Thin-wall PVC pipe

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iter

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According to the Wikipedia article on Nominal Pipe Size, PVC pipes go all the way down to Schedule 5 and 10. Typical hardware store carries sch 40 pipe which is too heavy for airframe. I wonder if thinner PVC pipe is commonly available. I'm toying with the idea of a PVC tube-fin rocket.

Ari.
 
try sewer drain pipe. or try google for 'thinwall pipe'
rex
 
Vacuum pipe is good, but only generally available in smaller sizes. If you want to go bigger look for pvc duct pipe these go up to and over 2 feet in diameter with very thin walls. An example of the kind of dimensions are available on our website download at https://www.plasticpipeshop.co.uk/p..._Shop_PVC_Ventilation_Pipe__Ducting__325.html These are metric sizes, but I am sure thre is someone on the USA who will produce similar to this. Look for plastic vent pipe or plastic ducting pipe. - Bob
 
Try irrigation pipe - it generally has a thinner wall. Class 200 (200 psi rated) has a .060" wall in 3/4" size. It goes to Class 125, which would be a thinner wall.

Edward
 
McMaster.com should have the thin stuff. In potato cannon world, the 1.5" Schedule 21 is a PERFECT golf-ball barrel. There's also schedule 80, but that's super thick and can take an impressive amount of pressure.

You could also look at the Cellular-core stuff. It's thin layers of PVC with a stiff PVC foam between the layers. It's impressively light for what it is.

Also, ABS cellular core pipe (Check McMaster) is extremely light. A little brittle, but it would still make a great airframe.
 
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Class 200 (200 psi rated) has a .060" wall in 3/4" size.

I currently have some of this. It is labeled PVC-1120 SDR-21 200 PSI 3/4" -- Sold in the big box stores as thin walled PVC. I think it was tagged as schedule 20.

Ari -- so you can get an idea of weight a 20" piece of this weights 94 grams. Basically 4.7 grams an inch.
 
I went to Lowes today and the thinnest they could show me was sch. 40 water pipe.

Ari.
 
I went to Lowes today and the thinnest they could show me was sch. 40 water pipe.

Ari.

Ask them to look again. The one near me has it.

Here are some useful tables of dimensions.

If you are going to use thin wall small diameter PVC for the main body tube you should consider lining it with something so it doesn't get soft and distort.
 
While big-box stores look at me like I'm asking for some kind of rocket-science material, a local plumbing supply house has thin-wall sewer pipe in 3", 4" and 6" diameters. Here are two tubers that use this material. The 3" version has flown on I297 and J500. The 6" has flown on L850.

Ari.

IMG_2090.jpg
 
While big-box stores look at me like I'm asking for some kind of rocket-science material, a local plumbing supply house has thin-wall sewer pipe in 3", 4" and 6" diameters. Here are two tubers that use this material. The 3" version has flown on I297 and J500. The 6" has flown on L850..

LOL. Love those!
 
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