Where do I purchase plastic tubing?

bdr1010

bdr1010

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I am looking to start making a few cases on my own. I have the outer materials already and I am looking for a supplier for the inner workings of pool cue cases, the hard plastic tubings, and the outer shell to which I will attach my final materials to. I would like them to be oval as I am just building 1x2 cases designs to start. Anyone have any suppliers for anything like this, please let me know. Thanks!
 
bdr1010 said:
I am looking to start making a few cases on my own. I have the outer materials already and I am looking for a supplier for the inner workings of pool cue cases, the hard plastic tubings, and the outer shell to which I will attach my final materials to. I would like them to be oval as I am just building 1x2 cases designs to start. Anyone have any suppliers for anything like this, please let me know. Thanks!
Click to expand...


You might try contacting Hangemhigh here - he might be able to find a supplier for you.

Chris
 
Think some Casemakers use PVC (white pipe) and cover the PVC with Soft Fabric. Lowe, Home Depot, True Value all sell the stuff...
 
pvc tubing

Go to Lowes Hardware or Home Depot.. get the 200psi (thin wall) PVC tubing. It's generally used for sprinkler systems so it's thinner. It comes in 8' lengths and is pretty cheap.
 
Molding

I am also looking for the outer section of the case. The portion that will hold the tubes in place that I will wrap my final outer material around.
 
bdr1010 said:
I am looking to start making a few cases on my own. I have the outer materials already and I am looking for a supplier for the inner workings of pool cue cases, the hard plastic tubings, and the outer shell to which I will attach my final materials to. I would like them to be oval as I am just building 1x2 cases designs to start. Anyone have any suppliers for anything like this, please let me know. Thanks!
Click to expand...

I would suggest you check Lowes or Home Depot, both carry a varity of plastic tubing that can be cut to size, check the pluming section.
 
Mr. Justis, thank you for the reference. It's always a pleasure to help out a new case maker. This is the reply I sent to Damon and I figure that the information could be useful to anyone else looking to build cue cases:

Hello Damon,

Well......you probably know about plumbing and electrical tubing. Those are available at any hardware store. If you want the single tubes like Justis and others use, i.e. the large oval plastic tube then you will need to buy it from someone who is already making them. Jack Justis gets his interiors pre-made in China and I doubt that his supplier is willing to supply to anyone else. You can buy them from us but the shipping will kill you at $75 per tube just for shipping.

Your best bet is to get yourself a business license and start buying the cheapest cases you can and stripping them for the tube. Our company Sterling Gaming sells a 1x2 sized tube case http://www.cuesight.com/sth2bk.html that you could get for $20 with a wholesale account.

That way you could get my interiors as well and you wouldn't even need to change anything, just build your case around it. Alternatively if you want to go somewhat cheaper you could contact J&J America and buy cue cases from them. This interior setup is much less protective than what we build but it's also much cheaper.

Lastly, check Ebay, there are several importers on Ebay who are selling cheapo cases and if all you need is the tube then that might be the way to go. Make sure that the case you are buying is a SINGLE plastic tube with a fabric divided interior. NOT A FOAM CORE with HOLES. You want to be able to see the interior and verify that it is made of essentially a fabric bag with slots.

Good luck and I look forward to seeing your cases,

John
 
Last edited:
Can I also make a suggestion to all aspiring case makers who are reading this?

Study your craft.

Take this as advice or chastisement if you will but before you come here asking everyone for advice on where to source the materials, and how to construct the case, do your homework. Figure out what you need, buy some cases and take them apart.

It's not fair to expect to get everyone here to work for you. Jack Justis, me, and plenty of other case makers have paid their dues by having to find out the hard way. We don't mind the occasional question but and this is me speaking personally, but not being asked to provide essentially a blueprint to cue case making.

So learn your craft.

Am I being mean? You bet I am. Because to me the information is out there, especially with Google and other search engines able to help you find the information you need.

When you dear aspiring case maker say that you don't know where to get the tube which is the foundation of your cases then I have to ask how serious are you? I guess that I have always approached this craft from the idea that you start with the cue and figure out what to wrap it in and then layer on top of that. I can't really wrap my brain around going the other direction by thinking about how the exterior should be first and then trying to find the interior. I suppose it can work that way as well but to me you can dream up all the cases you want but you need the solid interior to put them on first.

Well, anyway, this rant is over. Don't get me wrong, I like helping people and I converse regularly with several new case makers.

Take it as you like.

John Barton - mean grouchy case case maker :-)
 
Nostroke said:
What happened in those 23 minutes?
Click to expand...

I just got pissy when I realized that people want to make stuff that they don't or won't study.

Where do I buy leather, where do I buy rivets, where do I buy tubing?

