7/16" ID 11/16" OD 1/8" Wall Tygon 3603

Well, the box of 7/16" ID, 11/16" OD, 1/8" walled Tygon 3603 I ordered finally arrived yesterday --almost exactly a month after I ordered it, this stuff is difficult to get! But, when comparing it to the 1/2" ID, 3/4" OD, 1/8" walled version it's definately worth the time and effort. It is noticably "smaller" and the 3/8" tighter bend radius makes a huge difference--or, at least it makes a huge difference visually. I'm about to take my V2100 apart for some long awaited upgrades (G5, 6800GT, NV-68, and the new tubing) so I'll post some new pics when I'm done and give an assessment of how well that tighter bend radius works in practice. Anyway, here are some pics of the tubing before I get started:

1. box
2. label
3. coiled tubing
4. bend radius (7/16" on left, 1/2" on right)

how much was it? where'd ya get it? any chance you could send me a sample to compare to my masterkleer?

crimedog said:

how much was it? where'd ya get it? any chance you could send me a sample to compare to my masterkleer?

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I got it from MG Scientific, but they don't stock it so it had to come from their supplier (who's seriously slow!!). The people at MG Scientific are very nice and friendly, answer phone calls promptly and, more importantly, return them when they're checking with the supplier. With shipping it was $155 per box, which works out to $3.10 per foot. That's a little more than the 1/2" ID version goes for retail, but I was going for the bend radius and that IS a big improvement.

How big of a sample do you want? I ended up ordering two boxes, one of which has arrived (The other should be here either next week or the week after--I did say their supplier was slow didn't I?), but I don't need the entire 50 feet in the first box right now, so I could spare some.

FWIW, the tighter bend radius didn't help as much as I'd hoped on the one real bad bend I've got in my system, but that was probably because I was fitting the 7/16" ID tubing over the 5/8" OD "barb" on my Iwaki which put a lot of strain on the turn, but it molded at least as well as the 1/2" did with some support so that wasn't a problem. However, it was fantastic where I had to snake it around the 6800GT and then come up from the bottom into the NV-68. I don't think the 1/2" ID, 3/4" OD could have done it. I'll add some pics after I do some leak testing.

wow that's expensive! i love my masterkleer though and i'd imagine the tygon is better. sorry it didn't fix your kink have you seen the coolsleeves? if you're feeling generous i'd love to try out 5' and pay for shipping but i haven't payed more than $1/ft in years

crimedog said:

wow that's expensive! i love my masterkleer though and i'd imagine the tygon is better. sorry it didn't fix your kink have you seen the coolsleeves? if you're feeling generous i'd love to try out 5' and pay for shipping but i haven't payed more than $1/ft in years

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No coolsleeves--those things are seriously ugly! I had to heat the Tygon to get it to stretch over the 5/8" Iwaki barb anyway, so I just heated another couple of inches of it, made the bend and then put a bunch of the little plastic hose clamps around the tubing where it was trying to kink, forcing it into a round shape. When the tubing cooled down the plastic clamps came off and the tubing held the new shape it was formed into. One of the things I really like about Tygon is that it is molds well and is very good about keeping the new shape it's put in.

Sorry, I'm not that generous! I've got two more systems this stuff is going in (one already built and one planned) and a couple of people expressed interest in getting some when I ordered it so I'm reserving some of it for them. I probably will put at least part of the second box in the classifieds though so if you change your mind....

Here's a pic of the "problem" bend. Amazing what this stuff can do!

Edit: I was just looking at my pic and realized that I don't have a clamp on that thing Considering what it took to get it on there I doubt it's going anywhere, but It's still going to get one. Right now.

Wow, expensive, I got mine from US Plastics, much cheaper and faster. I like this stuff much more than Masterkleer or Clearflex 60.

cetoole said:

Wow, expensive, I got mine from US Plastics, much cheaper and faster. I like this stuff much more than Masterkleer or Clearflex 60.

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What you got from US Plastics has a 3/32" wall and a 1.75" bend radius. This tubing has a 1/8" wall and a 1.375" bend radius... it's a very different critter. If you don't need to make any tight bends, definately go with the cheaper stuff, but if you have to make tight bends or are working is a small(er) case this tubing is a dream to work with. Also, even if you don't "need" to make tight bends, if you can significantly reduce the total amount of tubing in your system by doing so you'll see better performance with the shorter loop, so....

wow... just wow... now i can finally make the hellish bend from VGA block to chipset block that i was planning to do, but wasn't able to w/ either CF60 or Tygon 1/2" ID x 3/4" OD

i ve just made a new system with dd 1/2 inch tubing, its pretty good. I haven't used any other tubing before as its my first system, but it doesnt ovalise much when u bend it around 4 or 5 inches. The way mines layed out i dont need any tight bends anyway ,its only on the cpu at the mo.