Maker Pipe – Structural Pipe Fittings for DIY Builders

178 pointsposted 13 hours ago
by elsewhen
(makerpipe.com)

86 Comments

neilv

an hour ago

How does this compare to "80/20" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-slot_structural_framing ?

(At a past startup, we used 80/20 for the structure of our factory stations. We were very happy with how 80/20 was easily adapted during prototyping and testing, and then our final station design could be replicated quickly stateside to several stations, then disassembled into a few assemblies for flight, reassembled at the factory in Asia, and hold up well in production, and it also looked professional for demos. A lot of that success was due to the know-how and effort of our mechE, but, IMHO, 80/20 is appealing to people who grew up with Lego-like toys, and even I, primarily a software person, felt I could do useful things with it and some basic tools.)

jseutter

2 minutes ago

My armchair assessment is that both will have their uses. 80/20 is 3-4x the price, but is lighter and more rigid than EMT conduit. EMT conduit is sold everywhere and will be more useful for quick and dirty setups.

For a machine like a 3d printer, I would choose 80/20. For some lightweight shelves, EMT conduit or wood. So I see this product almost as a wood replacement rather than a 80/20 replacement.

blorenz

5 hours ago

The real gem on this site is the Make Pipe Minis! What a great way to prototype your idea before committing to the real build.

https://makerpipe.com/collections/modular-pipe-fittings/prod...

edit: I did not even see when I posted this that they had made this open source with the downloadable STL to print your own connectors. Great move on them!

epiccoleman

4 hours ago

With coffee stirrers! That's such a cool idea, to be able to print the connectors and then use something cheap, off the shelf, and easily cut as the "pipe". Brilliant!

I can see that being a pretty fun cheapo building toy for the kids. Might have to grab a pack of stirrers and run off a couple handfuls of connectors. Very cool.

catapart

3 hours ago

With the added benefit of built-in upscaling! I would have loved, as a kid, to design my own "clubhouse" with coffee stirrers before going out in the yard and building a full sized one to chill in.

breakfastduck

4 hours ago

That is an absolutely fantastic idea and what a brilliant way to help inspire confidence in your product.

pohl

2 hours ago

Ah, piping, all about moving something from A to B. Has anyone else read Leslie Claret's classic text "The Structural Dynamics of Flow"? I got the chance to hear him speak, once. It was riveting: "Hey, let me walk you through our Donnely nut spacing and cracked system rim-riding grip configuration. Using a field of half-seized sprats and brass-fitted nickel slits, our bracketed caps and splay-flexed brace columns vent dampers to dampening hatch depths of 1/2 meter from the damper crown to the spurv plinth. How? Well, we bolster 12 husk nuts to each girdle jerry — while flex-tandems press a task apparatus of ten vertically composited patch-hamplers — then pin flam-fastened pan traps at both maiden apexes of the jim-joists."

oflannabhra

an hour ago

I did not expect to see a Patriot reference online today, thank you for making my day.

For others, Patriot is a dark comedy TV show available on Amazon. I highly recommend it.

s0ss

2 hours ago

I struggled to decode this and thought it was an LLM spouting drivel -- haha. After reading I see now that this is a character from a comedy called "Patriot". Got it!

pohl

2 hours ago

I like to think of this scene as the retro-encabulator of a new generation.

s0ss

2 hours ago

I felt like I was walking through an industrial space and bonked my head on "piping" trying to read this -- hahaha! TY for melting my brain just a tiny bit.

cius

5 hours ago

Anyone interested in heavier duty may appreciate Kee Klamp.

For example: https://keesystems.com/product-category/fittings/kee-klamp/?...

bagels

30 minutes ago

I built a walk in closet clothing hanger system out of these, has held up well and was easy to assemble once I polished and cut the tubes.

rsync

an hour ago

I think if you’re interested in heavier duty constructors such as this, the real move upwards is to unistrut…

tommiegannert

9 hours ago

The "discounted" bundle is such an anti-pattern. I'm saving the price of one fitting, out of 20. So if the bundle has even one fitting that I have no use for, the whole deal falls apart, and I should have bought them individually instead. Anyone with the volume to make use of all connectors would probably want to negotiate a better deal anyway.

digdugdirk

4 hours ago

It tends to be highly valuable for mechanical tools like these. Think of this product more like hardware (nuts/bolts/screws, not PC hardware) than a standalone "product". Most people who have a shop or do a lot of tinkering keep an assortment of misc hardware around just so they have it on hand whenever the need arises. This falls into a similar category, so having a grab bag to be able to handle whatever potential scenario you run into would be incredibly handy.

bluGill

4 hours ago

If are close to needing a bundle worth then get the bundle as you need spare parts anyway.