Where do you think you buy tubing? From a manufacturer of tubing or their distributors.

Where do I find these manufacturers?

Google the subject - learn about extrusion molded tubing, learn what a profile is, learn the various plastics, spend some time to figure it out.

Turns out Damon wants to make the GTF - It's George - Fellini type of case. This type of case is made of two extrusion tubes where one is nested inside another one to make the slip cover lid. He doesn't want to make the Flowers' style multi-tube cases, he doesn't want the Justis-style fabric interior in a single large tube. He wants specifically the GTF style tubing, as do many others according to the emails I get.

The problem is that this particular profile is not common and it's not something that is in use in the general marketplace. So the people who have those tubes had to invest in molds to have the tubes made and also there is often a minimum buy because once you prep the injection machine you want to run it for a minimum amount of time to recoup the prep-time and cleaning time investment.

This is why there aren't very many people who make this type of case.

But what IRKS me is that Damon didn't ASK for that type of tubing - so I and others provided information that he wasn't even looking for.

So again, dear aspiring case makers. Do your homework.
 
Dont know how this would work...i know it will be a little more expensive, but try looking into buing some carbon fiber tubes....I dunno, just a thought
 
bdr1010 said:
I am also looking for the outer section of the case. The portion that will hold the tubes in place that I will wrap my final outer material around.
Click to expand...

That's custom stuff - as I mentioned, Hangemhigh might have information on who will make them for you on a contract order. He is in touch with a former casemaker who used Fellini style shells.

As John says, you will have to have them made custom with minimums. This is a bad style of case to try to make in small quantities.

Chris
 
Nostroke said:
What happened in those 23 minutes?
Click to expand...

The TWO FACES of John Barton!

Maybe it's the confusion of looking like an American, but acting like a Chinaman.

Let me see: If their yellow on the outside but white on the inside, they're called Bananas.

I'm not sure what you call them if they're white on the outside, but yellow on the inside.

Perhaps another AZer could help me out here.
 
bdr1010 said:
I am looking to start making a few cases on my own. I have the outer materials already and I am looking for a supplier for the inner workings of pool cue cases, the hard plastic tubings, and the outer shell to which I will attach my final materials to. I would like them to be oval as I am just building 1x2 cases designs to start. Anyone have any suppliers for anything like this, please let me know. Thanks!
Click to expand...

With so many cases out there you should try something a little different. If I was to make a case like those with the plastic tubes I would instead make hardened leather tubes. You would just have to make form to produce them. Just an idea to do something that is not just the, same old-same old.
 
Pool Player 101 said:
The TWO FACES of John Barton!

Maybe it's the confusion of looking like an American, but acting like a Chinaman.

Let me see: If their yellow on the outside but white on the inside, they're called Bananas.

I'm not sure what you call them if they're white on the outside, but yellow on the inside.

Perhaps another AZer could help me out here.
Click to expand...

It must be really tough for you to wake up each morning and look in the mirror knowing that you are a loser in life and have no ability to change it.

And it must hurt even more to know that you are a loser stalker as well since you apparently hang on every word I say looking for any opportunity (in your mind) to attack me.

Well, if that's what gets you going then great, I will continue to be me and you can continue to hang around and get your jollies by stalking me through the forum.
 
JB Cases said:
It must be really tough for you to wake up each morning and look in the mirror knowing that you are a loser in life and have no ability to change it.

And it must hurt even more to know that you are a loser stalker as well since you apparently hang on every word I say looking for any opportunity (in your mind) to attack me.

Well, if that's what gets you going then great, I will continue to be me and you can continue to hang around and get your jollies by stalking me through the forum.
Click to expand...


:clapping::clapping::clapping:
 
macguy said:
With so many cases out there you should try something a little different. If I was to make a case like those with the plastic tubes I would instead make hardened leather tubes. You would just have to make form to produce them. Just an idea to do something that is not just the, same old-same old.
Click to expand...

It's an idea but not quite as "easy" as you might think. Look up Viking Helmets on google or leatherworkers.net to find out the process for hardening leather. If you want to make small diameter "tubes" which will hold their shape indefinitely then they need to be impervious to water/moisture. Getting them to this stage is the hard part.

Not to mention that the footprint of the resulting case would be pretty large when you consider the thickness of the leather needed to hold shape. For a shaft you need at least 20mm diameter. You would need leather that's at least 2mm thick to wrap around a 20mm diameter rod to shape it and the resulting tube would probably be around 24/25mm thick. Additionally leather is not always the same thickness throughout the piece. So there might be an issue of consistency.

Believe me when I tell you that using plastic tubes is far easier.

I say this as one who has tried many many many ways to build a case.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top