Cheap Radiator Hose Material at Hobby Lobby

[Mike999]

This stuff is called "Pony Bead Lacing" and looks just about perfect for 1/25 scale radiator hoses.  It's in the aisle with the bead-making stuff (duh!). A package contains 5 yards, which should last a while.  I bought this package some time ago, and you can see that the Hobby Lobby price then was $1.27. 

I checked my local HL yesterday (a brand-new store) and HL still has Pony Bead Lacing, in exactly the same package.  But the price has gone up to $1.99.  Here's a pic of the package, and another showing it used on a work in progress.

 

[StevenGuthmiller]

I bought a smaller diameter tubing such as this for heater hose sometime back.

I didn't care for it because it is tubing instead of wire.

Much more difficult to bend into tight angles & it doesn't hold those bends making it more difficult to attach & tougher to get it to "lay" correctly.

Wire of the same diameter works much better.

 

Steve

 

 

[John Pol]

Maybe use some thin solder inside the tube to get the bend you need

[Mike999]

3 hours ago, John Pol said:

Maybe use some thin solder inside the tube to get the bend you need

I do that sometimes.  Walking across a parking lot recently, right under my feet I found a roll of very thin, soft copper wire that also works well.  I've also used Steven's suggestion of using wire.  But IIRC, the best wire for  radiator hose is 18 gauge.  The copper wire inside that is sometimes too big to drill a useable hole in the radiator.  So I'll pull out the wire core and replace it with something smaller that will still hold a bend.  That's what I did in the photo above; the Pony Lacing has a very thin copper wire inside it.