I had been intending to make some developing tubes for 12x20, but with life's distractions that had slid off my radar until just recently. Today with renewed vigor I went to Home Depot in search of some 4" ABS pipe. There was no one working in the plumbing section. No one. And the other employees I asked seemed quite annoyed. Well, the heat is hard on us all. Seriously.
So I asked at the customer service desk. The only 4" ABS pipe that individual could find was some 24-inch lengths. But, I thought, that would be perfect because I need sections 20 inches long + about 10% so that my film isn't smack up against the end of the tube. Perfect! So at $9.95 per, I asked to order two (this is special order now). And the guy's computer wouldn't take the order. So I said, OK, please order one piece twice. Easy enough, right? But their system still wouldn't take it. We were both thinking it's an inventory problem. And a phone call later we found out that's what it was. Only, it would have been nice if their computer said that specifically or at least returned an obvious error code. (This is why I'm not a programmer. Because I would have to work with people who implement programs like that!
But back to the task at hand: In fact, the only 4-inch black ABS pipe that Home Depot had (then or now) was one 24-inch section in a warehouse somewhere.
OK, one piece would make one tube. But one tube will develop exactly one piece of film. And that's not the sort of throughput I'm looking for. I wanted to make two tubes. Still not rocking the production numbers, but I'm trying to be optimistic.
Thanked the employee and left to try Lowe's Home Improvement where I never have much optimism based on an incident three years ago which I won't go into. (You're welcome.) And amazingly Lowe's had good inventory with sizes up to 4-inches diameter. But a 10-foot section was more than I could deal with 'cause I drive a VW Golf, not a Ram 2500. That was $33.97. They did have a 5-foot section: exactly half as much material for $28.97. Strange arithmetic!... Much as it pained me to pay Lowe's the vastly inflated per-foot-price, I sucked it up and did just that. Then I even found an employee who was willing (sort of) to cut that piece in half so I could get it all in my car. I even found the other necessary accoutrements to finish out the project, including the proper cement and headed home feeling less than enthused about the whole thing. It must have been the heat. But I couldn't help wondering just how did we ever get to the moon?
So, is ABS pipe on the way out? PVC seems vastly favored by the inventories I've seen here. True, I did finally find what I was looking for, but I had to go to a lot of effort. I was honestly surprised that Home Depot was almost completely void of ABS...
So, to those planning a similar project, a word of warning!
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Originally Posted by Jeroen
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