angle?

peterman921 8 years ago

because a 3 inch square is bigger than a 3 inch circle

draw a 3 X 3 inch square then draw a 3 inch circle and place them on top of each other to see how it works

anasdad 10 years ago

Great Instructable!
Ken

men lahak 11 years ago

So many thanks, my first choise to serch this proyect was Instructables and i find it, this will be tomorrow homework to my cousin.

evilspacemonkey 11 years ago

This is exactly what I was looking for. Are there any plans in the future to doing a step by step ible?

pavelanni 11 years ago

I'm glad you liked this small project. Sorry, I didn't take step-by-step pictures while doing it, it seemed so simple. All I have are the photos and text above. I hope it's enough to reproduce this periscope.

But thanks for your comment, I'll keep this in mind while working on my next project.

DeesSqueeze 12 years ago

Interesting. Very. I have been looking for something like this for a while. My only question - how do we download the steps?