Last week I notice that one of the surgical tubes on my Bubble Magus dosing pump started leaking from the pump that dosed alkalinity. I knew that I didn't want to let this go because if I did I would be back to manually dosing, and once you automate, you don't want to go back to doing anything manually again.
I started researching to find a suitable replacement for the tubing, thinking that I would be able to find lots of threads on the subject and surprisingly enough, I couldn't find much. I asked on RC and got some info on a couple companies that may sale tubing that works. Someone posted the ID and OD of the tube and with that I ordered 8 feet of this
from McMasters:
Part Number: 5347K21
ID: 2mm
OD: 4mm
Wall Thickness: 1mm
Bend Radius: 7mm
Cost Per Foot: $0.57
The company is just south of us, I literally placed the order right before lunch today and when I got home from work the package was sitting at my door. Talk about quick!
Here's the step by step:
First things first, each one of those heads have 4 tabs, 2 on the top/bottom and 2 on the sides, the 2 that are on the sides clamp the head to the controller. All you have to do is get a good grip with your thumb and index finger and squeeze the tabs while pulling the head back away from the controller, slide it all the way back until it's completely detached from the motors shaft.
Now that it's detached you can now start to disassemble the entire head, squeeze the 2 tabs on the top/bottom and this is where it was tricky to pry the 2 pieces apart, I luckily was able to get a fingernail in there to pry it apart enough to use a butter knife to get it the rest of the way.
the rest is fairly straight forward, remove the disc that aligns the 3 rollers
Remove the 3 rollers, make note of which way they came out
Now the old tube can come out
Remove the plastic clips that are on the old tube
Remove the adapters
As you can see, the tube has seen better days, the definitely needed to be replaced.
Here's the new tube. it's obvious that this isn't surgical tube, however the new tubing is pretty soft and seems that it will work as a suitable substitute. Time will tell...
Unravel some and cut to the approximate length, you definitely don't have to be accurate, just as long as you don't cut it too short
Now you put it back together in reverse order
Put those clips back into the case
Now I found this to be a very important step, You have to make sure you can rotate that disc, this aligns everything up, if you were to put it all together and you didn't align the tubing, you will either burn the electrical motor or ruin the rollers.
So give it a couple spins to ensure movement, it won't spin easily so you have to give it some delicate pressure.
Once you're happy with it align everything and snap it into place
Attach the head back to the unit ensuring you hear the clicks of the tabs
do that to all of them and it should last another couple years
One thing to also note is that to my knowledge the company doesn't sell just the tubing you have to buy the whole head unit and they are ~$20 a piece. After taking it apart I now realize why. The rollers have a thin rubber layer around them for the motor shaft to grip as it drives the rollers. That thin rubber layer obviously wears down and once it does the motors shaft will start to slip and ultimately stop driving the rollers altogether.
I started researching to find a suitable replacement for the tubing, thinking that I would be able to find lots of threads on the subject and surprisingly enough, I couldn't find much. I asked on RC and got some info on a couple companies that may sale tubing that works. Someone posted the ID and OD of the tube and with that I ordered 8 feet of this
from McMasters:
Part Number: 5347K21
ID: 2mm
OD: 4mm
Wall Thickness: 1mm
Bend Radius: 7mm
Cost Per Foot: $0.57
The company is just south of us, I literally placed the order right before lunch today and when I got home from work the package was sitting at my door. Talk about quick!
Here's the step by step:
First things first, each one of those heads have 4 tabs, 2 on the top/bottom and 2 on the sides, the 2 that are on the sides clamp the head to the controller. All you have to do is get a good grip with your thumb and index finger and squeeze the tabs while pulling the head back away from the controller, slide it all the way back until it's completely detached from the motors shaft.
Now that it's detached you can now start to disassemble the entire head, squeeze the 2 tabs on the top/bottom and this is where it was tricky to pry the 2 pieces apart, I luckily was able to get a fingernail in there to pry it apart enough to use a butter knife to get it the rest of the way.
the rest is fairly straight forward, remove the disc that aligns the 3 rollers
Remove the 3 rollers, make note of which way they came out
Now the old tube can come out
Remove the plastic clips that are on the old tube
Remove the adapters
As you can see, the tube has seen better days, the definitely needed to be replaced.
Here's the new tube. it's obvious that this isn't surgical tube, however the new tubing is pretty soft and seems that it will work as a suitable substitute. Time will tell...
Unravel some and cut to the approximate length, you definitely don't have to be accurate, just as long as you don't cut it too short
Now you put it back together in reverse order
Put those clips back into the case
Now I found this to be a very important step, You have to make sure you can rotate that disc, this aligns everything up, if you were to put it all together and you didn't align the tubing, you will either burn the electrical motor or ruin the rollers.
So give it a couple spins to ensure movement, it won't spin easily so you have to give it some delicate pressure.
Once you're happy with it align everything and snap it into place
Attach the head back to the unit ensuring you hear the clicks of the tabs
do that to all of them and it should last another couple years
One thing to also note is that to my knowledge the company doesn't sell just the tubing you have to buy the whole head unit and they are ~$20 a piece. After taking it apart I now realize why. The rollers have a thin rubber layer around them for the motor shaft to grip as it drives the rollers. That thin rubber layer obviously wears down and once it does the motors shaft will start to slip and ultimately stop driving the rollers altogether.
