Sources for small-scale stainless steel tubing?

[MareNostrum]

Would appreciate any leads on where to get such tubing (I'm talking on the order of 0.5mm, possibly even smaller). I have come across the Minimeca name, but could not find a company website; did find that Sprue Bros. has some inventory, but evidently not the full line. Thanks.

[EJFoeth]

I used to order mine at cammett.co.uk but now they're scalewarships.cco.uk and it's not longer in stock? You could try an email...? They had inner/outer as small as 0.1/0.3mm, wonderful stuff.

[wefalck]

There are different gauges of hypodermic needles that should be easy to come by. This is actually one of the real uses of the these steel tubings that are sold to modellers. Another use is HPLC (High Pressure Liquid Chromatography), so you may want to try labware supply houses.

wefalck

[MareNostrum]

EJ- Alas, couldn't find a scalewarships.co.uk website, nor the cammett one, I guess they've both disappeared from the scene. Interesting to note from your response that some really small stuff existed, and may still exist somewhere.

WE- Yes, I've seen reference to using hypodermic needles, I just don't know how one can get them without having a prescription. Maybe I've just been too dumb to look in the drugstore. The HPLC suggestion looks intriguing, guess I'll start going through the phone book for lab supply houses.

Thank you, gents.

[wefalck]

Normally one doesn't need a prescription for needles ... it may depend though on what you look like

I guess, if you explain to the pharmacist what you need them for, it shouldn't be a problem. But then, different countries have different and sometimes not so logical rules - the same medicine is sold over the counter in one EU country, while in its neighbour you need a presciption.

A lot of medical stuff these days is also sold through ebay. It is worthwhile for a modeller to browse these. You may get all sorts of tools (scalpels, tweezers, scissors, burrs, diamond wheels, ...) much cheaper than through modelling supply houses (who get it probably from the same sources anyway). I did a quick search on the German ebay: [url]http://www.ebay.de/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p3984.m570.l1313&_nkw=Injektionskan�len&_sacat=See-All-Categories[/url]. So there doesn't seem to be a shortage of supply.

I would check some medical supply houses for a description of the gauges.

wefalck

[Vince McCullough]

Try Small Parts. They have an amazon store, and sell all manner of tubing, materials, wire, etc, including a variety of hypodermic tubing. The link for the latter is

http://www.amazonsupply.com/stainless-s ... 3071453011

I bought some extremely fine hypodermic tubing from them last year for a repair job that I was working on.

Vince McCullough

[Kometa]

This is a example of hipodermic needles (1,2 mm, 0,9, 0,8, 0,7, 0,6, 0,5).

Pittsburg mast

Main gun in a turret and secundary guns

Foremast Scharnhorst

Main mast Gneisenau

Mast Charles F. Adams

5" gun Charles F. Adams

[MareNostrum]

WE- I generally try to stay on the right side of the law, but even still, hypodermic needles don't seem to be directly available in drugstores to the general consumer here (although one can buy needle disposal kits). The eBay tip may be a practical alternative however, so that's something I'll have to check out.

Vince- It was interesting, I have Small Parts in my bookmarks, and when I clicked it it took my straight to Amazon Shop or something like that. A quick look tells me they've got a lot of stuff there, I'll have to spend a little time narrowing down my search to see if they have the sizes I'm interested in.

Kometa- Thanks for including the pictures (and the sizes). I was particularly impressed with the masts and the 5" guns, the effects are far better than what can be achieved with plastic, in my view.

[doog_k]

Try Albion Alloys in the UK, I have bought some of their ultra fine tubing over the counter at Modelworld a hobby chain store but it's probably cheaper online.

http://www.albionalloys.co.uk

[Kometa]

This is the diferent class of needles:

Disposable_Hypodermic_Needle_Sterile.jpg (26.13 KiB) Viewed 1462 times

The most common it�s green (0,8)

[MareNostrum]

Thank you for that reference photograph. I was also in touch with Albion Alloys, they responded to me that they do have places in the U.S. that carry their line. After checking them out online, not all of them seem to do so nowadays, but one that that seems to have a fairly good range of the Albion line is Des Plaines Hobbies in Illinois, www.desplainehobbies.com, for those of us here in the states looking for a source.

Again, thanks for all the replies.

[109]

Hi,

look for ALBION ALLOYS, they offer telescoping tubing and more products for modellers.

Bye!