I had some 1/2" emt conduit left over from a previous project (wine bottle wall) and decided to use it to make some folding work stands for supporting doors when painting the jambs.

The cheapest stands I could find were at Harbor Freight for $20 each. If you can borrow a conduit bender, you can make each stand for less than $10. Two 10' lengths of conduit, $5.00, two #10 x 2" machine screws, two nuts, four washers, four self-tapping machine screws, $0.75, two 12" lengths of chain, $1.25, and a 6' length of foam pipe insulation, $1. Total of $8.

All you have to do is bend both pieces of conduit the same distance from the end, keeping the bends in the same plane. The radii take up 13" of conduit, and my bends started about 35" from the feet. Drill a hole 24" from the feet for the pivot points, and install the self-tapping screws at about 32" from the feet. Assemble and install the foam pipe insulation. And you have a nice, cheap folding stand.

I had to do a lot of welding because most of my leftovers were short pieces. I fabricated sixteen 90-degree bends, cut sixteen 35" pieces for the legs, and eight 30" pieces for the horizontal rails. I made a 90 degree welding jig by hot-gluing pieces of wood on the concrete floor, and did four tack welds per joint (I love welding).

So, my cost was about $20 for four stands.

Those are some thrifty stands. I bought a few off eBay that came from Eastwood. I think I paid 25$ with free shipping. They are definitely really handy. I thought about making some out of pvc but never did. Maybe I will put that on the to do list.