How to make corrugated culverts from tin foil.

[craigolio1]

Hey all.

I need corrugated metal culverts for my railway. This idea popped into my head a while back and now that I have a need I decided to give it a try.

It’s very likely someone else has thought of already. I didn’t search it up so I don’t know but anyway, here is my variation of corrugated convert.

Start with heavy duty foil and cut come into squares.





Grab some bolts with tight thread spacing… mine are left overs from TV wall mounts. These two will scale out to about 3ft and 5ft diameter.



Wrap the foil around a bolt, where it will over lap, trim it to a few millimetres and apply a bit of CA in the overlap. Then with your thumbnail gently great the grooves by threading the bolt intn between your fingers. I found it helpful to leave a bit of foil on the end to act as a handle.



Grab the handle, jiggle a bit to loosen it and unscrew the bolt from the foil.

Voila, corrugated culverts.



Enjoy!! 

Craig

[CRL]

I’ve tried that method before. Problem is they’re extremely fragile & easily crushed after they’ve been installed. Using a similar technique to produce corrugated iron roofing panels, you can add a bit of clear nail polish to the backside of the panel to add some strength, but very hard to do with the culverts.

[craigolio1]

I’ve tried that method before. Problem is they’re extremely fragile & easily crushed after they’ve been installed. Using a similar technique to produce corrugated iron roofing panels, you can add a bit of clear nail polish to the backside of the panel to add some strength, but very hard to do with the culverts.

Indeed they are fragile. Mine will ultimately be protected dome fingers by trees but I will need to be super careful until that time.

Here they are installed.







Craig

[N Scale Train Boy]

I wonder if you could double or triple up the foil to give a little more rigidity without losing the corrugation?

[eja]

How about using clear fuel tubing and run that though a nut to create the corrugations?  Sure it would need painting, but would not be fragile.

No idea if this would work ... just a thought  that randomly enter the mind.... 

[Tom L]

A long, long time ago, I made some by putting a straw on a screw of slightly smaller size, then heating it so that the straw would shrink down over the threads. You could then unscrew it to get it off and paint it silver.

I do not remember where I read about this, maybe Model Railroader? Anyway, it took a few to get the heat right and not destroy it (I think I used a lighter while turning the screw/straw to evenly distribute the heat).

That layout is long gone but I remember they looked decent, especially when sceniced, and were pretty durable

Tom L
Wellington CO

[craigolio1]

A long, long time ago, I made some by putting a straw on a screw of slightly smaller size, then heating it so that the straw would shrink down over the threads. You could then unscrew it to get it off and paint it silver.

I do not remember where I read about this, maybe Model Railroader? Anyway, it took a few to get the heat right and not destroy it (I think I used a lighter while turning the screw/straw to evenly distribute the heat).

That layout is long gone but I remember they looked decent, especially when sceniced, and were pretty durable

Tom L
Wellington CO

Oh that’s a great idea!

Craig

[MK]

Use a heat shrink tube instead of a straw.  More heat tolerant.

[JeffB]

I wonder if you could double or triple up the foil to give a little more rigidity without losing the corrugation?

You can also buy heavy duty aluminum crafter's foil.  It's 0.07mm thick (about 0.0028") which is 2-3X thicker than heavy duty aluminum foil.  You can find it on Amazon.

I saw a video some time back where a large scale modeler used it for forming corrugated roofing sheets.

Jeff

[Stolen Moment]

I saw a video some time back where a large scale modeler used it for forming corrugated roofing sheets.

Jeff

I've seen this technique used to make roof patches for demotored/deblistered RDCs as well.  In this case, the roof itself was used to make the matching corrugations.

[craigolio1]

You can also buy heavy duty aluminum crafter's foil.  It's 0.07mm thick (about 0.0028") which is 2-3X thicker than heavy duty aluminum foil.  You can find it on Amazon.

I saw a video some time back where a large scale modeler used it for forming corrugated roofing sheets.

Jeff

I saw a video where a large scale modeller used crafters foil but figured there’s no way that I could get the fine ribs that I got with aluminum foil. Same would be the case for a straw or shrink tubing or I would think. The ones I made are SO fragile. If they don’t survive the rest of the scenery process I’ll look for alternatives but I’m hopeful I can make them work as they have the look I’m going for.

Made a bit more progress today.



Craig.

[davefoxx]

There was an article in Model Railroader many years ago about using foil to create culvert pipe.  The article even showed how to weather and even etch the pipes for really beat-up, rusted out culverts.

DFF

[Mark5]

There was an article in Model Railroader many years ago about using foil to create culvert pipe.

Yup - definitely not a new thing. Effective method me thinks. 

[JeffB]

I a video with with a large scale Moeller I’m using crafters foil but figured there’s no way that I could get the fine ribs that I got with aluminum foil. Same would be the case for a straw or shrink tubing or I would think.

Use what works best for you...  I've not tried the technique.  Just relayed the info. 

There's a couple of tools out there for making corrugated stuff from foils.  I could definitely see where you wouldn't get as fine a result with the heavier foil, but I would think it would depend on the forming process.  I know the old HO scale Campbell corrugated material was made with a heavier material than heavy duty kitchen foil, I'm just not sure how they made it, or how thick the material was that they used.

There was a video or article somewhere where the guy 3D printed forming rollers and made his own corrugating machine.  It's on the "bucket list" for things to do.

Jeff

[craigolio1]

Thanks for the input everyone!