I can't believe that it is has been something like 4 months since I have had a chance to blog. Life has been busy. On SBF, the Soap Bubble Fanciers Yahoo Group (RIP), there was a recent discussion about long poles and I thought I'd share a few thoughts here. When I first realized that I needed poles longer than 4 feet (either for using very large tri-string loops or to get bubbles higher off the ground), I wasn't sure that I wanted to invest in the telescoping fishing poles that are popular among bubbles because I wasn't sure how much I would benefit from long poles.
After a lot of time wandering down the aisles of the hardware store, I gave up on coming up with an elegant solution and decided that a combination of dowels and PVC pipe-fittings would be inexpensive and give me a sense of whether I really needed to have long poles available (I did).
My basic wand poles are simply 48" long 3/8" hardwood dowels which cost about $1 at my local hardware store. I found that the hole diameter of a threaded 1/2" pvc bushing is just slightly larger than the dowels I use. So, I put a little bit of Gorilla glue on the end of the handle and shoved the bushing on and added a little more Gorilla glue. Gorilla glue foams and expands a bit as it sets. So, it filled the space nicely for a nice snug fit. I put a bushing on the end of another dowel. Let the glue set and thoroughly dry. I screwed a 1/2-inch threaded PVC union on to the bushing of the dowel to be used as the extenstion.
Here are some pictures for those that want to try it themselves. Click on the photo to see a larger image. The total cost is about $3 per pole.
Now, whenever I need an 8-foot poles, I screw my standard length wand pole into the extension.
It works great but does not look as elegant as a black telescoping fishing pole. I ended up buying a 13-foot telescoping crappie pole from Cabela's (which is mentioned elsewhere on the wiki) since it was clear that having long poles was sometimes necessary. However, I have found that I prefer my dowels with extension because they are significantly lighter than the cheap carbon-fiber poles used for inexpensive fishing poles.
Note: I use both 3/8" and 7/16" hardwood dowels.
A FEW NOTES: There is probably a better way to join two dowels so that they can be taken apart. Please let me know, if you know how to do so. I leave the coupling on the extension. So, whenever I need to use the extension, I just screw the normal handle into it.