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These Are Important Points Regarding The Tubing Used For Bending Your Greenhouse Hoops
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What type and size of tubing do I use to build my hoops?
Use 1 3/8" O.D. 17 or 18 gauge chain link fence toprail tubing for our 10' & 12' wide greenhouse frames. Use 1 3/8" O.D. 15, 16 or 17 gauge chain link fence tubing for our 16' & 20' wide greenhouse frames. NOTE: that the reason we suggest more than one gauge is because and due to the fact that different tubing manufactures may use softer or harder base metal to produce the same tubing, and the hardness value of the metal will determine how much rebound (spring back) the tubing provides after being bent. Therefore we recommend that you purchase only enough tubing of one gauge to build one or two hoops, before committing to purchase all of the required tubing, remember that the completed hoop must measure wider than the intended installed width of the greenhouse by at least 12".
EXAMPLE: if you are using a 20' frame bender and bending 17 gauge tubing. You would bend the three required sections, then connect those pcs together laying flat on the ground, then measure across the width at the bottom, you should have between 21 and 23 feet, IF NOT you will need to purchase a heavier gauge (16 or even 15 gauge) or use our resizing method described. When this over wide hoop is compressed inwards and installed into the greenhouse anchor stakes set at 20 foot apart, you are applying post tension to the connections which strengthen the hoop. Click on the pdf icon's below to view the selected files relating to each hoop bendng tip.
I'm often ask if our bending tools will bend other sizes of tubing?
The answer is yes, within limits. Remember that the benders are manual bending tools. So if you choose to bend any tubing other than what we recommend for your greenhouse hoops. Generally stated you can bend just about any tubing sizes from 1/4" thru 1 1/2" having a wall thickness of 15 to 18 gauge. The smaller the tubing the thicker the wall thickness can be. In addition, because different sizes and wall thickness's of tubing rebound (springs back) differently after bending, we can not advise you on what size finished radius you will end up with if you are bending other sizes of tubing.
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