Rajflyboy

Has anyone made one and how did you place the PVC piping ?

thank you ahead of time

squirtdad

there are simple X versions you can make, but they are good only for light work.

I experimented with pvc and gas pipe stands......anything solid is going to be more expensive than you think I wasted a lot of time and money trying to be cheap and hack

IMHO best bet is to just get a park PCS10 and be done with it

WizardOfBoz

Squirtdad, I added some wording to your post (with which I agree, btw) in an attempt to make it a general reply to people who ask questions of the form "XYZ [something with significant technology and design sophistication] is too expensive. I'd like to make something that works [as well as/better] than XYZ but instead of using the material the design engineer selected to give the best performance for price, I'd like to try to make this out [for example] Manchego cheese. Any idea of how I'd start?"

Specifically to the OP's point, PVC is very flexible compared to aluminum or steel pipe used in commercial stands. Your tolerance for this might vary, but I have little use for a stand that flexes under the weight of a bike or the force of a wrench on a bolt connected to a bike in the stand. If PVC must be the material, for adequate rigidity I'd think you'd go with 3 or 4 inch PVC in a high schedule number (not Home Depot stuff, use schedule 80 or 120). But I'd think that for a home-built stand, a better material might be wood. Wood has pretty good rigidity. Too, if you had some spare 2 or 3 inch steel pipe and fittings, and access to a threading lathe or a stick welder, you could probably gin up a frame pretty nicely, and you could put a commercial clamp on it and have a very nice, rigid, durable stand custom engineered to fit your height and reach. It would maybe be a bit less adjustable than commercial bike repair stands. My 2 cents.

BTW, I personally bought an old Park folding stand - I think its a PRS-5. Lightweight aluminum frame, folds up into a carrying pouch, old style heavy duty clamp:

sdmc530

couldn't agree more, just eat the cost of a good stand and have it forever and never have to worry about dealing with making one.

I have two the traditional style with the tripod legs and its good. But I really like my race stand by elite. That is great for home working on the bike.

Worth the investment 100%

Rajflyboy

Thanks for the replies

sounds like the only thing pvc is good for might be a bicycle rack but certainly not a work stand

Rollfast

Got an Aldi anywhere near you? They have had stands in their stores (grocery stores, mind you) that will support up to a 60 lb. vintage bike (like a Rollfast, Shelby, or loaded road bike) such as the spare one Deal4Fuji sold me some time back. It will hold the bike at multiple angles and keep it there and it has a tray to hold parts and tools. The reverse umbrella type base folds out in a rather large area so if you have a tight space maybe not for you but that is part of the secret to it's weight handling. I don't recall the brand as I ditched the packing but you'd be amazed, ask him.

JohnDThompson 

The Aldi stand is probably the best value for the money (I've seen them go $20-$30), but they're only "seasonally available" in the stores. They tend to show up around April at the high end of the price range and disappear around June at the low end as the stores clear out inventory.

runlebec

Check eBay for bike work stands, there are some decent cheap ones on there.

Deal4Fuji

They're branded Bikemate which is an Aldi private label they use on all their bike in-&-outs. The spare ones I sold Steven & RobbieTunes were on markdown for a ridiculously bargain $15. You couldn't make one that cheap and they're decent stands.