The equipment for this lab can be made very inexpensively.

• The base is a 4' x 1" x 3" piece of wood.
• The pvc pipe I use has an outside diameter of 7/8". Iy cost me $0.73 for a 10 foot section as a local hardware store, (bought September 2000.)
• It uses cross supports made of 1/4" diameter wooden dowel rod, ($0.50 per 3 foot stick.)
• The wooden dowels are held on to the pvc pipe with rubber bands.
• The foam insulation is cut in half with a razor blade. Use a fresh blade.A fresh blade will take less effort to cut, make clean cut and is safer than a dull blade.
• The foam insulation is held onto the dowel with a piece of tape under the tube.
• To connect several insulation tubes together, is a piece of pvc pipe big enough to snugly fit around the insulation. I use a 1-1/4" pvc pipe coupler.

Suggestion: It may cost a little more, but you could use a smaller diameter pipe or dowel rods and for the vertical posts and use clothes pins for the horizontal supports instead of 1/4Ó dowels.

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