# Magic Loops



## xrunner (Jul 29, 2011)

Found these looking around Hobby Lobby yesterday. They are tiny plastic tubes supposed to be used to weave together patterns, but I am going to use them for modeling. I don't have much use for most of the colors, but the gray, black, white, and orange can be used for things such as -

Black - multi strand bulk cable
Orange - multi strand bulk fiber optic cable
Gray - piping or electrical conduit cable
White - PVC piping

They straighten out pretty good if stretched a few times.

I am going to first make some models of bulk fiber optic cable (orange) on small wooden spools for flatcar loads, I'll post if successful.


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

I've often stripped the insulation off of single-conductor wire by pulling it lengthwise ... you end up with a plastic tube, similar to those above. Great for all creative uses, per your comments above.

TJ


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## xrunner (Jul 29, 2011)

tjcruiser said:


> I've often stripped the insulation off of single-conductor wire by pulling it lengthwise ... you end up with a plastic tube, similar to those above.


Yea but they're not Magic. 

But seriously, the material these "Magic Loops" are made out of is extremely elastic and tough. My little spools of fiber optic cable are coming along nicely, I'll post some pics later today. They should resemble the pic below


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## xrunner (Jul 29, 2011)

I used carpet protector tape for the stretch film over the product, along with a label for each one.

Fiber Optic Cable -










Electrical Cable -


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## Artieiii (Apr 25, 2011)

Magic Loops....."They're Magically Delicious"....oops that's Lucky Charms.
Those fiberoptic loads look great xrunner!!! And they are attached to the cars with "Magic" LOL
-Art


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## xrunner (Jul 29, 2011)

Artieiii said:


> Magic Loops....."They're Magically Delicious"....oops that's Lucky Charms.
> Those fiberoptic loads look great xrunner!!! And they are attached to the cars with "Magic" LOL
> -Art


Yea I need to put on the side rails before doing a test run at operating speed!


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

xrunner said:


> I used carpet protector tape for the stretch film over the product, along with a label for each one.


They look nice.

Would real-life spools have clear wrap-film like that ???

TJ


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## xrunner (Jul 29, 2011)

tjcruiser said:


> They look nice.


Thanks.



> Would real-life spools have clear wrap-film like that ???


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

Ohh! That IS a real life spool!  I thought it was one of your models ... hard to tell them apart!


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## xrunner (Jul 29, 2011)

tjcruiser said:


> Ohh! That IS a real life spool!  I thought it was one of your models ... hard to tell them apart!


LOL - well, the shipping labels _are_ a touch too big, but all in all it looks pretty decent on the tracks.


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## xrunner (Jul 29, 2011)

If you want to make a fluorescent light bulb you can model one with some white Magic Loop tubing and a white LED. Just shine the LED in one end of the tube and black it out so you only see the tubing. It looks pretty good. It's too big for N scale but for HO it would make a good fluorescent bulb.


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