how do you make your tube?

**Spinney** · 05-06-2012, 02:26 PM

Just curious on how other people are pulling color tube. I have been trying different ways yet and dont know which is the most effecient. Encasing a tube with color and then hella clear or the stick stack method. stick stack looks a little better but the encasing method goes a lot faster.

**j4y** · 05-06-2012, 02:51 PM

I am a noob learning this stuff and I experimented with a few different methods of making my own color tube recently. For what its worth, doing stick stacks with my shop vac has turned out the best for me personally.

I tried encasing a few times and it worked pretty good but it seemed to take forever! There was also a lot more fear of cracking while laying the color and encasing. You have to constantly reheat. It's also a lot easier to get sloppy and inconstant with how the colors lines up and their thickness when you are drawing them on.

Again, I'm a noob but this is what has worked for me so far...
25.4mm clear + 7mm color + 50mm clear + VAC
25.4mm clear + 4mm color + 44mm clear + VAC

If you go the vac stack route, be sure to use the search and read all the great info on the subject. Especially BlueLillyStudio's videos and the info that follows in his thread. Great stuff.

**mer** · 05-06-2012, 04:18 PM

i usually need stripes (one or two bands of clear) so i don't really care for stacks (leave lines between clear). laying lines is tedious so i do something kinda in-between. i use 28 medium, lay the lines i want and then shrink it until it fits back into more of the same tube, and sleeve it down. it only really works for short lengths but i don't like using the same color pattern twice so it is a good solution on my bench. it also seems quick/easiest to me. not the most popular method but i am married to it.

**Pogo** · 05-06-2012, 04:40 PM

^I got a buddy that makes all his tube like this, but he uses 38hvy. (makes a little more tube per pull)

**ShttrdSpctrm** · 05-06-2012, 04:46 PM

back in the day, I used to take a good section of 50x5 and blow it up to about 80+, then lay all the fuckin stringers i spent an hour stretching. melt that huge section down and have a line work tube. took forever, but got alot of lines in it.

**Swampy** · 05-06-2012, 06:18 PM

Like Mer, occasionally I only do short pulls of whatever I need.

So just last week I tried a different method, using a 15mm dia graphite core rod, stack colour rods around that inside a 70mm length of 38 heavy.

Applied a big bushy flame till it was all warm enough.

Still used the suction after the open end was mashed down onto the graphite. Then went along the length to melt everything in with the flame and marver.

When it's all melted in, remove the graphite rod. Attach a plugged length of 20mm tube to the open end. Apply heat, puff slightly and pull it out. Anneal it.

This gives about a 300mm length of 14mm heavy wall tube.

I guess this would be a similar tech to using one of them thar fancy graphite rods with grooves machined in which to place and secure each piece of colour rod.

**smolder holder** · 05-06-2012, 06:39 PM

Vac stack takes some time to prep but it is the most efficient as far as fuel usage goes. Like was said above read bluelily's posts on vacing. That will give you a clear understanding of how to do it.

**hippi** · 05-06-2012, 09:28 PM

ya vac stacks are the way to go...but it depends on application to i guess... but i do all vac stacks... u can use 8" color rods and get like 5ft of tube easy...and strikers look awesome when the flame never touches them.. but if ut looking for a smooth finish look to the color then u proly want to stripe it on.. vac stacks leave line definition..but i think it looks nice when solid color stacks are done

**hashmasta-kut** · 05-06-2012, 10:14 PM

i stripe it old school and get about 3 feet of tube using around 4 inch rods in less than an hour. how long does it take to do your stack with 8 inch rods?

**hippi** · 05-06-2012, 11:24 PM

Originally Posted by hashmasta-kut

i stripe it old school and get about 3 feet of tube using around 4 inch rods in less than an hour. how long does it take to do your stack with 8 inch rods?

the prep is what takes the longest..cutting the rods and fittin them in the tube..but the melt down and pull is takes like 10-15 min or so...dont u do vac stacks kut? u should that torch u got is plenty.. vac stacks dont waste nearly as much o2 either

**hippi** · 05-06-2012, 11:27 PM

you should do them kut makes the line work 100% cleaner.. i used to do it the old school way to..then n3rd showed me the way and ive never looked back...i recently tried the striping again on this new striker i got and man it was such a pain in the ass and took forever

**hashmasta-kut** · 05-07-2012, 05:31 AM

i cant see it being a 100% cleaner, i never heard that before. it doesnt looked bad at all well made striped on.

**hnk** · 05-07-2012, 05:52 AM

vac stacks are the shit. just do one at least 8 inches so you dont wast your time pulling out just a lil tubing. MNP's style of tube pulls works really well to if you dont want "the lines".

**hashmasta-kut** · 05-07-2012, 07:52 AM

yeah i saw a bunch of vac stack tubing being used by a respected long time lamper and it looked terrible. i guess it has the lines, it totally made me not want to vac stack after seeing that. i am not sure he made it, but he was using it.

**smolder holder** · 05-07-2012, 08:18 AM

Don't let that one experience ruin a great tech kut. You can insert stringers or streamers in some cases....lol, between your main color rods to lock them into place and make it appear like you have twice the lines. And like hippi said it's a lot cleaner and the vac and pull down only takes 15-20 min instead of an hour. It gives much more definition to your color and i personally like the 3d effect it produces.

There is a much larger margin for error with the other methods, not to mention crackage. Never had a vac stack crack.

Prep it cold, put it into a cold kiln, heat to 1100, get to work. Simple and beautiful.

**hashmasta-kut** · 05-07-2012, 09:12 AM

you can put stringers on a regular tube pull too. you can also make cane and lay that on. a lot of my tube pulls are multi layered. i do a lot of dichro stuff too, and its nice to put the clear on really thick.

pull down doesnt take an hour, it takes ten minutes. like hippie said, more time is spent in the prep. on both techs.

there are some long time lampers on here that prefer the old tech. to each his own. there may be a margin of error, but practice will reduce that substantially.

i may try it sometime, but if n3rd pokes his head in here, he will laugh his face off, he tried like fucking crazy to get me to switch over

**quix** · 05-07-2012, 09:40 AM

haha, n3rd loves to push the stick stack. He got me to do my first, arms have been red ever since.

**Spinney** · 05-07-2012, 01:24 PM

I did a bunch last night just tagging color rods to inch tubing and then putting that into a 50x5 tubing. Works out good for production I get about 2 ft of tube out of 4 inches of color. I have to go read about the vac stack though although I have not had problems with air bubbles so far.