Excalibur tubes.

[Lato]

Hey everyone, the last few years i have built up quite a bit of excalibur tubes. Since they are all hdpe tubes i have kept them. I am looking for ideas on how to keep using them. Can i remove the square base and use them in racks? Just looking for ideas. Any tips or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

[Pyro Nation]

U can remove the bottoms. U can also build a rack with bottoms staying intact. Several of those around people have made

[Lato]

Thnx pyroliffic. That's what i wanted to do so great to know.

[Bluebones]

Or u could just sellem to me real cheap...:)

[mguerra]

I remove the reinforcing sleeve, cut off the square flange with a jigsaw, replace the reinforcing sleeve, and then build racks to fit. These racks are much bigger than the ones for fiberglass or regular HDPE because of the diameter of the reinforcing sleeve, but I like the beefiness of them! Once you build the rack and place the tubes, you can slide a spacer between adjacent tubes down untill it touches the top of the reinforcing tubes. Then screw it in to secure it. Now the tubes will NOT be able to jump up and out of the rack. Super secure racking.

[PuroJon]

I am way too lazy to cut or knock those bases off (smile). I use them to make easy poor man board racks like these. Overkill on the screws I know, but makes it easy to pick up the unit and sling it around without breaking the tubes off. Use 2-foot by 2-foot pieces of scrap 3/4" plywood and its so heavy and sturdy you won't need to anchor it down. This is a 12 shot, I also do them in 16 tubes. You can actually fit about 24 of them on a board as long as you overlap them. Its fun to chain together a dozen Excal shells and shoot them as a single cue.


http://www.pyroindiana.com/pyrotalk/Racks-01.jpg

http://www.pyroindiana.com/pyrotalk/Racks-02.jpg

[mguerra]

Watch out for overlapping the flanges. The center row of tubes are fully flat down on your board as they should be. The ones that are tipped up are not. The downward force of the lift charge can crack the flanges. I have had this exact thing happen on a board I constructed just like yours! Now, the Excalibur tubes and flange bases are much beefier than other tubes, but ultimately they can fail if not perfectly flat down on a surface. If you leave them like this, I would inspect them very carefully prior to each shoot...

On a separate note, there is a video out there showing a guy knocking the bases off Excalibur tubes with a hammer. In that video those must be a previous iteration of tube. The current Excal tubes are constructed in a way that prevents that. You have to saw them off.

[PuroJon]

I'll watch for the flange separation, have't see it yet. Have put maybe 10-12 shells through the one pictured and not had an issue, not heard anyone else make the same warning. Thanks for the heads up. I've known guys who've made & used these poor man racks for years - it wotjh the older style tubes.

And you are right on the removal. They changed the tubes in 2012 and you can't knock off the flange anymore. That's one reason I gave up on the removal idea and made these instead of risking my fingers to an ill-tempered jig saw... heh...

[paulcatucci]

Here is what I did.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_kZsUWWkS0

[mguerra]

Here is a video of how I made a mortar rack with Excal mortars:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehvcQiXO0Ik

[mguerra]

Here is another Excal mortar rack, a hard wired milk crate style:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rh3SSrbljZ0