Rolling thin and long tubes?

[blackarrow]

Hello

So far I didn't come up with a good way to roll thin and long tubes (for example, tube with diameter of 3 mm and length of 70 mm).

The alternative could be using some other material (wooden sticks, if they are too thick, I would sand them) but since I make not tubes only but cones as well, this is not really useful.

I tried using soft pad under the paper, slightly moistening the paper, trying to roll paper on a thin stick (which is quite hard, since the paper is thicker, for example 180 g/m2 and for a diameter of 3 mm I have a circumference of around 9,4 mm only). The seams where the tube has to be glued are always just too far away from each other, or they are not bent enough in order to meet each other at the same point.

[Rubenandres77]

For very thin tubes I've resorted to soften the paper and glue it around mechanical pencil leads. After that I use paint if necessary. The lead remains inside the tube, adding a lot of structural strength.

I've achieved 0.7 diameter tubes using that technique. It requires thin paper to look good.

For 2.5mm - 3mm diameters I use knitting needles of various sizes as cores to help curving the paper.

Thick paper always needs to be de-laminated and softened so that it curves easily without craking.

Here the wing supports are an example of something I did using paper rolled around pencil leads:

[dhanners]

Another alternative is popsicle sticks. They are round and made of paper. They are basically rolled paper, so you can cut them lengthwise and unroll the stick down to the size you need. Then you cut off the excess, the. lay some glue along the cut of the piece that’s left to keep the rest from unrolling.

You can find them in a good confectionary store or order them online. They come invarious lengths and diameters.

Tamiya makes a cotton swab for modeling with a VERY thin — 1.5mm — paper stick. I’ve cut off the cotton ends and wound up with about 6cm of usable stick; if you remove the cotton instead of cutting it off, you get a stick that is about 7.5cm long.

[hrogers]

I used thin stainless steel welding rods, just remove the rods from the tube when done unless you want to use it as an extra support.

[Butelczynski]

I use stainless steel TIG filler rods for dowels.I have them in 3 diameters starting from 0.35 of inch going up to 2mm or so.

I learned that finding right paper is more important than technique.Thin paper is king and thin office printer paper is the best compromise of strength,value and ease of work with it.

Remember than paper has a grain-rolling it against grain is hard,rolling with grain is easy as pie.Cheap newspaper grade paper has no grade just like toilet paper

[FRD]

I usually roll long, thin tubes by using a shorter needle as a, "shuttle" to form around from one end of the tube to the other., essentially using the movable needle the entire length of the tube, works for me.....

[Burning Beard]

I use a needle (you can get them quite long and different diameters), I cut the card stock to the proper width (outside diameter) and progressively roll it around different thickness of needles until it is tight to the size required then edge glue it. I have made them down to 1 millimeter outside diameter, but those are usually rolled around thin hat pins.

Mike

[Vermin_King]

I try to avoid thin long tubes, but on a couple projects I used Olli Bizer's method.


He used to wrap the paper around spaghetti noodles. Uncooked, of course

[mbauer]

Lollipop sticks can be found in the cake decorating area of Wal mart, rolled paper, might be possible to un-roll for scale size. Have many different dia. and length's available.

In the past used carbon fiber 1mm, thru 6mm size to roll miniature tubes PVA doesn't stick to them very well.

Mike

[Texman]

Originally Posted by mbauer

Lollipop sticks can be found in the cake decorating area of Wal mart, rolled paper, might be possible to un-roll for scale size. Mike

Yes, they can. I have been using them for years just as described. The fuselage, rudder and elevator of the cutaway Fokker D.VIII was done this
way. It does take a little learning, but it is a very effective method.