I've used pvc to construct a frame for my indeterminate cherry tomato plants that grew beyond 8' tall. I used 3 pipes vertically with several cross-members and gave them something to grow through and extra support by wiring chicken wire to it. I pound rebar down into the ground to add some stability for the vertical supports and slide them over the rebar.
I also use 3' sections of pvc drilled with 3/8" holes 8" from one end and capped at that end to plant down in the ground near the roots of my tomato plants (done at the same time as I'm planting the plants) so I can water the roots fully and get more produce out of them.
I just bought a roller to do some of that fancy-schmancy decorative painting - rolled rag was the design name/technique. I thought the pre-fab roller would make it go faster than wadding up fabric and rolling it across the wet paint and boy was it! When I cleaned the roller I found that it was a roller-length chunk of 2" pvc covered with a tube sewn from a 12"x10" piece of t-shirt material that was kind of wadded and twisted around the pvc and held in place with roller end caps inserted to keep the fabric in place. See
http://doityourself.com/store/1786128x3.htm for similar item. Very clever and durable compared to the cardboard tubes used in some paint rollers.
