Profil trubka 2,4 mm

A hollow tube with an outside diameter of 2.4 millimeters

A tube of white polystyrene solves the situations where a solid profile is not enough, that is everywhere a real opening is meant to be visible at the end of a part. The wall is thin enough for the mouth to look convincing once sanded, and at the same time strong enough for the tube to take cutting and gentle shaping without collapsing.

Typical application

Most often it becomes the barrels of cannons and machine guns, exhaust pipes, funnels, cable grommets, the tubular frames of seats, roll bars and, in railway modeling, the posts of signals. Cutting the end at an angle gives you a chamfered mouth, while a square cut together with a slight internal countersink gives a clean circular opening instead. The tube can also be used as a sleeve into which a thinner profile is slid, which creates a telescopic or rotating joint, for example on a movable turret or a folding arm.

Recommended procedure

So that the wall is not crushed while it is being divided, it is better to cut the tube by rolling it against the blade of a knife or to use a fine saw and then square the opening with a drill held only in your fingers. It is glued with a solvent cement that is drawn into the seam by itself through capillary action, so a drop at the side of the joint is enough. Paint holds well after the surface has been lightly roughened with fine abrasive paper. The tube is 35 centimeters long and is sold as single pieces, so you decide the quantity according to the extent of the build. Once the part is finished it is a good idea to darken the mouth from the inside with a dark color, because white plastic in the depth of the opening gives the imitation away at a glance.