Is there a tutorial to make cheap AN fittings here?

[seeker589]

OK the title and sub-title say it all. After seeing $10 for 8 Detail Master fittings, I knew there had to be another way.

I'm looking for a cheap way to make fittings and what materials to use for each size fitting. Does it exist? If it doesn't - It needs to!

Edited March 13, 2011 by seeker589

[slantasaurus]

Plastistruct makes hex shaped rod in different diameters, paint silver then paint with clear red or blue.

[John Pol]

Well there are two ways for the earl fittings and the best part they are both cheap ways of doing it. Ok the first idea Plastruck makes a .030 hex rod that would be used for fuel lines .040 hex rod would be used for oil lines. and for elbows you make them from solid rod and make your own 45 degree angle. And for braided fuel line I use braided fishing line whitch comes in black. But you get about 500 feet of it for 4 bucks. All you have to do is paint it what color you want. I get mine from WalMart. I another way to do the earl fittings is crimp beads whitch are silver or gold you can get them from the dollar store or WalMart. If there is any more info you want PM I will help you out the best I can.

John Pol

[Casey]

If you're looking for "close enough", you can make tubing, grommets, beads, and styrene rod work, but it's a PITA to put the proper bevels and rounded edges on each fitting, cut them perfectly perpendicular to the rod's long axis, and then drill the hole perfectly centered.

Pre-made fittings are not cheap, but they are well worth it IMO, both in terms of time savings and how the finished product looks. I don't think the price has increased all that much since I used them on this project in '95-'96, but I know I never could've gotten homemade fittings and line to look as much like the real parts as the Detail Master parts do.

Edited March 13, 2011 by Casey

[crazyjim]

I discovered crimp beads at Micheals a couple of weeks ago. I bought a combo pack that included 150 #1, 100 #2, 75 #3, and 75 #4 for about $2.99 before the discount. The #1 are ideal for fuel lines and with a little filining/sanding the #4 will work for radiator hoses. Next time up that way I'm going to look to see if there's a #5 and/or #6.

[seeker589]

I discovered crimp beads at Micheals a couple of weeks ago. I bought a combo pack that included 150 #1, 100 #2, 75 #3, and 75 #4 for about $2.99 before the discount. The #1 are ideal for fuel lines and with a little filining/sanding the #4 will work for radiator hoses. Next time up that way I'm going to look to see if there's a #5 and/or #6.

These seem like a reasonable alternative. Getting the hex filed correctly on each bead will be a challenge.

Casey

Posted Yesterday, 08:04 PM

If you're looking for "close enough", you can make tubing, grommets, beads, and styrene rod work, but it's a PITA to put the proper bevels and rounded edges on each fitting, cut them perfectly perpendicular to the rod's long axis, and then drill the hole perfectly centered.

Pre-made fittings are not cheap, but they are well worth it IMO, both in terms of time savings and how the finished product looks. I don't think the price has increased all that much since I used them on this project in '95-'96, but I know I never could've gotten homemade fittings and line to look as much like the real parts as the Detail Master parts do.

Close enough is close enough. I just can't see paying Detail Master's or Pro-Tech's retail prices. You build one detailed modern race car - your gonna have to buy 20 to 40 dollars on just the fittings. This doesn't include the kit, paint, the braided lines and other detail parts. I just don't see the logic of the expense. Pro-Tech wants $8.95 for eight fittings. Yes, they are beautiful fittings! But almost $9 for eight fittings?!

Let's say you invest $60 total materials in the build of a model - not including your labor. Are the two to three packages of fittings really worth 30 to 45% of the entire model's build budget?

As a comparison - A friend of mine paid $10 for a small box of 15 to 20 very useable (some new!) 1:1 Russell fittings at a swap meet for use on his race cars. Just some food for thought.

[crazyjim]

I didn't think about trying to file flat sides for the hex look. These bead crimps apparently some type of metal - my Zona saw doesn't cut them very easily. Filing flat spots would be challenging, at least for me. I'll keep using them in their tubular shape.

