How to bend a pipe into a greenhouse arch using a homemade template

When making a greenhouse, it is important that each pipe arch has the same bending radius. If you have a pipe bender available, then preparing identical parts is not a problem. In its absence, the required level of accuracy can only be achieved by assembling a simple template for this.

Materials:

tabletop or shield;
pipes;
bolts, nuts.

The process of making a template and arches

It is impossible to make a large solid arch with just a template. You need to break it down into several parts and bend them separately. The curved part of the arch will consist of two halves welded together. They will then be inserted onto vertical poles made of large diameter pipes. That is, the arch consists of 4 parts: 2 curved welded halves and 2 pillars.

To make a bending template, you need to bend 2 pipes to the desired identical radius, fold them in half and connect them. To strengthen them, beams are welded to them. The template is then screwed to a table or fixed backboard.A bracket is installed on one edge of it.

Having decided on the bending radius and the circumference of the upper part of the arch, you need to prepare 2 pipes for each of them. On one edge you need to put marks 15-20 cm apart. Before them, the pipes must remain straight without bending in order to join the pillars.

The first pipe is inserted into the bracket on the template according to the mark, and it is bent. You need to pull it towards the gap between the support pipes.

Then it is pushed further until the entire curved part comes out of the bracket, and bends again. To make it easier, you can insert a crowbar or a thin pipe into it.

The second part is bent in the same way. Then the halves will need to be welded together so that there are straight, unbent edges on the sides. After this, the upper parts of the arches will only need to be inserted into the pillars.