Makin lakes pipes

[gramps]

I've tried aluminum tubing and it don't work. Ya can't bend it right. One day I was out in the garage lookin around and found a coil of 1/8th aluminum ground wire and thought hmm this might work. Guess what, it did and here's how.

I straightened it out, sanded and polished it. Then I decided ta make a short radius bender outa wood. You can bend it ant way ya want, but this gives ya a consistent bend. After it was bent and cut off, I took a small ball dremel tool and dug out the end that shows. added some black paint and it looked great.





Now I can make lakes pipes any length to fit any model.

[BUCKY]

Very clever way to get some sidepipes! With the end hogged out, they look just like tubing!! Cool tip, Bill!! Thanks for posting it!!!!

[tgabreu]

That looks great! Good tip!

Tom

[olskoolrodder]

Another AWESOME tip,Bill...I'll DEFINATELY give this one a try!

[bobcrozier]

That looks great I'll have to try that, but what is ground wire? It may go by a differant name over here in the UK!

Bob

[gramps]

Oct 4, 2011 8:57:20 GMT -6 bobcrozier said:

That looks great I'll have to try that, but what is ground wire? It may go by a differant name over here in the UK!

Bob

Ground wire here in the US goes from the ground bus in the electrical panel to a rod in the ground outside the house. I think what I used was for grounding a satellite dish. If you have an electrical supply shop near, you could check with them. I think in the UK you guys use 220/240 volts at 50 cycles so I'm not familiar with how things are wired, but a supply shop might have something you can use or even a craft shop may have some aluminum wire suitable to use. Hope this helps ya some.

[bobcrozier]

We use copper wire for the same thing here.

As I think about it I think I have got some aluminium welding rod somewhere and thats about 2.5mm dia!

Bob

[gramps]

Oct 5, 2011 9:45:45 GMT -6 bobcrozier said:

We use copper wire for the same thing here.

As I think about it I think I have got some aluminium welding rod somewhere and thats about 2.5mm dia!

Bob

We use copper on the electrical panel, but for a dish or cable connections we can use aluminum. It's great that you found some. I had forgotten about welding wire.

[popeye]

Great tip Gramps, i've tryed with alloy tube but as you say it dont bend too well, kinks up but the ones you made there look just right, i'll have a go at this, love the bending tool and that blue grand prix looks tasty