blue label tube, yellow label tube… Got some vinyl tubing, now just have to make things fit!
updated 9/2/23 with more info and pics, plus formatting and seo
vinyl tubing and ice sculpting
Clear vinyl tubing has two main uses in ice sculpting. First, it’s used for most ice luges, where the tube is frozen into the ice sculpture and the drink travels into a funnel and down the clear vinyl tube. That’s what makes an ice sculpture an ice luge. (The other kind of ice luge doesn’t have a tube; it just has a track cut into the ice.) And then also, vinyl tubing is used to drain the ice sculpture display trays so that they don’t fill up.
The vinyl tubing that you use for the draining the display trays almost always comes with the tray when you buy it. When you buy the inexpensive “disposable” trays (I try not to throw them away until I get as many uses as possible from them.), you get a bunch of drain tubes and connectors with them. When you buy an expensive hard plastic display tray, like the ones from Cal-Mil, you get one drainage tube. And actually, although I haven’t checked lately, the drain tubes from Cal-Mil are probably not clear vinyl tubing. I think the last time I saw them they were black. But that’s not really important…
If you need vinyl tubing for an ice luge though, you have to go out and get it yourself, or order it online. The simplest way is usually to stop by a big hardware store like Lowes or Home Depot and grab a roll from the plumbing department. That’s what I often do, since there’s a Home Depot very close to my studio. However, I may rethink how I do things pretty soon. (See down below in the post.)
Regardless of how you get the vinyl tubing, when you’re getting it, you’re faced with a wide range of sizes. But for the most part, there are only one or two sizes that you need: the size that fits the funnel you’re using for ice luges and maybe the size that fits the drain connector on your ice display tray(s).
For me, I use the luge funnels from Ice Crafters, so I use 5/16″ID; 7/16″OD tubing for my luges because it fits the best. You COULD use 3/8″ID; 1/2″OD, but it’s not a tight fit and the funnel is likely to fall out. Ice Crafters used to sell slightly different size funnels so my tubing preference has changed lately. I do use 3/8″ID; 1/2″OD for my drain tubes though, since I almost always use the inexpensive single-use trays so that I don’t have to waste time and gas to go back and get them.
one of the little luge funnels that I get from Ice Crafters. 5/16″ID; 7/16″OD tubing works best for them.
Now I know the tubing dimensions that I’m talking about are only good in the U.S., since we use inches, but that’s all that I have any experience with, since I’ve never made an ice luge on one of my overseas ice sculpting trips. So all the dimensions you’ll see here are pretty much U.S. only. And the “ID” stands for “inside diameter” while “OD” stands for outside diameter.
It used to be that all the tubing manufacturers seemed to have agreed on a color coding system for the sizes. I used to just go grab the yellow coded tubing for drain tubes, for example. But it looks like they’ve abandoned that system. So now you have to actually look at the dimensions to make sure you’re grabbing the right vinyl tubing.
When I’m buying vinyl tubing, I’m always buying tubing that’s labeled “food-safe,” meaning it’s fine for drinks. I talk a little more about that below.
rolls of vinyl tubing at a Lowes big box store. I use the tubing on the left for tray drainage and the tubing on the right for luge tubing.
tubing tricks
Ok, now that we’ve done all the background on vinyl tubing and ice sculpting, we can get to the tricks that were promised in the post title. Hopefully you weren’t expecting some awesome tricks that you never could have thought of yourself. But they’re helpful.
The vinyl tubing usually comes in rolls. The problem with that is that you usually want luge tubing to be straight. Or at least you want it to be pretty straight when it comes out of the ice at the bottom of the luge. You can straighten tubing some by heating it and then letting it hang down straight from something while it cools.
I usually put luge tubes in a big bowl of water in the microwave and then microwave it for 8 minutes. Then I take the tubes out and hang them up so they’re ready for me to put them in the luge tracks that I cut. I have a 💩 microwave though, so you may not have to heat them as long as I do.
