[TowerTalk] telescoped tubing -- followup

[W0UN -- John Brosnahan <shr@swtexas.net>]

I received a number of responses--some on the reflector and many direct to me.
  ---   THANKS

Just thought I would add a few comments and summarize.  BTW  I always use an
anti-oxidant when assembling tubing--such as Noalox.  I did not assemble these
tubes and I don't know if any antioxidant was used or not.

In any case the tubing will be used as part of my 40M array and I have no extra
pieces so I need to salvage every piece if possible.  Since it is the stronger
2024-T3 (and much more expensive) with a special heat treatment I want to be
very careful about just how hot I get it if I try to do some differential 
heating.

I appreciate the comments on WD-40 which confirm my own experience--that
it is not that good of a lubricant.  And I don't plan to use it.

My need for a large amount is so that I can take a piece of PVC pipe as 
long as
the tubing and fill it with the penetrating lubricant and let the tubing 
soak in it for as
long as it takes to wick into the (virtually non-existent) gap between the 
two tubes.

The smaller diameter of tubing is six feet long and the larger diameter is 
four feet
long.  So I have good access to the "tail" of the smaller stuff to affix a 
clamp.  And
machined some cold-rolled bar stock a number of years ago that would clamp
tightly to the tubing.

There were other diameters of this tubing that were also telescoped but not as
much and they seemed to have better gaps.  I think these two sizes were just
at the wrong end of the tolerance extremes and were probably pounded together
when they were originally assembled in the 1970s.   I was there, just not
directly involved when this project happened so I vaguely recall some of the
work done by others that included tapping them together.  So there is little
to no gap for any lubricate to wick.  Hence the desire to soak it for an 
extended
time to give any lube plenty of time to wick.

KROIL seems to be the product recommended by the largest number of
respondees.  Also mentioned is PB Blaster--something I have seen but never
tried.  Think I will add a can to my stock of good tricks.  Also mentioned was
POMotoroil that creeps.  I'll look into it as well.

So I will probably give KROIL a try first.  Some of the pipes are here in Texas
and some are still in Colorado.  I probably have 20 or so of these to work on--
so some up front effort is warranted since it will be "pro-rated" across the
large number of pipes to be separated.

Thanks for the help.

73--John   W0UN


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