Pikamander2

8 hours ago

I remember seeing their booth at the Orlando Maker Faire years ago. Metal pipe was a bit too expensive for my budget but I was still inspired by their display and started using PVC and custom 3D printed connectors in my gardening projects.

I love how much work they've done on connectors. In my experience with PVC, one of the biggest hurdles to making interesting projects is finding prebuilt connectors for anything besides simple 90-degree angles. It makes sense given that most PVC projects are for construction rather than hobby projects, but it's still annoying.

Having pre-drilled screw holes is also a nice bonus.

Loughla

6 hours ago

PVC plumbing fittings come in 22.5 degree variations between 0 and 180, just as an aside. It's what I use for most gardening projects. It lasts longer than thin wall conduit would, and is much less expensive than the thick wall steel pipe.

Pikamander2

5 hours ago

There are lots of options online but I've noticed that our local Home Depot is missing a surprising amount of common connectors and our Lowe's barely carries any.

mauvehaus

3 hours ago

This is because the customers at Home Depot and Lowe's are primarily muggles. The wizards will pop in if they need something and it's convenient, but by and large they buy at wizard stores that stock the full range of fittings.

Said wizard stores sometimes have a handwritten sign taped up on the wall behind the counter dating back to the Carter administration that reads "Those in the trade will be served first"[0].

Your reward for being a wizard is having competent help at the store, and the fittings haven't been randomly distributed among the bins by a million prior muggles.

Electrician wizards similarly work with electrical supply stores, not Home Depot if they can avoid it. Carpenter wizards cross over a little more, but they generally prefer to work with lumber yards that deliver[1] and have halfway decent lumber[2].

[0] Yes, literally.

[1] I believe the box stores do to, but they charge handsomely because they don't really want to.

[2] 2x3's are crap everywhere, but the quality on anything bigger goes up immensely at a real lumberyard.

jollyllama

3 hours ago

It's not likely to be much cheaper but there is probably a plumbing distributor near you with a much wider selection.

bluGill

4 hours ago

Because they are trying to make a profit and so have gotten rid of things that don't see much.

While sometimes I would make the argument that the lack of inventory is why people go online instead, in this case I think that is wrong. Their target market is home owners doing plumbing, and plumbing rarely needs those odd connectors. Frankly if you have small PVC/cPVC water pipes (as opposed to larger drain pipes) I would replace them with PEX where practical, and cut them off where not and install a PEX adapter. (I'd also do that for copper or iron pipes - copper because it might have lead solder but if it doesn't you are good for a while; iron because it hasn't been common in so long that anything you see is probably past expected lifespan)

elif

5 hours ago

Curious what you consider 'lasts longer' as all of my garden support frames and nets are held up by conduit for about 10 years and I'm not seeing any signs of significant rust..

quesera

3 hours ago

Galvanized EMT conduit will rust, especially if you let water get inside and it does not drain. I use silver spray paint on all cut or drilled spots, and drill tiny holes on the underside of any horizontal runs that descend from verticals. (E.g. I've bent EMT into four-sided frames for doors, etc). I have outdoor EMT structures (trellises, garden gates, chicken run frames, geodesic domes) that are 25 years old and going strong. :)

Agreed though -- PVC pipe (the white stuff) does very poorly with exposure to UV light. The beige CPVC stuff is worse. The black PVC (ABS?) is supposed to be better, but less available in small gauges. And the grey plastic stuff used for electrical conduit is also supposedly UV-safe, but is far less structurally rigid than any of the others, or of course galvanized EMT. Sometimes that flexibility is a virtue, but usually not.

rootusrootus

2 hours ago

> PVC pipe (the white stuff) does very poorly with exposure to UV light

To my understanding, this is primarily an aesthetic issue. PVC pipes have been tested over years of UV exposure and remain structurally sound. This is a topic that comes up periodically on the pool forums since it is pretty common to have some amount of exposed PVC pipes above ground.

quesera

an hour ago

I've seen white PVC turn brittle after a few years of exposure to direct sunlight.

