Joining PVC by Flaring One End With a Heat Gun

You will need silver (aluminum) tape (this is used to seal heat ducts) and a heat gun (this is used to remove paint off wood. Both can be bought at most hardware stores).

Take one section of your PVC and wrap about three layers of your tape around one end. The tape creates a larger diameter form for you to expand another section of pipe. With out the tape the expanded pipe would be too tight to fit over another section of pipe. The reason for this is that after cooling the flared end shrinks back a bit. Use your heat gun to heat the end of another section of pipe. Rotate the pipe to avoid burning it

When soft push the soften PVC over the tape wrapped end and then cool with a hose.

You should now be able to join this flared end of PVC to another section of pipe. Note that the tape is removed after it has served its function of expanding the ends of your pipe or you can save it to expand others.

There are many uses for flare joined PVC like: creating large rings that can be disassembled when needed: you can use this to repair game arches; joining PVC for plumbing: joining Shelter Systems' disaster relief dome tent poles to be used for water transport (for drinking water or irrigation) after the shelters are no longer needed: the flared ends can be glued with PVC glue to make the joining permanent.