18 January 2024
Plastic Sleeve for Bamboo Poles
Hurry while stocks last! Sightings for the plastic sleeves for our clothes drying bamboo poles is rare in Singapore. Luckily, it is still widely used in Malaysia, so get some now!
I think the thermoplastic sleeves is made from PVC in a few solid colours. The appearance of the sleeve is a long flattened tube, measuring 4cm wide and 2m long. We put a bamboo pole in this sleeve and poured hot water over it to shrink fit the sleeve. It was very cheap and could be found in household goods from provision shops. Now that HDB is phasing out the use of bamboo poles, these sleeves are disappearing. It is possible to buy them online. Either as for bamboo poles or for battery packs.
I remember decades ago that these same sleeves were used for my Shuttle 30 helicopter blades. Now, since it shrinks around an object when heat is applied and does not seem to shrink further, it may be possible to use it for other aeromodelling purpose.
PVC density is heavier than water, but the sleeve is very thin, so if it is used sparingly, it can be used for: opaque canopies, shallow nose blocks, cowling, wing tips, turtledeck, front decking, wheel pants, etc. It can also be used for smaller flat embossed details such as louvre and grilles, propeller blades.
The thin PVC is flexible and may be used as flapping hinge since it returns to the original shape.
I went and bought some of this tube. Only $1.90 for 3 tubes of red, yellow, blue. It is too flexible for propeller blades.
OPP tape
Just googled and found that OPP tape is a common type of clear tape made mainly from polypropylene with high adhesive strength. It is transparent, lightweight, resistant to moisture, does not get cut easily because it has high tensile strength and sealing performance is great. Obvious use is flat/simple curved glazing?
No comments:
Post a Comment