China carbon tubes

[SolarYellow]

I've found a seller on Aliexpress that makes carbon fiber tubes with 0.5mm wall thickness, instead of the usual 1.0mm wall. They list 25-24 and 30-29mm tubes. 40-38 for 1mm wall as well. They advertise larger sizes and custom layups to customer spec as available. Much lighter per unit length and a heck of a lot lower cost than the c.f. tubes I've been able to find from US-based rocket-specific vendors. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/2251832683673862.html

Anyone have experience with that as a source of body tubes?

 

[cwbullet]

Not this source, but many of tubes I have ordered from China ended up too flimsy.

 

[bad_idea]

I've found a seller on Aliexpress that makes carbon fiber tubes with 0.5mm wall thickness, instead of the usual 1.0mm wall. They list 25-24 and 30-29mm tubes. 40-38 for 1mm wall as well. They advertise larger sizes and custom layups to customer spec as available. Much lighter per unit length and a heck of a lot lower cost than the c.f. tubes I've been able to find from US-based rocket-specific vendors. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/2251832683673862.html

Anyone have experience with that as a source of body tubes?

I found those just now and found your post searching to see if anyone had used them. Have you tried them yet?

Not this source, but many of tubes I have ordered from China ended up too flimsy.

Chuck, did you find any good tubes among the bad, and if so, do you recall where?

 

[SolarYellow]

Haven't built a rocket yet, but I did buy some tubes.
Got the 25x24 tubes. c.f. tubing with 0.020 inch wall is nice and light, should be plenty strong for any 24mm motor I'd use and a few I wouldn't. AeroTech 24/40 case fits nicely in the ID. Haven't tried a Cesaroni.

Special ordered 22x23.8 at the recommendation of the company for couplers. Have them sitting on my bench. The 23.8 is a nice fit in the 24 ID. Might add a little masking tape or something to get the friction just right once I build the rocket.

 

[bad_idea]

Thanks. That's good to hear. Have you weighed the tubing? Curious as to the weight by length. EDIT: I now see the weight chart on the ad; I hadn't scrolled down enough earlier. Edit again: it seems the weights are for the 1mm+ wall tubing.

 

[cwbullet]

I found those just now and found your post searching to see if anyone had used them. Have you tried them yet?

Chuck, did you find any good tubes among the bad, and if so, do you recall where?

I bought them off your link. I am building a rocket with them in the next two weeks. They do not look half bad, but I will tell you how they hold up.

 

[COSTransplant]

So, what is considered a good price for enough carbon fiber tubing to build a 4" diameter say 60" tall scratch built model rocket? The stuff from China seems to be about $110 for 2' of 4" tubing? That just seems like a whole lot of money, but maybe I am not reading the chart correctly? Anyone have any thoughts they are willing to share?

 

[SolarYellow]

At least on AliExpress, the bigger sizes like that get pretty spendy and the coverage of sizes gets thinner. I like the company linked above for smaller sizes. 19/20, 24/25, 29/30, stuff like that. I have some 40/42 that looks nice, but I haven't built a rocket with it yet. I've looked to see if I could land on 3-inch and came away not really liking the options. Haven't checked 4-inch.

In general, on AX, things are cheap if they are cheap to ship. Physically larger items that are more expensive to ship get a lot more expensive.

 

[bad_idea]

I would steer clear of this vendor for larger tubes. @Newguy was favorably impressed with some of the smaller tubes I showed him so asked the vendor for quotes on large tubes, 3 or 4 inches as I recall. The photos he received showed the finish of the larger tubes to be markedly inferior to their very nice small tubes.

 

[3stoogesrocketry]

The other main thing to consider is these cheap tubes are made of uni directional fabric with a thin veil of carbon on top . Yes they are strong, but I've had them split like a banana if hit hard on the ends.

 

[bad_idea]

These are claimed to be wound, but that's not a lot of info. I may test a cut-off piece with a hammer sometime soon to see how easily it shatters.

My main interest in the small tubes is resistance to water and wear-and-tear. They are significantly heavier than cardboard but about the same weight as my results with Soller fiberglass sleeves, and significantly stiffer.

 

[tsmith1315]

Do they cut easily and leave a good edge?

 

[bad_idea]

Do they cut easily and leave a good edge?

Haven't cut mine yet but plan to soon.