ok, I made a little tool for the lathe and put a bearing in it because everything else I tried was too soft, I ran the corner of the bearing into the pipe at low speed and I did not fill the pipe with anything or use a mandrel. other than my eyeball spacing I think it looks pretty legit....
I want try and make a rippled pipe with the proper spacing. But I can't get near my corvette to measure the pipes. I literally have it 1 inch from the wall and my 40 is an inch away on the other side. (winter storage) I called @Bandit Billy on the phone and he is going to measure his for me after work.
That's pretty slick. Great idea. How does it work when you get farther away from the chuck? I can see it getting harder to maintain uniformity the farther down the tube you go.
I made a bushing for the other end so I can support it with a live center. I think that for the most part these never were very long. Maybe a foot or so....
Alright, @Bandit Billy called and left a message on the spacing. He said that it was .62 and that is was a spiral. I kinda thought that is how they were and now I am confused. were any of them individual like the sample I made above? Or were all of them one continuous spiral line (like a really coarse thread)???
Here is a pic of the spiral and the tight bead line, like a pizza cutter was used like @Moriarity said above. I do like the twist Mark put on those pipes above, they are much more "mechanical" looking if that makes sense.
Agree spiral or no spiral thats awesome. Ripple pipe was not spiraled and I dont remember all side pipes being spiraled but I just dont have anything but spiral pipe for reference. This has renewed my interest in this for sure. I think that pipe just the way you made it Mark would look absolutely beautiful in chrome. Us kustom guys need to remake this stuff as NOS supplies are all but dried up!
I wanna say these are old Fenton and I thought they were spiraled but dug them out and guess what? They’re not! Check it-
Looks like Mark has his retirement gig and Tuck who measures with a yard stick....come on man carpenter's are the only ones using fractions....
I actually think the no spiral looks better and more pronounced the spiral seems cheaper looking and they probably were actually cheaper to produce that way.
Same here, @Moriarity ! I don't even need the "kickstand" just two rippled pieces. Can I send you some 2.5" stainless and some $?
Brent, if Mark won't take you up on your offer you could always buy a Ridgid pipe cutter, dull the blade, layout your spacing then sit down with a beer and do it yourself. A little tedious but then so is TIG tacking and hammering and we all know that's worth the results.
Root- I hate to tell you this man but there is 36” in a yardstick, ... so technically it’s still classified as a #RULER
Down for a little over a week after surgery and come back to find this!! Wish my little bench top 1946 craftsman lathe was big enough to do this!!!
Ok, I made some more of these at .625 It doesn't look exactly the same to me but I kinda polished it with some scotchbrite and it kinda looks ok??
Wonder how this method would work Limited depth though unless you made the ripples in sections and tiged em in
The Jalopy Journal
