How to build a bike repair stand for cheap
Want a heavy duty repair stand but just can’t spring for Park Tools $200 wall mount clamp? Ya, me either; so I made one. It’s a fairly easy straight forward construction that uses standard iron plumbing pipe and a woodworking clamp.
Mine is mounted to the ceiling but it could just as easily be mounted to the floor. The clamp shown is a Pony 3/4 inch pipe clamp from Home Depot for $13.36 but if you have a Harbor Freight nearby, you can get the same clamp for $7.99. Next step is to drill some holes through the clamp with a sharp metal bit (and cutting oil). To clamp the tubing of seatposts and bike frames, I made a “V” shaped cut in some scrap wood then stapled scrap innertube to it to provide slip resistance and to cushion the clamping force a bit. You can make this cut with a handsaw, a table saw or even a circular saw (just be careful of course). I originally used douglas fir but that cracked after a month of use so I made a new one out of oak (much harder of a wood).
The clamp simply slips on to plumbing pipe (in this case 3/4”). From there you thread on elbows and fittings to attach it to wherever you like. At the ceiling or floor, a flange is used.
My flange is attached via four through bolts with fender washers on the back; this is plenty of support. If you can find the pipe at a salvage yard or free on Craigslist that’d be ideal but otherwise you can get pre-cut pre-threaded sections at your local big box
A setup like this is by no means as versatile or fine tuned as a commercial offering like Parks bank breaking clamp. For instance, you can’t rotate and lock it in position and you can’t raise or lower the height but I’m more than happy with it even without those luxuries. Even with the daily use/abuse it takes in the shop it still holds up great.
18.Apr.11 
My Cree MC-E custom headlight
Forgot to post this! I built this setup a couple months back and its been running flawlessly since..and god damn is it bright.
The LED is a Cree MC-E mounted to a star board and thermally epoxied into a 1” copper cap from the hardware store which is “creatively” rigged onto a U-bolt. A 15 degree lens is installed; good light spread. I used some curved spacers from v-brake pads to allow the light to be pivoted and adjusted into position. These LEDs get hot, especially at full power, but so far the copper has done an excellent job as a heatsink. Simply riding the bike wicks away nearly all the heat.
The battery is a 14.8V 4400mAh lithium ion pack crammed into a water bottle. The whole thing is driven by a bFlex controller that controls the light output modes and regulates the power. It’s interfaced by the red weatherproof button seen above. There’s a small red LED (near the red lid) that the bFlex board is connected to that tells me when the battery is low and needs to be charged.
My first LED setup way back in 2007 was a trio of CREE XREs that I quite liked but I noticed one day cruising the information superhighway that LED technology had already come leaps and bounds in just the few short years since that build: I could now build a single LED setup that would match the brightness of the previous three and with less power consumed!
Costs: The LED ran me $25, the battery $80, the controller $30. Not a cheap build but Im going 3 years on the battery and controller now and I feel confident riding at night. When your bike is your only form of transportation like it is for me, the cost is worth it
Its a pretty easy little project and the payoff is nice, give it a try. Drop a comment if you have any questions or just, you know, want to comment, that’s cool too 
