Travis,
Now, you've got me thinking. I was seaching the archieves and came across your "shop" shots searching "vacuum bagging." Go figger. Anywho, the 3x8 "C" channel I scavage is tossed by my yacht club. Used to toss it when it started to show a little rust or was bent. Now we're flush with cash and are replacing so many sections a year. The old material is left by the dumpster. I feel it's my duty as a member to remove as much of the usable material as possible to keep the tipping fees down. So, I'm gettin' quite a pile of it. They toss styrofoam billets too. So much so, that when I poured the 1100 sqft floor in my shop I was able to insulate it with four inch thick slabs of styrofoam. Warmed my feet and spared the landfill. So I'm always looking for a way to use this stuff. The neigbors at the lake started to call my dock "Cushing's Landing", so I don't need anymore docks at present.

Most of these channels are 12' in length. For coupling they use a 4' section that just slides inside the 12' channel. So I've got plenty of length. If I lay one on its back I can weld angle across the lips and that should stiffen the channel up and provide a place to bolt up the forms. If I use winding sticks I'll be sure it's true. And as it's galvanized I can store it outside. Thanks for the idea!