Stainless Steel

[john cole]

Has anyone done any bending of SS tubing, I have a bunch of it off of an old boat and would like to turn it into a bracket assy for on my bimini top for anything from rod holders to maybe a radar dome or spot light sometime. So just wondering before I go out and find a tubing bender for it.

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: Stainless Steel

Yes, I have and made bimini top brackets too. You can cut the curves out of 3/4 plywood and bend around that or get a tubing bender. If you put beach sand inside the tubes you run a lower risk of a kink. Just go slow.

I love stainless steel!!

 

[john cole]

Re: Stainless Steel

Yes, I have and made bimini top brackets too. You can cut the curves out of 3/4 plywood and bend around that or get a tubing bender. If you put beach sand inside the tubes you run a lower risk of a kink. Just go slow.

I love stainless steel!!

nice, i never would have thought of putting the sand in the tubes. And I have some plywood here too, left over from another project. Now really can't wait to get the off of the boat.

 

[john cole]

Re: Stainless Steel

Yes, I have and made bimini top brackets too. You can cut the curves out of 3/4 plywood and bend around that or get a tubing bender. If you put beach sand inside the tubes you run a lower risk of a kink. Just go slow.

I love stainless steel!!

nice, i never would have thought of putting the sand in the tubes. And I have some plywood here too, left over from another project. Now really can't wait to get the cover off of the boat.

 

[kfa4303]

Re: Stainless Steel

lots of extra, free stainless is a great problem to have in the boat world. It can be hard to work, but it'll last forever and stay shiny.

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: Stainless Steel

Yes, I have a friend who buys his tubing in bulk and we bend it around a plywood form ......key is just go slow

 

[john cole]

Re: Stainless Steel

do you all heat it, while bending or no?

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: Stainless Steel

no heat........ BEST to have 2 people

For a bimini top you only need 2 pieces basically bent into a U

 

[john cole]

Re: Stainless Steel

not building the brackets for the top itself, but brackets to attach to it, to mount acc to such as pole holders, spot light or whatever.

 

[Speakrdude]

Re: Stainless Steel

I use a conduit bender for stainless, not aluminum, to make my tops. Do the homework on the math, (youtube) and anyone can do it.
Looks better than the canvas guys I've seen.

 

[john cole]

Re: Stainless Steel

Sounds like a good ideal, u tube to the rescue again.

 

[kfa4303]

Re: Stainless Steel

Here's a link to some bimini hardware that may come in useful. Keep us posted on the progress. I'm curious to see it come together. Are you going to buy a top, or sew one?

Bimini, Pulpit and Stantion Hardware

 

[john cole]

Re: Stainless Steel

i already have one, although I'm keeping my eye open for marina auctions hoping they have some canvas there i can get for reasonable. the top I have is white and would really like to change it to red, to match the boat. you can kind of see the seat cover i made for the rear seats. and i appreciate the link, i just came on to look for something like that. and i will keep all posted on how I do this, it should be interesting, especially to keep it from looking like some piece of crap bolted to the top of my boat

 

[kfa4303]

Re: Stainless Steel

a red bimini would be schnazzy. you don't see them very often and it would top off the boat nicely.

 

[73Chrysler105]

Re: Stainless Steel

Just realize red will fade faster than any other color. For some scientific reason I don't know about red is affected by UV rays more than any other color.

 

[john cole]

Re: Stainless Steel

interesting I didn't know that. Maybe that's why you don't see a whole lot of them running around