He Makes His Own Low-Cost Greenhouses

He Makes His Own Low-Cost Greenhouses BUILDINGS Miscellaneous 26-1-13 Five years ago, Mike Cretella spent a lot of time trying to find a good way to bend tubing to make frames for greenhouses. "I searched all the available literature and couldn't find one reference on making the metal tubing frames," he says. Cretella says he did find a manufacturer that would sell him just the frames but his budget was limited. What he wanted was a way to bend 1 3/8-in. galvanized tubing - the kind used as a top rail for chain link fencing - into a smooth arch over which he could hang greenhouse plastic sheeting. He tried bending the tubing with two different kinds of pipe benders and even took some of the tubing he wanted to use to a muffler shop and tried bending it with an exhaust pipe bender there. They all crimped and ruined the tubing. So Cretella, of Harriman, Tennessee, decided to make his own bender. He started with a large discarded wire spool, which he uses as a worktop. He mounted three lengths of 2 by 8 pine boards side by side on one end, with their outside edges cut in an arc to match the degree of the bend he wanted to make in the tubing. On one side of this jig, he attached a 3/4-in. wide steel strap to hold one end of the tubing while he bends it. He also nailed several short blocks on the top of the 2 by 8 arch, spaced all along it, to keep the tubing from slipping off the jig as he applies force to it to bend it. To bend tubing with this jig, he slides the tubing through the strap and begins bending it along the arch. As it's bent, he pulls it through and bends it again, until he's made a smooth arch of the entire 21-ft. long tube. Once he's done this, he bends about 8 in. of each end at an angle and crimps it slightly. To make his greenhouse frame, he drives a 5-ft. 6-in. length of 1 5/8-in. galvanized tubing into the ground 18 in., leaving 4 ft. above ground for a sidewall, and then slips his bend tubing bows into them. Cretella has written a brochure that presents all the details on how he made the tubing bender and how he puts his greenhouses together. His bending jig can make a long radius frame using tubing, pipe, rebar, or conduit. He sells the complete instruction brochure for a nominal fee. He says he can bend the bows for a 14 by 60-ft. greenhouse that measures 9 ft. at the peak in about half an hour. Of course, laying out, erecting and covering the greenhouse takes considerably longer. He says his own greenhouses, using galvanized tubing and clear 6-mil. plastic from 20 by 100-ft. rolls, cost less than $750. This includes the 4 by 8-ft. plexiglass sheeting he uses for the ends. It does not, however, include the cost of a ventilation system. He replaces the plastic covering every year, but notes that some types of covering can last several years. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Mike Cretella, 116 Grouse Ridge Road, Harriman, Tenn. 37748 (ph 423 346-7708; E-mail: chemist@highland.net)

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