Tubing Conduit
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| This is the underside of the Questra Industria section showing the tubing conduit installed. |
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| This polyethylene tubing can be purchased at home
improvement stores. It is available in several sizes, 1/4" is shown. I have seen it sold by the linear foot or in small packages.
It is stiff, but flexible enough to bend. |
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I have chosen one track which will feed electricity to another. Tubing is shown installed. Since I am using 1/4" tubing,
I drilled 1/4" holes in the track centers of the two tracks. Cut the tubing
to fit between the holes without being stretched or pulled tight. |
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When calculating the length of the tubing, take into account feeding it through support memebers. Use a 1/4" drill also
to drill passages. What makes this method so great is that once the tubing is routed through the holes, it stays in place,
does not have to be glued or nailed and can easily be removed if necessary, unlike attaching wires along each board and
over every board intersection. |
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Once the holes are drilled install one end of the tubing up through one hole, leave a bit protruding and secure with epoxy.
The epoxy can also be placed on the underside if the underside is accessible.
Once the epoxy has dried use a chisel blade to cut off the protrusion. |
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Only very short sections the tubing can be installed first and then have the wires fed through. Pieces longer than 12-18" require
that the wires be feed through the tubing before the tubing is installed. The limitation of this method is that wire cannot
easily be fed through long lengths. I have had to feed very small wire through first and us it to pull the track
feeder wires through. I even used larger diameter tubing and the friction problem still existed. On the board shown, on the longest
peice, I had to use two sections of tubing and then secure the ends of the tubing to the benchwork with clamps. |
Pros
- simple installation
- easy to remove
- wires are protected
- under the layout work is simple and fast, no soldering or screwing or nailing
Cons
- difficult to pull wires through long pieces of tubing
- wires cannot easily be spliced into
- tubing needs a termination medium, such as the benchwork, at its ends
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