How to Make a Low-Tunnel Bender

Posted on May 16th, 2011 by Tonia 13 Comments

Being that we live about as far north as is possible in the state of Wisconsin, we need a little help extending our growing season. Mike has been pouring over this book for the past couple months, and now that our soil is finally workable {i.e. not frozen solid anymore}, we’re ready to try what we’ve learned.

The main strategy is to cover garden beds with low-tunnels, to trap in the sun’s heat and create a mini-greenhouse over the bed. Low-tunnels are made from conduit piping and covered with either plastic or reemay {light polyester fabric}, depending on what the crop is. Garden supply catalogs and websites sell the conduit {but you can also find it at the hardware store- for a better price most likely} as well as bending tools to help you to shape the conduit into an arch. These bending tools usually cost over a hundred dollars, so Mike and I were determined to figure out a different way to bend the piping.

Mike bustled around in his “wood shop” {AKA our garage. He says that “a house for your car” is a ridiculous notion, and much prefers to use the space to build us things} for 15 minutes and proudly announced that he had figured it out and we would not be needing to buy the pricey conduit bender. Yippee! I am so glad I married a handy guy. He really pulls his weight around here. 😉

For you other cold-climate gardeners out there, here’s a glimpse at Mike’s homemade conduit bending contraption. I hope it will help you avoid spending big bucks in the making of your low-tunnels:

And here’s the finished product, ready to be covered…

This is our “kitchen garden” right next to the house. It will have mostly greens and herbs in it. The larger garden, on the hill behind the barn, will grow everything else {potatoes, squash, corn, etc., etc., etc.} Potatoes and greens will go in the ground this week!

“Wow! Those are some good-looking beds,” you might be thinking. Well yes, why thank you. I have spent the last two days working that dirt and pulling roots and weeds and rocks out. My back is mighty sore, but we’re almost done, and I cannot waaaait for the first greens to start popping up!!

13 Comments

  1. John says:

    Those Sterner boys are quite clever if I do say so myself! 😉 I’m jealous of your gardens! We’re still hoping to get one going this year.

  2. Tonia says:

    It’s not too late, dear brother-in-law! You still have time. If you need anything let us know…we currently have a plethora of tomato seedlings. Like, 80 plants. Which is way more than we need…feel free to relieve us of some of them. :)

  3. LOL!! I really haven’t parked my nice expensive SUV in our 2.5 car garage in the 8 years we’ve lived here. It’s totally my husband’s wood shop. But I’m grateful for all the treasure that come out of it. I found your blog looking for ways to NOT buy the conduit bender I wanted at Johnny’s SS and will be showing this to my husband – who’s every growing list of honey-do’s is getting a bit out of control! I better tred carefully!

  4. Do you mind if I ask if you used 1/2″ or 3/4″ conduit? I’m just wondering if the 3/4″ conduit is easy enough to bend using this method.

  5. Tonia says:

    haha! hi amy! glad you found me! i’m looking forward to reading your blog as well. the deal mike and i worked out was that he gets to buy tools and use the garage as a wood-shop, but i get to tell him what to make. :) so far i’ve gotten a dining room table and a desk. isn’t it great to have handy husbands?

  6. Tonia says:

    Mike says he was using 1/2″ conduit, but you *can* use 3/4 if you change the way the bender is made. I’m sorry we didn’t really do a great job of documenting the steps involved in making the bender…I thought the photo of it in action would be good enough. Mike will leave you a comment with some more info.

  7. Mike says:

    Hi Amy,
    In this instance I was using 1/2″ conduit because it is lighter weight, strong enough, and we had some around. However, you can use 3/4″ conduit, it just takes a bit more elbow grease to bend.

    When you make the bender, the only difference would be that you would need your center piece of plywood (the piece you cut the arc into) to be about 1 inch thick. I used 3/4″ plywood, but that wouldn’t leave enough wiggle room for 3/4″ conduit. You could use 2 scraps of 1/2″ plywood, drill/glue them together, and cut the arc into that.

    Let us know if you have any questions. Good luck!
    Mike

  8. Thanks, Mike. I noticed another guy on youtube used nails for his arch but he said it really didn’t work with the 3/4″ conduit. I’m thinking with our snow load, I better go strong from the beginning! I appreciate the help.

  9. mary jo says:

    What are the measurements of bender. I’m not sure how big an arc to cut.
    This is a great idea, thanks for sharing it!

  10. Mike says:

    Hi Mary Jo,
    This is Mike, Tonia’s husband…

    Here’s what I did (though I am sure there are other ways):
    1. Whatever width you would like your hoops, use that as your [circle] diameter – Since your hoops will be a 1/2 circle
    2. Draw a circle on your plywood. To make an effective bender you really only need a portion of that circle, as you’ll note in the images above.

    I can pass on an image of my giant wooden compass, which takes about 50 seconds to make and will help with drawing your circles.

    I made several different size benders for different size beds. They definitely bend in an “in-exact” matter. You’ll have to check them often as you bend, but it is very easy!

    Best bending,
    Mike

  11. mary jo says:

    I think I’ve got it. You just cut out part of the arc (like maybe 20-24″ piece) to use in the jig. The pictures show it very well. I just wasn’t thinking about simply making a compass. Thanks again! I’ve been looking all over and I think your idea is the best. I read the manual for the Quick Hoop Bender ($100 with shipping) and I’m betting that using that is also an “in-exact” process. Since I already have clamps and wood, making your benders will be free! Which is good since I also have different size garden beds and will need different sizes.

  12. Tonia says:

    Here is a picture of Mike’s compass: http://www.ittybittyimpact.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/compass.jpg
    Hope that helps!!

  13. […] So after calling around to some buddies to borrow one, I realized I could build one. Thanks to this awesome post by the folks at IttyBittyImpact, I built a perfectly functional bender in about 10 minutes from wood scraps on the […]

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