1 question and 1 “help me!!!”
Question I need a link to a place where I can buy metal tubing in the sizes we need for the hobby… like 20mm wing cannons on a spifire. If I can get a link it would be most appreciated.
“help me!!” How do I figure out which size small tubing is correct, inside and outside diameter??? Anyone have a link or a formula for it???
Thanks for your help,
Jeff[V]
woot found one on my own… it was accident too 
http://www.smallparts.com/
and they have a buncha other stuff too… very remniscent (sp) of micromark.
I use medicine needle ( dont know U.s standards but need to buy more diameters)
Smallparts is the place for tubing, but their shipping costs are very high. Try and get everything you need at one time!
For diameters, all you need to know is the actual size of the piece. For example, a 20mm cannon has a 20mm bore (20 / 25.4 = 0.787" inside diameter). Figure about 1/4 to 1/2" of steel for the thickness on each side of the bore and you get about 1.28" to 1.78" outside diameter. Divide that by your scale to find out what scale size you need. For 1/48 scale: 1.28 / 48 = 0.027" OD or 1.78 / 48 = 0.037" OD. If it’s a 1/32 scale bird divide by 32, etc.
Thanks a ton Scott. Is there a way or place to go to figure out these sizes, a one stop link if you will… for inside diameters too ??
Much appreciated Scott,
Jeff
Not a problem. I suspect there is a site for that, there’s one for everything else, but I haven’t run across it. I just use a calculator since it’s just simple multiplication and division: Convert millimeters to inches (in the case of your 20mm cannon) using (mm / 25.4 = inches) and then convert for scale: (real size divided by scale = scale size). Note that this works for ANY scale conversion. People tend to get confused about what scale is, but it’s basically just a ratio. 1/48 scale means that the model is 1/48 the size of the real one, so to convert a real size to a scale size all you have to do is divide by 48 (or 32 or 35 or whatever scale you are working with).