There may be different formulations (in the same color?) that are more UV-resistant though.

Pool piping is a good example, though I have usually seen them covered for UV protection.

hackcasual

11 hours ago

EMT conduit isn't a great support material if you're handling human weight loads. The picture on the front page showing off the strength is visibly bending. It's kind of an awkward load profile, lower weight like an awning you're probably using ABS, higher weight you're using 1 1/4" system like steeltek or keeklamp

DannyBee

4 hours ago

Agreed. EMT exists to keep wire from getting damaged by accident. It isn't even considered self supporting let alone structural.

You can easily bend 1/2 emt by hand.

quesera

3 hours ago

But 3/4" is also readily available, and much stronger. And of course larger gauges are available as well, just more difficult to bend with a standard manual bender.

I wouldn't use it for scaffolding(!) or anything supporting dynamic loads in the human-scale, but I've sistered three 3/4" EMT pipes together for an extremely strong, rigid, and inexpensive support pole.

DannyBee

3 hours ago

Sure, you can use it for stuff, just don't expect it to hold anything real in any meaningful span.

Here's some real values for you:

2ft 3/4 EMT has an expected failure force of about 3300lbs (some studies found actual is around 3900-4200lbs).

4ft 3/4 EMT ha an expected failure force of about 2000lbs.

8ft 3/4 EMT has an expected failure force of about 450lbs.

So it is non-linear.

This is the point at which it fails catastrophically, not the point at which it starts sagging.

They are also not permanent load ratings, include no safety factors, etc.

Cost wise, 3/4 EMT costs 11 bucks for a 10ft piece at my home depot.

I can go to my local metal supply and get 3/4 square structural steel tube for < $1.00 a ft.

This is relatively in line with online suppliers so i believe it's not an exception: https://www.onlinemetals.com/en/buy/square-tube

This is structurally rated steel tube - it will hold much more than the EMT, it is meant for holding things, and being square, it's often easier to work with.

So i just don't know why i'd use the EMT.

quesera

2 hours ago

EMT is light weight, readily available on weekend evenings, inexpensive, cuts easily, bends easily, is reasonably rustproof, and good enough for many applications.

It is "appropriate technology" for some applications, but of course there are better options when the requirements approach its critical limits!

I've used EMT to build big hoop trellises for growing vines. Bends smoothly into pairs of 10' arcs (using some ad hoc jigs), weighs almost nothing, requires minimal paint protection, supports more curcubits than our friends and family can consume, and lasts ~forever.

One of the tricks with EMT construction is to leverage the design for structural rigidity. E.g. geodesic domes with short members are extremely strong. Anything in compression will do well. If you need resistance to deflection across a long unsupported span, then I definitely agree -- EMT is not your material of choice!

DannyBee

2 hours ago

(steel tubing is available on weekends and evenings too, fwiw)

I agree it's good enough for random aesthetic stuff, but even outdoor stuff is silly to use it for if you care about aesthetics. It really does rust pretty quickly these days. I have plenty of EMT that is 20 years old and not rusted, and plenty next to it that is 5 years old and rusty.

The latter is from different vendors, too. The specs over the years have gotten worse because nobody really uses EMT outdoors without painting it unless they are willing to accept it rusting to crap.

For your case, you could just use pvc pipe, cheaper, bends easier, cuts easier, can be glued directly, will never rust, you don't care about weight limits.

However, if you remember where we started, this article is about "structural pipe fittings" for EMT.

That is a horrible horrible idea.

quesera

2 hours ago

PVC pipe does not survive outdoors, and the failure mode is messy.

"Structural" does not necessarily mean "very strong".

I think we mostly agree here though. I've used EMT for lots of things, and it has never ever let me down even slightly. I have also chosen square steel tubing for (less frequent) cases.

Choosing carefully is the key. When EMT fits, it's great stuff and preferable in many ways.

Animats

10 hours ago

Right. There are many structural pipe fitting systems. Here's one.[1] Grainger, McMaster-Carr, and larger hardware stores stock them. Usually, they use bigger pipe. Fittings are really cheap on Alibaba.

