Okay so while doing a little bit of looking around in IIS I found links to alibaba for CF Tubes. Now all the CF tubes we see from GSO, Synta etcetc will be coming from manufactuers like this.
Im looking currently at a 308mm 3k twill at 2-3mm tube and getting prices to get it over here. If the prices are reasonable aka in the 300 dollar range I might as well import one over and see how it looks. If it ends up being good I will let you know and Bertha will get a new skirt!
Not with CF tubes but Alibaba for some electronic bits and pieces recently and had no problems. You can buy from multiple suppliers in the one order.
Turns out they don't pay the supplier until you receive the goods and then notify Alibaba that they have arrived. If you don't bother notifying them re the arrival they pay out after a set time, I think about the thirty day mark.
They also run a good conflict resolving service just in case of issues.
I did a live chat with one CF tube supplier in mainland China through alibaba. It was an interesting experience and a real eye opener for me how global commerce works these days. I was asking what sizes they could make, she told me to wait while she walked out to the factory to measure the mandrels for me.
They were happy to make one unit and ship it, provided they already had the correct size mandrel. I could have whatever thickness and quality I wanted - obviously thicker or better tolerance on the thickness cost more.
I found out making a new mandrel is very expensive and in my case they didn't have the size I wanted.
well I'm damn lucky as 308mm mandrel is perfect for what i need. its only a few mm larger than berthers current skirt but a bit of frilly stuff will make it what i need!
I'm not sure if they have any smaller mandrels than 308. but like i said once it all goes though depending on price of course I will report on the quality.
It should lighten up the overall OTA by a bit but not to the point of OMG this thing is a feather! If anything I am more doing it for the A. looks B. thermal stability.
Well including postage 1200 x 308 x 3mm 3k twill woven cloth tube at my doorstep would have been $1050.
This makes the whole thing unrealistic due to the fact I have to make a few parts to make everything fit on the new tube size. Unfortunate that is really.
Brendo, I am currently dealing with Klaus in Germany for the same project. He's great to deal with and his English is surprisingly good. I'll be picking up a foam core dual CF layers tube in July when we visit that part of the world.
Check out the pics on his site and use Google Translate if you must
as 308mm mandrel is perfect for what i need. its only a few mm larger than berthers current skirt but a bit of frilly stuff will make it what i need!
