permaculture

["souscayrous" <souscayrous@wanadoo.fr>]

To bend copper pipe work for plumbing it is possible to use a bending spring
or a pipe bender. Copper is, of course, far softer than the aluminium I
suspect the metalwork of your greenhouses is made from and for this reason
the spring would require too much force. However, a particularly robust pipe
bender or a homemade version able to pinion and then form the required curve
using the same principle might work. If you were able to design a greenhouse
requiring only a single fixed angle for every curved section, then a
homemade device would likely be the best solution. Alternatively, why not
create a geodesic dome out of short straight sections of pipe and cover with
plastic?


Souscayrous

-----Original Message-----
From: permaculture-admin@lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:permaculture-admin@lists.ibiblio.org]On Behalf Of Elijah Smith
Sent: Tuesday, April 09, 2002 2:16 AM
To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [permaculture] Bending Metal


When I exhaust the internet and my own imagination, I turn to you guys...

Out here in Hawaii, there are a lot of greenhouses built with metal pipe
framing and plastic covers.  Often, the pipe is bent into graceful curves to
create arches, corners, etc.  I want to make, not buy, a greenhouse but I
can't figure out how to bend the metal.  A few comments:

 I don't want a PVC greenhouse - I want something big I can climb around in.
 I'm aware of "conduit benders" used with electrical conduit... however,
they only give a bend of a certain radius.  I've considered using these
anyway, since a bunch of short bends spaced out over a pipe will give a
long, deep bend, but since that's the only solution I've found, I'm still
thinking it over.
 The one person I've asked, point-blank, "how did you bend that pipe", won't
reveal his secrets, but says that he "uses hydraulics" and can bend any
shape I can draw.

 So, I put it to you free-thinking creative types.  Any good ideas?

 Thanks!
  Elijah

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