[1] https://www.easyfit.com/catalog

fidotron

6 hours ago

What are the right keywords to use when searching for the fittings?

My ali efforts often get flooded with nonsense.

rpcope1

2 hours ago

If you're buying hardware that has any possibility of harming someone or doing any amount of non-trivial damage if it fails from AliExpress or Amazon, you're doing it wrong and should reconsider whatever it is you're doing. Even the hardware from HD is generally pretty shitty these days. If you can't afford or won't go buy it from Fastenal or MMC or somewhere reputable, where you can expect the hardware you're buying actually adheres to a stated grade or spec, you just shouldn't do it.

bluGill

4 hours ago

If it is structural I'd buy from a big place not Ali. Unless you have the ability to verify the material really has the claimed properties you need you should stick with a major trusted supplier who will either verify the factory produces fittings to spec, or test everything for you.

potato3732842

3 hours ago

Paying big bucks for a paper trail is almost never cost or time effective compared to just adding safety factor for "normal applications".

And by "normal applications" I mean "please nobody be intentionally obtuse and start nit picking about aerospace applications and connecting rod bolts and whatnot".

bluGill

an hour ago

I don't need the paper trail just the quality it provide. That is often available for much less.

night862

3 hours ago

I would nit-pick about your cantilever worktable failing because of a crappy fastener, killing your cat. Child even?

potato3732842

3 hours ago

There will always be a weakest link. At some point you just gotta be an adult and not build things to within an inch of their lives for the use they will see and then have the self control to not push the limit. Resources are limited and engineering tradeoffs are everywhere. These discussions always devolve into absurdity very quickly.

fidotron

3 hours ago

If it is to support a human I would tend to agree, but for desks etc. I have found local supplies (Canada) have declined in quality to such a degree they need the level of QA on arrival the Chinese ones do while costing 5-10x as much.

bluGill

an hour ago

unfortunately the big box stores do not check quality. mcmaster which was pointed out above does and is a similar price. I am not sure about granger.

DannyBee

4 hours ago

Pipe racking connector

Modular pipe connector

Those do okay without you getting hundreds of irrelevant air hose fittings

jalk

7 hours ago

And that’s even with his feet on the ground out of frame ;)

dddw

6 hours ago

Good to know, my first thought seeing this way. I could build a raised bed. You save some lotta time

DannyBee

4 hours ago

Emt will eventually rust if not painted as well, depending how much you care. It is really mostly used in open commercial/industrial settings (if you go to home depot or Costco you will see emt running everywhere). Aluminum is your obvious metal winner for this sort of thing outdoors (cost wise). PVC, even thick wall, becomes brittle pretty quickly in sunlight.

This is why you see wood or outdoor plastics for raised garden beds

analog31

2 hours ago

As a cheap and quick alternative for making simple structures, my dad used to join pieces of conduit by flattening the ends in a vise and drilling holes for bolts and nuts.

torginus

9 hours ago

Are these elements friction-fit? That seems to be a majorly bad idea if you want to handle loads, especially if you want these fixtures to be permanent. A speck of grease or oil could make your structure collapse.

Doubly bad, the friction seems to be created by screws that can get loose with time/ not be tightened with the proper torque.

Also, an Europe specific thing (I think), is that we don't use metallic pipes for electric wiring, we use PVC.

ryukoposting

4 hours ago

In the US you use PVC for outdoor installations, and steel conduit for indoor... with some exceptions that I'm sure someone will be quick to lambast me for.

scottbez1

11 hours ago

Neat idea!

In college I hung blackout curtains in my dorm room with conduit - IIRC it was maybe $5 for a pipe that was longer, sturdier, cheaper, and less annoying than the typical telescoping curtain rods (where the curtain always gets caught up on the telescoping edges as you open it).

I also love that you can add structural bends with readily available (and relatively compact) conduit bending tools. Gotta love economies of scale.

topazas

10 hours ago

Awesome, but what does 1'' mean? Some weird measurement unit?

hnuser123456

6 hours ago

That would be 2.54 times 1/100th of the distance light travels in a vacuum during 1/299,792,458 of the time it takes for 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of a cesium-133 atom, if you prefer.

bluGill

4 hours ago

Wrong!

