RCH us made tubes?

[rp]

The best made US tubes were during the cold war, submini missile tubes.

[Leo_Gnardo]

Funny name for a company.

That was the first clue it was a joke.

[R.G.]

I have often thought that modern manufacturing techniques could make dynamite tubes, and probably cheaply in modest quantity.

The things that were heartbreakingly difficult back in the 50s and 60s are done effortlessly by programmable and automated devices these days. Even things that require many replicas of intricate things yield to the CNC laser/water-jet/plasma cutters and so on.

The 50s and 60s were all about hard-tooling automation. You want more than 100 of something? You build a machine with cams and levers and precision-machined reference surfaces, spending most of a precision machine shop for a year doing it.

Today, you tell the computer where to cut and fold. You might need to use a custom forming die, but those can be EDM machined by a CNC EDM.

Then there's the whole idea of re-engineering a tube. A tube is a glass button with wires sticking up out of it, and coils of wires wound on the "posts" and a plate held around the whole mess. That's fragile and expensive to do with any precision. They didn't have precision wire meshes at all back then. How about making a grid out of an actual grid of laser-machined 0.002" thick metal, not winding fine wire on posts?

Sigh. I guess I'm doomed to be a designer all my life. There isn't anything that couldn't be redesigned better. Ever.

[JMFahey]

Just wait till ya see how much the price of Russian made tubes are going to go up due to the crap going on over there, in fact trade commerce with them my be curtailed soon!

You may be much closer than you thought

Se what happens with an even more typically Russian product starts being blocked .... and I'm not talking Stolichnaya Vodka:

http://time.com/3676702/ak-47-kalashnikov-rifles/

as they mention there, gives a whole new meaning to:
"borrrrrrrrnnnnn innn theee UUUU SSSSSS AAAAAA !!!!

[TUBEDUDE]

I like my 7.62 to be 51mm, not 39mm.
Maybe with the thaw, we could get tube manufacturing ramped up in Cuba. Not every virgin in Havana is rolling tobacco on their thighs.

[Leo_Gnardo]

Se what happens with an even more typically Russian product starts being blocked .... and I'm not talking Stolichnaya Vodka:

http://time.com/3676702/ak-47-kalashnikov-rifles/

Well it's about time! Since the mid 90's USA has been handing out akays + ammo + piles of cash to just about anybody in the mid east who can wrap a towel around their head, as long as they're not shooting at us "at the moment." The idea being, we can buy their friendship. Y'know, 'cause that always works.... "Here's a pile of cash, a dozen bank paks of 100,000 $ each, and a stack of '47s and a truck full of ammo. We're friends now Chief, don't forget, you're not supposed to shoot at us now."

And where do we buy the rifles? CHINA of course... Don't worry, the natives don't make a fuss, nobody's rejected one yet.

Late 60's Pentagon princes flooded the US military with miserable M-16 that loved to jam, needed constant maintenance, helluva weapon. "It's plastic, it's swell, it's Made By Mattel." That's what the range master told me. Yes, a little improvement here & there, the best being "burst" mode but still finicky compared to a '47 you can bury in mud, wash it out and you're good to go.

- - - - -

About Russian tubes, recent events have undermined what small value the ruble has, and that "should" reduce prices. But import of Russian tubes is a monopoly (New Sensor) and I wouldn't put it past ol' Mikey to accidentally turn the exchange ratio on its head. Plus there's NS's recent practice of carrying China made tubes besides Russian. Now I see another reason why: if Russian supply becomes difficult, they'll start romping on the Chinese ones. I wonder what labels they'll paint on those?

[darryl_h]

I noticed the RCH site is down...

The RCH site is still online: http://www.rchlabs.com/

There are no signs of any progress though. Maybe the venture capital didn't materialise?

[Stevem]

There site is nothing more than pictures! I can get as much info on there products from a box cracker jacks for God`s sake!