Quote:
Originally Posted by Saturnine
Hi Keltik
Try One Steel Aluminium for aluminium tubing up to 200mm dia. they have 127mm x 1.6 wall thickness in 6 metre lengths, may be able to buy it in shorter pieces. They stock tube suitable for scope making in 3", 4",5" & 6" diameters and more. Could also try Capral, who also stock aluminium tube in many sizes, probably from the same manufacturer.
I've made several scopes using plastic storm water tubing and once the tube is painted, have had no problem with static , if having trouble with the swarth from cutting and drilling plastic tubing, sticking to the tube because of static elec. wipe with a damp rag, that will help reduce static build up .
Good luck with the project, scope making is rewarding and fun, once your finished, which is hard to stop when you realise how easy it becomes with the experience of that first one under the belt.
Jeff  |
Thanks Jeff, I might follow up that info. The various queries about carbon fibre tube led to the realisation that the tube would be four times more expensive than the lens
...back to square one as they say.
My trick for cutting any tubing perfectly square to its long axis is to wrap heavy drawing paper round it and tape the edges together so that they are perfectly aligned ( ie the edges running
around the tube where they overlap and you can line them up.) Then slide the paper to the point where you want to cut, use a marker pen to run a line along the edge of the paper, and you have a nice line around your tube. The rest depends on how steady you are with a jigsaw ( or fretsaw if you want to get really fine).
