Pneumatic Tubing

[Daniel_LaFleur]

Originally Posted by Matt Howard

You cannot use heat to "weld" the pneumatic tubing, as the tubing actually expands with heat. But yes, we used barb fittings. The connection created is so strong, that another mentor and I pulled as hard as we could on a link we made, then gave had a student pull as well and only after about 2 minutes of straining we finally got it to pop open.

The joints created by the barbs are very strong.

Considering that I've heated polyurethane tubing to the point where it will bond with itself ... I'd say that you are incorrect here. I also agree with you that barbs are the way to go, for reasons I stated in my earlier post

Originally Posted by kapolavery

ok that helps..
but is it something that i have to order?

shipping stuff to hawaii takes a long time..
or is there a way to improvise using maybe.. short bolts..washers..glue even?
after all its not for competition but for my school project hehe
so just as long as the concept will work its fine.

If you want to experimant a bit:

Take a small piece of threadded rod (with the OD of the rod slightly larger than the ID of the tubing). Heat the tubing to get it soft enough to push over the ends of the rod. This should work, depending on the load you put on it. I'd also suggest you push the tubing so that the 2 ends meet in the center of the rod.