fancy steampunk blunderbuss rifle

Step 9 The tubing and swirls

The tubing and swirls were from a brass chandelier I found cheap. It had 12 arms on it so I had lots of swirls and tubing and electrical hardware nuts and threads to use (easy to buy more though, you have to get them at the electrical part of the hardware store, for some reason the wood section nuts and bolts all have different styles of threads, luckily the electrical department standardized their sizes)

The wire comes out of the tubing much easier if the tube is straighter, and don't try to twist it.

Disassemble the chandelier except the swirl part.

You can bend the tubing by hand without folding it if you are careful. I proper machine would have been nice.

I used a railing outside covered with snowpants to pad it. Any thick fabric would work though but they were just inside the door).

To bend, put the tube at the beginning and bend a little over the rail. Move down an inch and bend slightly. Repeat bending only about 10% per time every inch, until you get what you want, REALLY SLOWLY or the tube will fold and crease and look like crap. (I got better on the second one). The tighter the bend the less far down the tube you should bend each time.

This will be the hardest part not to screw up. (buy a chandelier with lots of arms...)

Comments

[Mr. Blisters]

If you've got room in your freezer, plug one end of your tube, fill it with water and freeze it. You can then bend it without creasing/crumpling it (old trumpet-maker's trick)

[Arty Marty]

You can also fill pipe with sand (packed tight) for the same effect - makes it a lot easier to bend and not kink. (and you don't need a huge freezer or to wait hours for water to turn to ice) but I like the ice idea, never thought of that....

[Arty Marty]

By the way, the project looks amazing, and looking forward to the goggles 'ible!