Making tubes

Making your own tubes is a good skill. Of course you can buy your tubes from a commercial source, but I like to roll my own. This gives you freedom to make them any length, width, and thickness you want! It does take a bit of practice, but once you get it down its easy to make strong quality tubes for a very cheap price. You need some paper, wood glue and a dowel of the right size. I use a lot of 5/8" tubes, so I got a steel rod to use for those. But I also bought 7/8", 3/4", 5/8", 1/2", 3/8" and 1/4" wood dowels to make tubes. I get a bowl and fill it 1/2 of the way with wood glue, then I add some water, just enough to thin it slightly so it will spread easy onto the paper. I also use a 2" wide paintbrush to spread the glue. Next I get my table, measure out the correct width of Kraft paper and cut into strips. I get pieces of duct tape about 1 inch wide and use two of these to hold the paper at the end of the table. I use the rod and line the paper up evenly to get a straight roll. I roll the paper over the rod 1 and 1/4 turns then begin to apply the glue. Spread the glue all over thinly and then pull the dowel toward you and begin rolling. Finish it up and measure the length of tube you want, mark it and place a piece of tape around the tube to get a square cut. Next use a razor knife and cut along the tape to get a good clean square end. For salute tubes I roll two at a time from one piece of paper.

Now for the end plugs. I put a piece of metal tape for ducts onto a piece of standard duct tape. sticky sides facing each other, about 3 inches long of the metal tape. Then just roll this up around your dowel to make a form. After that is done just dunk a piece of paper into your glue mix, and put it into the form. Smash it down with a dowel slightly less in diameter then the form. Push the plug out, turn it over and repeat a few times. This makes nice perfectly fitting end plugs. These may need to be sanded just a tiny bit depending on your skill at making them.

Rolling the tube                                    Rolled tube               

Applying masking tape and cutting the tube                       finished tubes                   

Plug form                            Finished plugs