Aluminum tubing supplier, for small to medium volume manufacturing?

[Shannon W]

Do you know of an aluminum tubing supplier that you could recommend for small to medium volume projects? I’m working on a project that requires something similar to a tent pole, and would appreciate any leads.

It’s for a tensegrity sculpture kit. Here’s a mockup: https://jeffstreet.com/tensegrity. The website shows handmade prototypes, and those function pretty well, so it’s time to look for a manufacturing partner and put together a kickstarter.

The part is simple: aluminum tube, cut to length with holes cross-drilled at each end: 300mm length, 16mm diameter, ~0.5mm wall, with 6mm holes, 4 holes at each end. The material is 6061 or similar, polished and anodized natural.

Thanks much!

P.S. If you have a shock cord supplier, I’d appreciate a reference there too.

[Mike B]

Are you doing the machine work yourself?

[David Thomas]

I had an idea and just checked measurements in my garage. I keep 4-6 aluminum crutches around as a cheap source of aluminum tubing. Sometimes they are $5/set at Salvation Army. Sometimes they are $5/two sets. Sometimes I try to buy them and they’re so happy anyone wants them, they give me 3 or 4 sets for free.

OD is 18.7mm. Wall is probably a bit over 0.5mm, I could weigh a length to assess that. Each crutch has a solid length a bit over 30 cm with holes at each end (4 lengths per set). If you can use 28 cm, then each crutch yields 4 straight lengths. If you don’t mind extra holes in the middle of a length, you could get 6 pieces per crutch, 12 per set at 42 cents/piece.  Or 21 cents or free.

If you somehow don’t have thrift shops in your town, I could send you a length or four to play with.

Shock cord (in tent pole sizes) I get in 100-foot rolls. For bungie-jumping diameter, I buy it by the foot from Alaska Industrial Hardware (there’s not one on Kodiak, but there are in Anchorage).

[Erik G]

onlinemetals.com is pretty good for small volume orders of raw material. Not sure they have the sizes you are looking for. McMaster-Carr is another option but their prices aren’t the cheapest for metal stock.

[Ben H.]

I think you are looking for a machine shop that will cut tubes to length and drill holes for you.  Correct?  It looks like you want to use off the shelf aluminum.  Most machines shops will quote based on you supplying the material or them supplying the material.  Most decent size towns have plenty of machine shops to choose from.  Some may not be interested in mass producing simple thing like this though.

[Elliott Wolin]

You can get tent pole material online, I forget where.  But the cheapest I found a while back was suppliers of radio antenna material to ham radio DIY’ers.  They don’t carry all sizes, just ones that telescope into each other.

Get back to me if you can’t find anything, I may have the supplier name somewhere.

[Hoosier T]

Quest outfitters sells tent pole materials.

[David Thomas]

For the bungie cord (often called “shock cord” in smaller diameters), I keep 1/8″ around for 3-4 person tents and 3/16″ for 1-2 person tents.

It’s available lots of places:
Home Depot 1/8″ x 50′  $10.29
Amazon, same, free shipping
QualityNylonRope.com, up to 1000 feet spools, down to $0.09/foot.

ParacordPlanet.com, 10, 25, 50, and 100 foot lengths.

And all of those outlets have other smaller and larger sizes available.

[Shannon W]

Thanks very much. This is great stuff!

Yes, I’d like to find a material supplier and/or machine shop to do the work. The hope is to generate enough interest via kickstarter to exceed my ability to handle the project myself.

It seems like tent poles might be a more cost-effective starting point than raw or scavenged material. Most machine shops would buy raw material, cut and drill, then send out for finishing. The price of raw 60XX or 70XX tube is pretty steep. Plus, tent poles are supplied with a very nice surface finish, and drilling isn’t too invasive, so it might be possible to have a one-step process.

Thanks for the aluminum references. It looks like Quest Outfitters and Tent Pole Tech both carry 0.625 inch OD stock in 18 and 26 inch lengths. I’ll ask and see if they could cut to 12 inches. It looks like Ham radio tubes are incredibly cheap ( ~$1/foot at dxengineering.com). I’ll check those out too. A number of equipment manufacturers (Tarp Tent, Nemo, Helinox, etc) are saying they buy from Easton or DAC, but that the minimum quantities might be too large.

The shock cord I’ve been using so far is from Paracord Planet. Their 0.125 inch stock is good quality, but too expensive for volume projects. I’ll check out qualitynylonrope.com.

Thanks again. I’ll post back here after running down these leads.

[DAN-Y]

Purchase by the 50ft coil, cut to length and then send them out to be anodized.

https://www.buyfittingsonline.com/tubing-aluminum-easy-bend-50-foot-coil-alloy-3003-bfo-972-195.aspx

1/2 in. OD Aluminum Tubing, Easy Bend, Alloy 3003, Seamless, ASTM B483, 50 Foot Coil

ALUMINUM TUBING – EASY BEND

Bend this tubing into the shape you need without special tools or elbow fittings. It is also known as Alloy 3003. Tubing has seamless construction, which provides a smooth interior and allows it to be flared without splitting. Use with water, air, alcohol and oil. Tubing meets ASTM B483 and has a soft (annealed) temper. OD tolerance is 0.004″

900 PSI max, 3700 Burst PSI
Material to ASTM B-483
Use with water, air, alcohol and oil.

Material Type: Aluminum
Category: Tubing
Tube Wall: .035
Working Pressure: 740
Tube ID (inches): .43
Overall Length: 50 ft
Part Number: BFO972-195
Manufacturer Part No: 972-195
FREE SHIPPING on Orders Over $99!

[Ben H.]

I have purchased replacement poles from these guys:

http://tentpoletechnologies.com/

Henry Shires used to recommend them when he had DIY plans on his website (but it seems to have been taken down).

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