Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Thanks Hoopman, thought they would have to be fastened down some how andwas wondering about corner braces.... know most have them, but yeah the poly certainly does obscure them.

Hard to tell even from the second photo.... they two arches joined or a single arch?

Sorry to be a pain?

veggie boy
Thanks that does help.
Only 1/2 of the 20x48 will be tanks/grow area, remaining will be setup for student work/research area. I really am new at this however this forum does provide extensive knowledge base, an observation noted by several other fellow Texans I have meet.

Sorry Hoopman, I got the pictures mixed up... the one I meant was the photo of "!2x 72 foot Cold frame for growing tomato's"

Is this one secured to the ground also or just weighted by the mass of the igloo and maybe joined by piping along the bottom?

Again I can't see any lateral or angle bracing.

Hard to tell even from the photo.... they two arches joined or a single arch?

Just viewed the video, that bending tool would fit in well next to my chain saw, pity I hadn't seen it before tossing my GH together, the savings on the fittings would have paid for it (then I could have rented it out to vb )

Looks very easy to use H'man

Hoopman,
Sorry I got cross yesterday. It is just I get so darned mad at all these E-Bay sellers making more money off of the S&H than they are off of the products! (I have one seller who is constantly upcharging all his items by at least $15.00 per, no matter the cost, weight or distance! So if you buy something off of him for 50 cents, it is going to cost you at least $15.50! It doesn't matter to him if he is shipping you a tiny piece of jewelry or the rear end out of a Mack truck, he still wants at least $15.00 S&H plus any actual shipping costs over the $15.00!)

I didn't realize that you were the maker of the tool. The site I mentioned has no pictures on it at this time, so your threat of lawsuit is evidently working. Besides which, how much time does it take to make good digital pictures of your own and add them to your site? A lot less than what it takes straighten out any mess you might make.

Thanks for all the good tech information on putting up one of these greenhouses!

Kevin

RupertofOZ:

The hoops are made of two pc of chain link fence tubing which is already swagged on one end the tubing is 10' 6" long, they are bent then rejoined via the swagged end and tech screw is used to hold in place while it is raised and inserted into cnchor stake tubes. I will post some better photos on this forum later.


Loy

mokevinb:

That quite alright moke,,, as the discovery our bending tools spreads there will always be someone taking short cuts. We were already prepared for that event long ago, with upgraded versions of these simple tools of which have not been released as yet & streamed lined production of existing ones so we could maintain the completive edge for some time into the future. Hopefully we can get better shipping cost world wide soon.

Loy

Hoopman - I don't think tht the tube here is swagged on one end. It might have to be welded??

You should be able to sleeve the join with a short slightly larger Diameter Pipe

Check with fence suppliers, most all chainlink fence uses a 1 3/8" tube, referred to as toprail and has 3 1/4" of one end swagged. Un-swagged tubing can be joined much the way Rons_Place has suggested, however here we use slightly smaller tubing that slips inside of the bent tubes to connect hoop sections. This provides a smooth connection as opposed to the raised edges of outside sleeve.

Love the quote Rons_Place.. Your are right,,, Sleeve is just better on inside for this type of construction to reduce wear on poly covering at the joints.

Hoopman,
I feel like such an idiot! Sorry, about all the hard time I gave you.

I was wondering about the Mega-Bender, and if you had it available yet. While I would probably get by with a twenty foot wide GH just fine, I would rather have a larger one! (I am afraid I have a case of "Greenhouse Envy", a little one just isn't going to keep me happy!)

I was also wondering if you would give a discount to schools, FFA groups or teachers wanting to buy one of your tools and use it as part of thier classes in horticulture, aquaponics, farm management or to construct some hoop structures for thier use.

Another thing that had me wondering was the use of a winch or come-along. If you had thought of a provision for attaching one for use of the tool by women or those due to age or disability who might want to construct some hoop houses but would have problems due to muscle strength or infirmity. I know it would probably be a great help on the Mega-bender even for us men.

Kevin

Hi moke:

No hard feeling here... The mega bender is not quite ready because we are working on reducing its overall size and weight.

We do give discounts to schools and in some cases donate the bender outright all we require is a letter from the school administration on their stationary with a PO number, requesting the tool. The decision to donate or discount is based on the economic conditions of the local area of each school, therefore a brief outline of local conditions is helpful.

We did some work or power adaptation to these benders early on and discovered that it did not improve and individuals ability to use the tools, rather it added to the difficulty. Our system use a lever bar attachment which is added when needed. We include instructions on how to quickly build longer bars. Building longer bars greatly improves the bending process for persons lacking avg. levels of strenght and they can be made any length needed.

I did think about a internal sleeve
but I feel an external would be better for a number of reasons.

Because the structure is curved, with an internal sleeve there will still be a gap at the top where the 2 halves butt together.
This would negate the raised edges of using an outer sleeve in both cases something would need to be done to smooth out the edges.

as you buy most tubing by inside diameter it would be easier to buy a larger pipe to slip over a small pipe than it is to buy a small pipe to slip inside a larger pipe.

If you have to dismantle after a period of time I feel it would be easier to remove an outer sleeve than a inner sleeve.

and personally I think the structure would be stronger using an external sleeve than an inner.

but in either case I think sleeving would be a better option than welding.

Cheers
Ron

Hi Rons_Place

1" EMT is a perfect fit inside of 1 3/8" chainlink fence toprail 18 thur 16 gauge. The sleeves are made curved also to conform to the curve by bending the EMT on same bender and cutting to desired length usually 6 to 8 inches, making any gap minimal and easily wraped with a couple turns of duck tape. On the flipside larger tubing can also be bent in same manner before cutting to length, and the will work as you have stated, however the ends of larger sleeves are raised above the hoop profile and will create a more pronounced wear point on the poly over extender time. Tensile test have shown that very little strength is added using outside sleeves when using similar gauges of tubing. In all test the hoop itself failed at random points before sleeves did. You are correct in that both will work and in some cases outside sleeves may in fact be the preferred method. However I believe the tubing (1 3/8" O.D.) or the tubing used over there for chainlink fence toprail is swagged on one end, because it is in every country we've shipped benders too so far, sometimes the O.D. may vary some but it's still the same product. I'll contact some of the bender users I shipped to there and check it out.

Hoopman, you're a wealth of information and just when needed too.

Thanks man... oh that "!2x 72 foot Cold frame for growing tomato's"
.... still can't see that it has any lateral support along the top of the hoops... is it just an optical illusion or is that system freestanding, just relying on side inserts for the hoops?