The FREE T Bucket plans

I build my own hairpins from 7/8 DOM steel tubing. If you have a blower or lots of horsepower you will want to use 1 inch dom tubing. My local supplier has to order it at 100 ft per order. I use my harbor Freight pipe bender to bend the tubing. You have to cut the pieces longer than finished length to work in that style bender. My lathe is too small to drill and tap the ends. I cut the end that has to be tapped 1 inch longer than the finished dimension, weld a small piece of scrap in that 1 inch area to grip in the vise so I won't get teeth marks on the finished piece. I use a large right angle drill and start with the bit that will just remove a little bit of material then keep changing bits until I get to the size required for the tap. I then drill out that extra one inch with the bit size to match the OD of your tap. ONLY GO ONE INCH DEEP. This will allow you to start the tap in straight and get good threads. Then you can cut off that extra inch re drill with the correct size for the tap, finish tapping to the new length and have good straight threads. Any time drilling or tapping use plenty of tapping fluid or thread cutting oil, I use a tubing notcher that I bolt to my steel table top and tack a piece of scrap angle iron so I can clamp the tubing at the right angle to cut the ends.