I am thinking of fabricating a rack/handrail system for the cabin roof of a small boat. Think of it like a "yakima" style roof rack that will serve for mounting surfboards, paddle boards, and also serve as a hand rail when moving between the bow and stern. The boat already has stainless bow and stern rails. Stainless would probably match better, but this thing isn't a beauty queen and I'm not totally concerned about matching.

Is 7/8" pretty much the industry standard for boat rails? I am equipped to weld both aluminum and stainless but I don't have any tube bending or fab experience. What is going to be easier for me to work with? Economical? Robust/durable?

ETA- as far as tube bending, please share some recommendations for that as well. Thank you!

Link to tube bender discussion.

Some tubing projects require a long tube and they take up a huge amount of space to manipulate.  This is a good argument for mounting the bender on a trailer so you can move it outside for more room.  My friend did a group buy on his bender, so the trailer allows it to move from shop to shop.

I always wanted a tube bender, and if I build another chassis, that will be my excuse to buy one.

A Rogue hydraulic was the type I was looking into.

Easiest and most economical would be to either buy something premade or have someone with bending experience build it for you

Seriously there is alot to bending tubes,  and you throw alot away until you figure out your take up , springback , etc .
I started with a Harbor freight Pipe bender , did all the internet mods and bends still came out like shit
. Said screw it and bought a JD2 model 2 with 1 1/2 and 1 3/4" dies . Right at $1000 , bought their notcher for $250ish , converted it from manual to air/ hydraulic with a HF Cylinder and Swag.com bracket  another $300 . Watched a bunch of YouTube vids and still threw away a bunch of pipe .
Bought the BendTech program $300ish .
So $2000 ish later I dont wasted tube

I beleive I could get a 7/8 Die ( dies are about 300 each ) for my bender,  but honestly dont know if Stanless / Aluminum tube would bend or crush in it

I'll help as soon as I locate a roof on a boat.

Something like this, but doesn't have to match the contour. It can be flat in the horizontal planes



The boat is similar to this. You can see that they've built in handrails out of fiberglass on the roof. It doesn't look very good and also isn't very practical.

I was really hoping to avoid spending another $2k lol. Especially on stuff that I don't have much application for after the project.

Has anyone used one of these tools? I am not committed to using 7/8" tubes, this rig comes works with 1" schedule 40. Surely this thing will bend up some little aluminum tubes?
https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200659541_200659541?cm_mmc=Google-pla&utm_source=Google_PLA&utm_medium=Metal%20Fabrication%20%3E%20Pipe%20%2B%20Bar%20Fabrication&utm_campaign=Klutch&utm_content=49652&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIlqu63pbt7gIVgZeyCh3L1AD9EAQYASABEgI4B_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Short of being able to bend this stuff, I guess I will have to look into buying some elbows and just welding it all together.

That's identical to the HF one I had . All it did was kink the tube  . Even when I would fill the inside with sand and pack the hell out of it , then weld a cap on the ends . It would kink the pipe .

After thinking about this more why not use Aluminum Square tube ?  Could make simple miter cuts and weld it together at 90° corners . If you needed a gradual curve you could do that by hand . Either by wacking it on the ground ( dont laugh it works )
Most benders that are used for Aluminum use dies that fully encapsulate the tube to , stop crimping / kinking . Look at a break line bender for reference  .

Swagelok sends a little manual with their tube benders, shows how to accurately place and execute good bends.  Read it.  It's for hand benders but all the same rules apply.

Swagelok MS-13-43

Any exhaust shops near you? Most exhaust shops bend thin tube every day, and are pretty good at it. That would save you the trouble of messing with a bender.

I have a decent amount of experience with 1.25" chromoly tubing bending/coping/welding, and it takes quite a while to get good at.

Lol, yes, full conduit lengths being bent at one end tend to find ceiling light or fans with the other end.  Outside is good sometimes.

Biggest downside to the rogue design in my mind- even a single plane bend will go towards the sky.

Keep in mind if you buy a bender, pipe and tubing have different OD. 1" tube is 1" OD. Where as 1" pipe is about 1.315 OD. Seen people make that mistake, buy pipe dies when they really wanted tubing dies.

I am liking the idea to find a muffler shop to work it up for me.

I would ask around and see what dies and material they have on hand.

I had some 1/8" wall tube bent and was surprised how well their bender handled it. I figured that they might have trouble with that thick of tube, but it bent it as easy as exhaust tubing. I gave him $20 for 4 bends and he said that was more than enough. Bet he'd have taken a 6 pack too.

I'll likely be hitting them up again if I end up with a new pickup and decide to build a tube bumper. I'll likely need a few bends.

When it comes to tubing, coping it to nest up nicely is the worst part by far. They do make tube coping jigs you use with a drill and hole saw....
but they are a real bitch IMO. I usually just clamped it in the milling machine and chucked up a hole saw. Some people just freehand it with a torch or grinder (usually the best option for angles less than 45 degrees).


8020 aluminum strut could really be another good option.