[saurav16]

Has anyone made their own Bimini? I was wondering how easy it is to bend the tubing, most of its 7/8in OD. If you have made one can you tell me how easy or hard it is. Thank you in advance.

 

[rikhall]

We made our own stern rail - used a pipe bender to bend the stainless

It is not rocket science.

 

[saurav16]

Yeah having trouble finding a bender that is not over 200 bucks that can bend something that thick.

 

[ronspiker]

You can rent the bender. A trick to help keep the tubing from kinking is to fill it with sand before bending.

 

[scottyt]

3/4 inch electrical metalic tubing bend measures .922 out side, 7/8 equals .875 pretty close, maybe a wrap of electric tape will make the difference up and prevent scratches. they will bend about a 5 inch radias. go talk to your /friendly electrician

 

[chef2sail]

Another alternative is to look at the Sailrite kits...sometimes they are actually almost the same money. We ordered our tubing from them and made a new Dodger and Bimini ourselves.

 

[TSOJOURNER]

Make friends with someone who works in an auto exhaust shop.....they bend exhaust pipes.

Bimini...I do have a thought. I had one built some years ago and got about 10 years out of it before it became something that I just didn't want to repair anymore.
I would not put zippers on a bimini. Zippers are there to make it easy to take off and the only reason we ever took ours off the frame is because the zippers failed. My next bimini will be manufactured with reinforced sleeves for the frame, but no zippers.
I had a window (plastic) put in it so that I could check the sails - that was a good idea, and I'd do it again.