Tubing for Arches

Z

zaker

Member
I want to make some arches, but the Pex I am finding at HD and Lowes are all white. I found a 5' piece that was more translucent. They had none of that style in a 10' piece. Both pieces were the same brand, and the SharkBite Pex was white also.

What is everyone using for arches? I have strips to run inside, so I am looking at 3/4". I have a 2' piece that is more translucent than white and they look nice in that.
 
I compared about half a dozen different types of tubes for arches. Your standard pipes (schedule 40 from Charlotte, etc) from HD and Lowes don't work. SharkBite are probably your best bet if you want to go with a local store. I ended up getting tubes from McMaster

www.mcmaster.com

McMaster-Carr

McMaster-Carr is the complete source for your plant with over 595,000 products. 98% of products ordered ship from stock and deliver same or next day.
www.mcmaster.com www.mcmaster.com

I also tried various lights incl. pixels, LED strip lights and pebble strings. LED strip lights were out. The light only goes one direction and keeping them flat along the arch is cumbersome. So it was down to pixels which did fit down that tube from McMaster and the pebble strings. That was a bit a harder decision. The pixels have this highlight where the pixel is located. Some people like this effect. I don't care too much about it. I ended up using pebble strings. They disperse the light better than LED strip lights, though not as good as pixels.

The wider the tube the better in regards to avoiding hotspots. I don't have much storage space so I went with the thinnest tube. To compensate for that, I inserted those pebble strings into a diffuser. It looks pretty nice.

Disclaimer: It's the first time I put any animated props incl. arches out this year. So I have no idea how well this keeps up over time, etc.
 
Our very first pixel based prop is a 16' (5 meter) 3/4" PEX Tree with 16 legs and uses strips as the light source. The PEX is Shark Bite and has held up very well over the years. This is year 13 for it. Note that I use the term "is" as it is still going strong.

Arches made of 2" HDPE, made in the second and third year are also going strong. The key is to immobilize the tubing and the strips inside. With the arches, the arch itself tied to the base makes them very sturdy.

The PEX Tree gets mounted to a pipe frame each year that does not allow it to sway in the wind.

This is about the only strip based props we have left. As a very learned friend once said, "Friends do NOT let friends use strips." :)
 
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