Can anyone give me the name and or number of a company that can provide me with aluminum tubing / pipe suitable for beams?

Thanx in advance....

Eric
Jolly Roger

Eric,
Why not make some beams from carbon/epoxy? It's not that difficult anymore with the availability of 12K biaxial carbon sleeve. If you only need round beams a piece of pipe will work as a mold. For teardrop beams a mold could be laid up on an existing beam. Either way, the layup and curing are not beyond the abilities of a reasonably competent amateur, provided you get some guidance from someone who has already done it. PM me and maybe we can get something going.

And I apologize if this topic and my reply has long since lost all relevance <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

Most carbon beams I've seen have "bulkheads" running the length of the beam. It would be hard to put these into a beam that was molded on a PVC pipe. I think the best thing to do would be mold two halves, and bond them together with the length-wise cross section in between.

You have to think inside-out. Bulkheads are no problem, if you want bulkheads. A male mold or mandrel won't accomodate bulkheads as you've pointed out, but I never mentioned anything about a male mold or mandrel.

Jimbo

true but I'd imagine putting stuff in the middle of a tube is still difficult even with a female mold.

Check out www.cstcomposites.com,

ditto on the CST Composites. They supplied me a with a lot of carbon tubing to upgrade our 18HT for ill fated 2003 Worrell. We went on to do the T500, and the carbon work was bullet proof - and looked awesome to boot.