permaculture

["Simon Kartar" <skartar@cfbt.com>]

Dear Elijah,

My Granddad used to bend copper pipe by filling it with sand and bending it
over his knee. The sand supports the inner circumference, preventing it
from kinking (go slowly though!). Thinking about it, a polytunnel would be
fairly easy to make like this, with the 'ribs' connected by a central
'spine' at the top by any of the cheap and easy plumbing connectors
available.

Thanks for the idea!

Simon.


                                                                              
                                                 
                    "souscayrous"                                             
                                                 
                    <souscayrous@wanadoo.fr>         To:     
<permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>                                  
                    Sent by:                         cc:                      
                                                 
                    permaculture-admin@lists.i       Subject:     RE: 
[permaculture] Bending Metal                             
                    biblio.org                                                
                                                 
                                                                              
                                                 
                                                                              
                                                 
                    09/04/02 10:13 AM                                         
                                                 
                    Please respond to                                         
                                                 
                    permaculture                                              
                                                 
                                                                              
                                                 
                                                                              
                                                 




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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