While there is a 1 inch measure in common use that is as you described, the subject here is EMT. There is no dimension in EMT that is 1 inch by the system you describe. The diameter is close to 1 inch, but it is noticeably different to the naked eye, and for all useful purposes different enough that anything actually 1 inch in diameter is not compatible.

bluGill

4 hours ago

27 mm outside diameter. Which has zero relation to any other inch you might have heard of in common use (ie in the US).

LukeShu

10 hours ago

" is imperial inches, ' is imperial feet.

unwind

9 hours ago

It's awesome that they combine 1" pipe with a 5 mm hex [1] (often "Allen" in the US) fastener. :)

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hex_key

gibspaulding

3 hours ago

You see a lot of this in the bicycle industry. There are a lot of older standards in use like 9/16” pedal threads, 1 1/8” steerer tubes or 1” (25.4mm) handlebars but any new standard is metric - so bottom brackets, wheels, newer seat post diameters are all metric. It can make for some very strange looking spec sheets.

bluGill

4 hours ago

The actual size is 27mm. If you convert to an imperial system the size is not a nice number.

wezdog1

6 hours ago

/s might have been needed, it appears.

esses

11 hours ago

I have been shopping for pickup truck bed organization racks that are in the thousands of dollars, but can never pull the trigger because they do not seem like they should cost that much. If I can design these to support the weight I need they will find their way in to the truck bed and my overlanding rig.

sokoloff

7 hours ago

I think you’re far better off with black pipe or rigid metal conduit than EMT (thinner conduit which is not even allowed to support a light or outlet per the electrical code).

Black pipe is still pretty cheap and way stronger than EMT.

convolvatron

2 hours ago

actual structural steel round and square tube in 20' sections from a steel supplier isn't any more expensive than black pipe and is stronger and considerably easier to work with (no paint, less grainy). you can also make your own fittings since the right tube sizes are nesting. I do 1" square and clamps made out of 1-1/4" with 1/8" wall. that is quite a bit stronger than emt for maybe 20% additional cost.

sokoloff

an hour ago

All true; as a DIYer, it's a damn lot easier to buy pipe from Home Depot or Lowes than chase down the local steel supplier and figure out how to either get 20' lengths of tubing home or deal with asking them to cut it for what they know is a grand total of two tubes ever in your lifetime as a customer.

convolvatron

an hour ago

the places I go they don't mind if you bring a portaband or a cut off wheel and spend a couple minutes in their yard. actually the place I often go has a chop saw out front. delivery in the city is $20. another place is happy to do cuts for $5, but you have to not mind waiting around for them to get to it.

conductr

11 hours ago

Probably a little pricier but I’ve had great success with linear rails for projects like that. There’s a ton of sizes and accessories like wheels and plates and various hardware

https://openbuildspartstore.com/linear-rail/

ryukoposting

3 hours ago

One thing to keep in mind with this stuff is that it's really heavy. Regular aluminum square tube is much lighter for a given length/size. If you're making something that moves, it may be worth the effort to grab some plain square extrusion and hand-fabricate some brackets.

linsomniac

5 hours ago

For a larger project, consider buying from Alibaba. ~5 years ago I built a series of workbenches using 20 series and even with the shipping from China costs, I saved 2-3x over buying from the maker places. IIRC, final total was around $700.

potato3732842

6 hours ago

Unistrut is probably the better choice because there's a better/cheaper set of hardware relevant to your use for unistrut than there is for EMT. (Probably because unistrut is designed to hold thing whereas the EMT universe of hardware is more designed for holding EMT to other things)

quickthrowman

5 hours ago

You cannot use EMT to support actual weight. RMC or 12ga strut can support an actual load.

whatshisface

2 hours ago

What's the advantage of metal pipe over treated wood?

quickthrowman

5 hours ago

EMT is pretty flimsy stuff, why would you build anything with it when extruded aluminum and strut channel exist? Or even RMC, it’s much stronger than EMT. I know it’s a cost thing, but use the right material for the job.

There’s absolutely no way I’d trust a desk made of EMT, if someone leans on it too hard it will crumple immediately.

FrustratedMonky

5 hours ago

Don't often see product ad's getting to HN and not be flagged.

But have to say, not enough people know that products like this exist that can allow building something a lot cheaper than buying something pre-made.

pcdoodle

5 hours ago

I can vouch for this stuff, used some for a railing system for a ebike trailer that handled some abuse.