I need a small length - just an inch or two - of biggish diameter (5 -
6 inch) clear plastic tube for a low-temperature Stirling engine. Anyone have any idea of where I might buy some at a sensible price? Perhaps not surprisingly, the plastics distributors I've tried aren't interested.Opaque pipe would work, and is easy to get from the diy barns, but transparent tube makes the engine much more interesting to watch.
Mike
Just a thought, but have you considered whether there are kitchen storage jars or similar of suitable proportions that could be modified for this purpose?
Regards, Tony
Thanks Tony. I have been exploring that angle, but no luck so far. The only items I've found have either had too thin a wall, or been taper rather than parallel sided.
Mike
Where did you find tapered perspex tubes? I'm looking for one!
Regards,
Stephen
Habitat is currently promoting a line of thick walled perspex tumblers with tapered sides. They're about 3 - 4 inch diameter. No use to me but .......
Mike
I'll check 'em out ta...need something about the same dimensions as a sax body..
Regards,
In message , snipped-for-privacy@virgin.net writes
Just looking through a few of the replies, and it occurred to me that pneumatic transport tubes use clear sections to see what is running though them, so how about asking people who make pneumatic bulk grain loaders and bulk plastic moulding chip transports?
Peter
Tom
Mike,
I had no luck when searching for the exactly the same thing.
As diameter & concentricity aren't critical for the chamber, I made one instead. I cut a long thin strip of 1/4" thick perspex sheet, heated it in the oven & bent around a 6" dia wooden former. Stretching the open end apart a bit (after cooling) allows milling & filing a lap joint (to be hidden at the back of the engine), which can be made airtight with plastic glue & a couple of tiny screws. Before threading, I turned all surfaces true in the lathe, and polished with metal polish.
Waste of time as the engine never got finished, but the sense of satisfaction in getting through this rigmarole without breaking the thing was enormous :)
Guy
If you're completely stuck, I made a good job of bending 3/16ths perspex to make a guard for my lathe using a paint stripper gun on the low setting. A bit of underground waste pipe would make a convenient former.
Ken.
In article , Peter Scales writes
I know one of the owners of that company. If you get stuck I may be able to help.
Many thanks to everyone for the ideas and suggestions.
I'm pleased to say that someone from the group has now offered me a suitably-sized offcut (thanks again Martin)
Mike
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