RE: [TCML] Tubing

[James Zimmerschied <zimtesla@xxxxxxx>]

>snip "The harder part is actually finding thin wall aluminum tubing at a decent price in long lengths.  Last I checked, it was quite expensive, and shipping is a bear, unless you can find it surplus locally somehow.  If you want a 5 foot toroid, you need a 16+ foot piece to start with, as the bender leaves short straight segments at each end of the ring that you have to cut off." I built a 42" tube toroid with 3/4 hard-line co-ax. The sheath is thin aluminum with a black poly skin. I got the tubing from a friend who picked up a large roll for free from a cable TV company. The fact that it is already in approx 30" diameter rolls helps a lot in construction. The co-ax has a poly skin so I left it on except for the center tube. A black toroid looks kind of interesting. I used a jig consisting of pegs layed out on a piece of plywood to size the rings. The main problem is linking the tube ends together. Another friend tried to TIG weld it but the aluminum is too thin and it made a mess. I ended up making short steel plugs to help join the ends. Epoxy didn't work too well on the plugs. (If I had a lathe I could have made aluminum plugs with a press fit.)  I had to hold the joints together with a piece of copper wire and a sheet metal screw on each side of the joint. The toroid works well and is not too heavy (~25 lbs). So try some cable TV firms to see if the have the hard line co-ax. Jim Zimmerschied 

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