[Casey]

Close enough is close enough. I just can't see paying Detail Master's or Pro-Tech's retail prices. You build one detailed modern race car - your gonna have to buy 20 to 40 dollars on just the fittings. This doesn't include the kit, paint, the braided lines and other detail parts. I just don't see the logic of the expense. Pro-Tech wants $8.95 for eight fittings. Yes, they are beautiful fittings! But almost $9 for eight fittings?!

Let's say you invest $60 total materials in the build of a model - not including your labor. Are the two to three packages of fittings really worth 30 to 45% of the entire model's build budget?

As a comparison - A friend of mine paid $10 for a small box of 15 to 20 very useable (some new!) 1:1 Russell fittings at a swap meet for use on his race cars. Just some food for thought.

I guess my main issue is the use of the word "cheap". The saying "you get what you pay for" usually holds true, so if you want quality, you have to sacrifice something to get it, and in this case, that something is money, and in return you get scale realism. How real you want you models to be is determined by either your skills or your wallet, or some combination of both.

[Jantrix]

In the bead section at Michaels, I found some silver, plastic, hexagonal beads. With a little blue/red sharpie, they do real well as anodized fittings. You get about a million for a couple bucks. The only downside is that the corners of the sides are rounded. Not sharp like a real fitting would be.

[crazyjim]

Do they come in various sizes, Rob?

[Greg Myers]

In the bead section at Michaels, I found some silver, plastic, hexagonal beads. With a little blue/red sharpie, they do real well as anodized fittings. You get about a million for a couple bucks. The only downside is that the corners of the sides are rounded. Not sharp like a real fitting would be.

As a visual presentation that is beautiful.I personally feel most people wont notice the difference. The eye plays tricks, and a model at this skill level will surly fool even the trained eye. I seriously doubt if you hadn't told us, if anyone would have guessed your parts source. I really like the look. You got more than your "money's worth".

[Darin Bastedo]

I guess it all depends on what you have more of, time or money. I usually only get a few hours a week to dedicate to building these days. I wouldn't want to spend a few months worth of bench time making something else work. To me 40 dollars would be worth it.

[seeker589]

Do they come in various sizes, Rob?

Yea! What he said! What craft store do you use? Do you have a part or stock number?

[Mark Brown]

You can make your own from aluminum tubing, using a six-sided pin vise.

Here's how to shape the tubing using the hexagonal vise:

And the results:

[Jantrix]

As a visual presentation that is beautiful.I personally feel most people wont notice the difference. The eye plays tricks, and a model at this skill level will surly fool even the trained eye. I seriously doubt if you hadn't told us, if anyone would have guessed your parts source. I really like the look. You got more than your "money's worth".

Wow Greg. Great compliment. Thanks very much.

Yea! What he said! What craft store do you use? Do you have a part or stock number?

As for various sizes, I can't say. I just stumbled over these at Michaels. They come in a little tube about three inches long with a black cap on it. Easily 300 of these in the tube. The curved hardline coming off the fuel rails are "beading pins" from the same area. They are the perfect size for the beads.

[Foxer]

You can make your own from aluminum tubing, using a six-sided pin vise.

Here's how to shape the tubing using the hexagonal vise:

Brilliant! I've attempted this .. very poorly .. but your method look as simple as a six sided pie!

[Mark Brown]

Brilliant! I've attempted this .. very poorly .. but your method look as simple as a six sided pie!

It's really pretty easy with a little practice. The great thing about it is that it costs almost nothing to make them, so you can afford to screw up during the learning process. My learning process always involves multiple screwups!

Edited March 15, 2011 by Mark Brown

[Mike Kucaba]

Makes me wonder if K&S tubing could be convinced that a line of Hexagonal small tubing would be an asset to their business.I remember calling and asking about 7/64" diameter tubing and they sent me 12 feet of it cut into 12" lengths. Not outrageously priced either.

That IS an ingenious way of doing that Mark.

