Bordonbert
DIY
Hi guys. This will be a straightforward answer for anyone who works with aluminium tubing on a regular basis. I don't I'm afraid hence my asking here. I know professionals would want to consider the time aspect but that isn't a concern for myself. And price is not critical but "silly price" leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
I have an installation based on 1.25" (32mm on paper, according to metal suppliers 31.75mm) 16SWG aluminium tubing. I would like to extend that by just a couple of feet. With an extra length of the same size tubing and a coupler that is no problem. However... I found that couplers for 1", 1.5" and 2" are commonplace and pretty cheap. 1.25" couplers are like hen's teeth and when you can find one they ask ridiculous prices, and I mean £35 and upwards. I did think that I could maybe just sleeve the joint with another piece of slightly bigger tubing using rivets to hold things in place and looked up the tube dimensions.
I can get 1.375" ( that's 1.3/8" or 34.9mm) tubing in 16SWG. 16SWG is 1.626mm meaning that this tubing should have in ID of 31.74mm. My question is, the idea of sliding the 1.1/4" inside the 1.3/8" tubing seems to be possible given the decimal rounding off of some of those sizes but does this actually work in practice?
Failing that, is there somewhere I can get a 1.25"-1.25" coupler at a reasonable price? Or, even better, is there a way to make a stiff enough joint with two tubes of the same thickness. Maybe slotting the inner tube along its length to allow some compression would work. A hacksaw blade thickness may be all that is needed. As I said I do propose to rivet the two together at both ends. Or is there a 1.25" extension tube available with a narrowed end to fit inside tube of the same size?
I have an installation based on 1.25" (32mm on paper, according to metal suppliers 31.75mm) 16SWG aluminium tubing. I would like to extend that by just a couple of feet. With an extra length of the same size tubing and a coupler that is no problem. However... I found that couplers for 1", 1.5" and 2" are commonplace and pretty cheap. 1.25" couplers are like hen's teeth and when you can find one they ask ridiculous prices, and I mean £35 and upwards. I did think that I could maybe just sleeve the joint with another piece of slightly bigger tubing using rivets to hold things in place and looked up the tube dimensions.
I can get 1.375" ( that's 1.3/8" or 34.9mm) tubing in 16SWG. 16SWG is 1.626mm meaning that this tubing should have in ID of 31.74mm. My question is, the idea of sliding the 1.1/4" inside the 1.3/8" tubing seems to be possible given the decimal rounding off of some of those sizes but does this actually work in practice?
Failing that, is there somewhere I can get a 1.25"-1.25" coupler at a reasonable price? Or, even better, is there a way to make a stiff enough joint with two tubes of the same thickness. Maybe slotting the inner tube along its length to allow some compression would work. A hacksaw blade thickness may be all that is needed. As I said I do propose to rivet the two together at both ends. Or is there a 1.25" extension tube available with a narrowed end to fit inside tube of the same size?
