When I started tinkering on bikes I realized how important a repair stand is. I tried using two of those scew-in utility hooks and some insulatd wire to hang my bike from the rafters, and it worked. . .well not really, but I got by. I researched repair-stands on-line, but i read some reviews and if you don't spend more than $150-$200 you are basically buying a nice hunk of scrap metal. So I began to look into building one myself. There are some plans on the Instructables website to make bench mounted repair stands out of PVC. Those look alright, but I don't have much bench space, and some of the cutting looked a little difficult without having a table saw.
After a little searching I did find a decent looking plan for a floor stand, that seemed easy to assemble and fairly sturdy. It consists of a 60"-1" black pipe, 18"-3/4" black pipe, floor flange, 90 degree reducer elbow, 4-bolts, 4 fender washers, a pony clamp, some scrap wood, and of course JB WELD. All I had on hand was the scrap wood, and I only spent about $40 on the whole thing. The pony clamp was by far the most expensive item at about $14 at Home Depot, on one thread I saw that someone found a cheaper-imported one for something like 5 bones.
So far I'm extremely happy with the stand. As you can see it holds my 2-9er with ease. The real test will be when I try and put the Lady's pre-1953 Hawthorne Cruiser, or maybe Brent's LHT with racks and all on it. It is kind of a trick to hold the bike up with one hand and screw in the pony clamp with the other, but since I'm not putting bikes up and down on it all day it'll work just fine. Let me know if you have any questions, or want any pointers on building one. You can even come over and give it a test run for a couple PBR's.
Here are some pics.
