What are the black fittings mounted at the ends of the tubing on the PPD/injector tubes/etc.? They look like bits of the loom tubing but on most pictures, they look like they’re a smaller diameter than the 1/4".
Also, while I’m asking, just to be clear: the two fittings where the tubing connects to the PPD are the Alkon AQ68-P Male Connectors, right?
Are you talking about the black part on the end of the tubing? That is wire loom.
You can buy it at the store:
I believe the fittings were originally thought to be Alkon fittings, and I think they are still listed as such in Stephans plans, but those are way out of date. The fittings that are attached (technically behind) the PPD are Legris 4mm straight fittings. The shop sells beautiful brass replicas of them (those are the two small fittings with red wires going to the 1) HGA and 2) Legris elbow on the cyclotron. The black ribbed pieces on each end of the blue tubing that connects the PPD to the Large resistor on the Ion Arm is, as robandliv says, ¼" split loom.
OK, thank you. The pictures I’ve been looking at make the 1/4" loom tubing attached to the colored tubing look a lot smaller than the longer lengths of the 1/4" tubing. That’s good to know.
Also, thanks for the correction on the straight fittings. Of course, the plans I have make it very clear that the straight fittings are attached to the EDA box but apparently I overlooked that.
One more question: are the Legris elbows on the HGA and the cyclotron the same size as the elbow on the ion arm?
Yes
Awesome. That greatly simplifies things.
Sorry, was in a rush! Yes, on the GB1 packs, the elbows were first gen 4mm Legris elbows. They are pretty much unicorns in the pack building realm. The SMC elbows the shop offers are very close and I think some members might offer resin casts of the originals. The GB2 packs (some of them) had the gen 1 on he cyclotron but gen 2 elbows on the HGA and ion arm.
Good to know. I’m not aiming for 100% screen accuracy anyway.
OK, here’s my next question about the tubing: I’ve got drip tubing at work that will most likely be paintable. The 1/4" tubing is .17" ID and .25" OD, while the 1/8" tubing is .118" ID and .17" OD. Would those work?
I’ve picked up a roll of 3/4" pond tubing at work. I’m not sure how well it will work compared to the real deal wire loom since I have no frame of reference, but it fits the 1" PVC pipe perfectly, so that’s a definite positive. Plus, for a 20’ roll, it’s cheaper than getting two packs’ worth from the website here.
Does anyone have any opinions on how well that tubing works as a substitute? If the opinions are strongly negative, I can always return it.
Never used it before… Though I always got my loom from eBay
Another PPD question: is the hole for the tubing in the PPD parallel to the sides of the PPD or perpendicular to the angled face or some other angle? I assumed in was straight down the center but in some pictures it looks angled to the point of entry.
Straight down. At least, that’s how I have always seen it
It’s straight down… some builds you can see the hole on the other end…
Great! Thanks guys for the info.
After having acquired all of my fittings and tubing through a very helpful seller on eBay, I’m about ready to start attaching most (or at least some) of my tubing. Obviously the tubing was sent in complete lengths, rather than pre-cut sizes. Obviously I won’t be attaching every piece of the tubing, but is there a guide out there listing to which lengths each tubing needs to be cut for the packs? I need a yardstick to go by, but I’ll probably need to fudge the numbers a bit to account for the packs being scratch-built.