Hi.
Can anyone help with this. I am based in the UK and I have made and sold a few high D whistles that folks seem to like and hope to develop my range a little further but I am pulling my hair out with the shockingly poor quality of the aluminium tubing I am receiving from the few UK stockists I have tried. Although the larger diameters are acceptable the 5/8 x 18swg is very poor. 18 swg should be 1.22mm and I have recently received tube that is 0.9mm on one side and 1.45 the other. I know this is a bit cheeky but if there are any other makers out there who could help I would really appreciate it. Meanwhile I have several meters of scrap ally tube if anyone wants it. Grrrrrrrrrrr!!!
I live in the United States and am looking for tubing also and would appreciate it if any builders or players know of suppliers in the U.S.
Outside diameter: 13mm
Wall thickness: .52mm
Inside Diameter: 11.7mm
If I can find a dealer of tubing I can contact them for the appropriate size but do not know of anyone making brass or nickel tubing with near or similar measurements.
Thanks for any help.
Scottie
I have used a couple of kilometers of ally tubing over the last few years and found that dimensions are pretty nominal at best. If your stock has been made when the dies are new then the chances are that the dimensions will be pretty close, but the older the dies get, the more variation you will find. These days I take a couple of test probes and test on the rack. The suppliers have come to know me and put up with my idiocyncracies.
Try Special Shapes Brass for a range of brass and ally tubes. A phone call is better then the web as they have stocks of stuff that isn’t necessarily on the web catalogue.
Thanks for the info Syn Whistles. I think what I need to find is a stockist who has cold drawn rather than extruded tubing. If my understanding is right the cold drawn process is like a second op on extruded tube that further draws down the size and in the process produces more dimensionally accurate tube. I have found companies in the UK that produce tube this way but the problem is its expensive and very difficult to get hold of in what is to them small quantities. I am currently trying different companies in the hope I get something. A plan B is to jet off the Germany, wait outside Collin Goldies place until the delivery van arrives and then follow it back to the depot. Joking, of course……..or am I?
Amazon.com bought out a company, Small Parts, and carries their line of aluminum and brass tubing in short lengths. In the States, Aircraft Spruce (aircraftspruce.com) carries aircraft aluminium tubing in a number of sizes.
onlinemetals.com is good too, for US customers but there’s bound to be similar type of supplier in the UK.
Tommy
Thanks Tommy
The last batch of tube I bought from a major industrial supplier here in the UK company called Aalco. I figured if I use someplace like that the tube is surely going to comform to EN standards, but no when I measured it it was as bad as cheaper online suppliers. How ever to their credit when I went back to them they are checking that batch and investigating why its not to spec. Guess I did them a favour in that respect. Now waiting to find out what they have to say.
Checked your website out by the way, nice, very nice.