Smoker Plumbing

[AlastairCooke]

Hi All
Although it is early days I am planning out the location of the smokers for my Tiger 1 kit. As I have an engine from Ivano my plan is to route the pipes along the side of the hull where the lower fuel tanks would be and have the smokers in the fighting compartment near the firewall. I was wondering what tubing to use and so am asking for advice on what works long term: copper/brass with soldered joints or flexible plastic?

Thanks,
Alastair

[Adrian Harris]

I don't believe there it makes any difference in the material used, but the longer the pipe run, the more time the smoke has to cool and condense on the pipes, so less smoke will appear at the exhausts.

It's also a good idea to try and route the pipe work so that any residue in the pipes can drain out. If you have the smoker on the hull floor, that will usually place it lower than the exhaust outlets, so it will need to drain back to the smoker. With Chieftain, the smokers are above the motors, so they might be high enough to drain out of the exhausts.

Adrian.

[Stephen White]

Good advice from Adrian. There’s a lot to be said for avoiding copper. The temptation is to use plumbing pipe work but you can get some larger bore neoprene tubing for model aircraft use. It is flexible for routing and reduces the condensation when cold compared with metal pipes. There is also a range of couplings and splitters available.

[AlastairCooke]

Hi Stephen and Adrian,
Thanks for the advice. I shall assemble one of the units and see if I can fit it where the lower fuel tanks would have been to shorten the pipe runs.

Alastair