On Wed, 10 Jun 2009 22:24:39 -0600, "SteveB"
wrote:

I, well, my wife actually, wants a bimini top for my Lund 16. Comes in at
around $500 for frame and canvas.

I'm a metalworker, and have a welder and an industrial Singer walking foot
sewing machine. A friend of mine used to do boat work, and I've seen him
make lots of tops. Not a lot to them, actually.

Hardware seems to be the costliest thing, all being stainless steel. The
tubing was probably special, too.

Went looking for boat part the other day, and noticed some hardware, and
IIRC, it was for 7/8" OD tube.

In all of your vast experiences, what would be your opinion of making one of
these out of conduit, or a light wall round tube? Possibly custom making
some of the hardware pieces out of steel that I can have powder coated. The
canvas could be Sunbrella, or even the cheap shadecloth material at Home
Depot is decent shade. I have a couple of big shadecloths of that material,
just had to resew the edges after about four years of 24/7 outdoors
exposure.

Anyone ever do this type of DIY project?

TIA

Steve

Uncle Joe. It'll look as good as the material you use.

If you're going to go through the time and expense of making the
thing, you should use decent materials. You don't want to look at it
when you're done and say "****, wish I'd have..."

You can likely find a steel tubing outlet that can sell and bend the
pieces to spec. I did that with stainless rod a while back but it was
easy since there's a steel plant right in town.

I'd spend the $500 and find another project to save $.