[Mark Brown]

Makes me wonder if K&S tubing could be convinced that a line of Hexagonal small tubing would be an asset to their business.I remember calling and asking about 7/64" diameter tubing and they sent me 12 feet of it cut into 12" lengths. Not outrageously priced either.

That IS an ingenious way of doing that Mark.

I did the same thing, Mike, but at that time, they wouldn't sell it in quantities less than 100 feet, in three foot sections. Dan Himmel and I split the order, and I think I eventually ended up buying most of his back from him. That had to be at least ten years ago, and I'm down to just two or three pieces now. It's good to know that I won't have to buy another hundred feet when I run out!

[seeker589]

Thank you all for your replies!

I now have a great many ideas on how to "skin the cat" of cheap scale fittings.

Now I need to go searching for a six sided pin vise (mine is knurled and round) and beads at Michael's or A.C.Moore to try these techniques out. Maybe a combination of the three ideas given (Plastruct hex, filed alum. round, and beads) will give a veriety of sizes that can be used for different sized braided line.

Edited March 16, 2011 by seeker589

[Scott Colmer]

I like that pin vice idea as well. Excellent!

[Darren B]

You can make your own from aluminum tubing, using a six-sided pin vise.

Here's how to shape the tubing using the hexagonal vise:

And the results:

Wow what a great idea, now to find me a hexagonal vise. i love it! Thank you for sharing.

[Mark]

In the bead section at Michaels, I found some silver, plastic, hexagonal beads. With a little blue/red sharpie, they do real well as anodized fittings. You get about a million for a couple bucks. The only downside is that the corners of the sides are rounded. Not sharp like a real fitting would be.

After reading this thread the other day, I stopped at Michael's yesterday to check out the beads and try to find this particular one. Among the massive variety of beads, I only found one hexagonal style which I believe is the same as the one pictured. The ones I have are Toho Treasure Beads, 11/0 Hexagon variety. With the weekly 40% off coupon that accompanies me on every trip, the package was something like $2. There must be a couple hundred beads in there. I measured the diameter of a piece of wire I had on hand that fits snugly into the hole in this bead, it is .030" which would translate to a 3/4" outside diameter in 1/25 scale. I haven't tried drilling the hole out to a larger size, though I suspect it could be drilled out with a 66, 67, or 68 bit to fit a slightly bigger wire. I happened to stop by an AC Moore store today, their selection was not as good as Michael's. They didn't have anything in a hex shape, though they did have the crimp beads mentioned elsewhere in the thread. There is a Hobby Lobby in my area, next time I am there I will see what they have. I went to the website of the company that sells the Toho beads, and was unable to turn up anything in any other sizes in the hex shape. For larger fittings, the aluminum tubing filed on six sides should suffice. For smaller sizes, drilled/sliced Plastruct hexagonal styrene will have to do. For those of you not familiar with beadcraft, a lot of the available beads are made of glass; you'll want to avoid those. The crimp beads are metal, the hex beads are plastic.

[majel]

I am working on my first try at using detail parts such as AN fittings and I found a product from Top Studio (topstudiohobby.com) that seems to work fairly well. They are resin hose joints and come in small, medium, and large. I drill out the two ends large enough to fit the Pro Tech or Detail Master braided line I am using. It seems to work fairly well, although I have broken a few trying to drill them out, but I am pleased with the results. Gregg reviewed them in the Dec. 2010 issue of MCM.

[Mark]

Two things add to my previous post:

-Hobby Lobby doesn't have any plastic beads in a hex shape. All of the smaller stuff I saw there was glass, and therefore useless for what we want to do.

-The plastic hex beads can't really be drilled out. They appear to be molded in clear plastic which tends to be brittle to begin with, but this stuff is more brittle than I expected. I just barely started turning a nice, sharp .032" drill bit and the bead shattered. You might be able to enlarge the hole with a rat-tail file, but even then I'd expect to end up with more broken beads/fittings than good ones. Since this was the only hex-shaped variety I saw, there do not appear to be any molded in colors (which might have been less brittle and perhaps drillable).