Paintball

[thumper]

Anyone know where to get Do It Yourself hardline tools and supplies?

[Looper]

I used Small Parts, Not to be confused with smart parts, they are out of Florida.

Part Number Description
HTX-08R-36 HYPO TUBE S/S 304-RW 8GA .165OD X .135ID 36IN L
LMA-158-04 LOW MELTING ALLOY 158 DEG 4OZ

I used the low melt alloy to fill the SS Hypo tube then I was able to bend the tube without crimping the the tube. To get the alloy in the tube I heated it in a small Pyrex dish then used the vacuum side of a small air pump to suck the alloy up the tube. You will also need to heat the tube so the alloy does not cool as it enters the tube. Once the desired bends in the tube I heated the tube and the low melt alloy drained out.

For fittings I used the Parker Hanaford compression style fittings, like the ones that are on CCI Phantom VSC. CCI uses a rubber hose over the SS line to be the compression sleeve.

48 9434 Compression Elbow
54 9441 Compression Nut
55 9442 Compression Sleeve



I have since covered the SS hardline with heat shrink to make it disappear on the marker.

[thumper]

cool -- nice job

[Grendel]

Originally Posted by thumper

Anyone know where to get Do It Yourself hardline tools and supplies?

John, Fluid Air down on Huger St. on the way out to Olympia, has all the parts and tools,

[Walking_Target]

As for bending hard line, low melt metal fill is ideal, however you can also freeze the tubing with water in it and while still frozen, do your bends. so long as they are 45* or less, the ice on the inside of the tube will prevent crimping.

for copper, some people use sand as an anti-crimp.

I do not recommend this, as sand can abraid and score the inside of the tubing, thus reducing it's strength.

best to look up an online guide to how to install compression fittings too, it will save you some time down the road.

[Crash]

Humm, I never used a filler just a little cheap tubing bender without problems. I suppose using it would allow you to work faster though!

[Schmitti]

yeah.. try one of these for bending... let us know how it works.. I keep meaning to buy one but haven't had the need yet.

Tools and Supplies for Building Scale Models | Micro-Mark: The Small Tool Specialists

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[Railgun]

Some metals are super kink'y and love to collapse rather than bend so this may not apply. But GENERALLY if you can bend the tubing with a large enough radius it'll bend with no kinks and no need to use the inside filler. It's always best to bend around a form though. A suitable radius for bending around just something round like a soup can would be for the form to be 20 to 25 times larger in diameter than the tubing. Even tubing that wants to kink should be OK with such a large radius.

With my model building I've bent brass and aluminium tubing around simple cylindrical forms that are as small as 10 to 12 diameters. I've gone smaller but for that I used a proper bending die with a half round groove and annealed the brass tubing before bending.

What makes any tube kink prone is if the wall is very thin compared to the diameter. As I said I'm not that familiar with the SS hypo tubing so I may be all wet on this. Still, the size of bending radii that I seen in the picture posted by Looper suggests that these bends could easily have been done by just pulling it around a soup can or jar or a simple wooden form without kinking.

[Grendel]

I've bent a lot of small gage tubing (mostly Stainless 4mm) with very good luck using a simple tubing bender and you can get down to ~1" radius with little difficulty. Never needed to use a 'filler' to keep from crimping the tubing. Slow and easy is the trick

Thumper, you get the tubing and fittings you want to use and I'll come over to the house and make up the fittings for you. After I show you once you'll be a pro

[thumper]

gman -- sounds like a plan.