Rubens Tube - Finding a One Inch Reducer and PTC

[012anonymousx]

Hello and thanks! I apologize in advance if I picked the wrong place to post this thread.
I'm a high school student building a Rubens tube and have encountered a problem:
I have a one inch outside diameter aluminum tube.
It turns out that the one inch copper reducer and PTC I bought is actually 1 and an eight inches using the standard imperial system. For some reason... the one inch for each metal is different! Ugh!

I request help. Aluminum is used for curtain rods and building light materials. As a result, it does not have PTC adapters and reducers.
Where can I go for fittings that follow the typical imperial system? I've visited home depot and they only have copper fittings and pvc ptc fittings are illegal anyway.

Any work-around solutions are also welcome!

Side note: PTC adapter is a push to connect adapter for connecting plastic tubes into.

 

[Q_Goest]

Try compression or flared tube fittings. "Tubing" has an OD that is equal to the nominal size. Pipe has an OD that differs from the nominal size. Copper pipe (sometimes called copper tube) also has an OD that differs from the nominal size, but it has a different OD than standard pipe.

Also, tubing comes in both metric and imperial sizes, so you need a compression or flared tube fitting that's made for imperial sized tubing. Since this is aluminum at very low pressure, you should find that brass compression fittings are the least expensive and easiest way to go. Have a look in the McMaster Carr catalog or online anywhere for compression fittings. Just make sure you look for "tube" size fittings, not pipe size fittings.

 

[012anonymousx]

This is probably very late but I hope you get to see it. I had 4 tough exams and a lot of summatives due.
I thank you so very much for this post, and I appreciate all the help. I am in the process of looking at them and will let you know (if you care) how it goes.