CuriousInventor points out this head-slappingly simple substitute for standoffs – likely of interest to anyone whose marvelled at how much these bits of hardware can actually cost –
Tan Tran came up with a cheap substitute for aluminum standoffs: nylon tubing. Polyethylene does a decent job too, and can be had for under $.10 a foot at your local hardware store. The 1/4″ OD (outside diameter) stuff shown in these pics accommodates up to #8 size screws.
6 thoughts on “How-To: Cheap standoffs from nylon tubing”
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Been doing this for years.
I found some tubing that is rather stiff on surplus. The stiffness makes it better if you apply a lot of force when screwing. (Oh, ha ha.) One funny surprise it that the surplus tubing I found glows in the dark.
I have used the body of disposable pens for the same purpose. Just cut what you need.
I did this years ago. The only hard thing is getting the tubing cut to a consistent length, which is a lot harder than it would seem.
A proper jig for turning out many identical lengths would be much better than trying to do this by hand.