If the tube is already in the luge and it’s not coming out straight at the bottom, you can fit a short section of a larger size tubing over the exit tube. If it fits right and you put it on correctly, it can straighten out the tube if you just leave it on there. You can also do this if people are taking shots straight from the luge tube. Replacing the short section of larger tubing for each new person definitely makes things more sanitary.
Short sections of larger vinyl tubing can also be used to splice together tubes, as long as the fit is pretty tight. And you can also use a short section of larger vinyl tubing as an adapter if a larger funnel won’t fit, for example. You might have to do this if you like the cheap luge funnels that I talk about in another post.
Another way to splice tubes is to use the drain connectors that you get with single use trays. You don’t even have to use the whole connector, just the threaded nipple.
Finally, if you use the plastic connectors for vinyl tubing, you can make some interesting tracks for your luges. I have an example of this in my ring ice luge design.
sometimes other sizes of vinyl tubing are very useful. This larger tubing, for example, can be used to splice or extend sections of 3/8″ID, 1/2″OD tubing (in the pic above). You might want to do that if your drainage tubing won’t reach a container to hold the meltwater.
this is one of the connectors that you get when you buy single use display trays. Weirdly, it’s adapted from a lamp part. But you can use one to splice together 2 sections of 3/8″ID;1/2″OD drain tubing if a single tube isn’t long enough for drainage.
potential issues with vinyl tubing
Ok, virtually all of the clear vinyl tubing that I’ve run across has been food-safe, meaning that it’s intended for use with consumable drinks (like vodka shots from an ice luge). I can’t say though, that the tubing that you get with your plastic display trays is made of the same food-safe stuff. I actually think that sometimes it’s not. I will confess that ONE TIME (ok, maybe 2x), I used a drain tube as a luge tube for an ice luge. I’m really ashamed about it though and I’ll never do it again! ✌️
Probably I mentioned above that one way to unbend vinyl tubing is to heat it for a bit. One sculptor recommended simmering it in a pot with water for a bit, but I just put it in a large bowl of water in the microwave. Seems to be quicker. However, the tubing tends to turn white some when you heat it and I’m not totally sure this is a good thing. (It does go back to clear when it cools though.)
Doing some research, I was encouraged to find that at least some food-safe vinyl tubing can be autoclaved (which is significantly hotter than the microwaving that I was doing). So I’d tend to say right now that it’s probably ok to heat the tubing; meaning heating probably doesn’t release many undesirable chemicals.
However, I do know that vinyl tubing does outgas and I’m probably not the only one to notice this. All you have to do is store some vinyl tubing in box for a bit (weeks?) and then open it. You’ll smell what I mean, probably. But due to the outgassing, I’m not totally convinced that the tubing that I typically get is as chemically stable and nontoxic as I would like it to be. It’s at least pretty safe, I’m sure. But I’d like it to be very safe and I’m looking into that.
Along those lines, I did find out one troubling thing. Part of the vinyl tubing production process involves using fatty acids. These fatty acids generally come from cows. So the vinyl tubing you’re probably using, weirdly, is not vegan. Since I personally don’t eat meat and I’m also concerned about climate change, this is problematic for me. There is bovine-free vinyl tubing, however, so I’m also looking into that.
The bovine-free vinyl tubing also is apparently phthalate free also. Phthalates are chemicals that apparently have some detrimental health effects and it’s not a great idea to be exposed to them. Most vinyl tubing is not phthalate-free, although I do believe that the typical levels of exposure are within acceptable limits. But, something ELSE for you to worry about 😬😜
One reason that ice sculptures are awesome is that they’re so pure: almost 100% frozen water. If I can avoid putting other crap 💩 in and around my ice, I’m going to do that. It’s the same reason that I’m looking into biodegradable glitter. But it’s a work in progress and I’ll update when I know more.
links and random stuff
Well, you’ll definitely find this and other helpful posts on the ice sculpture techniques page. I don’t think I’ll put it on the ice sculpting tools page though. Since comments below probably don’t work yet, comment on the facebook page or on Instagram. Thanks!
