New shaft tube

[island time]

Hi all,
As work continues on the 23 Commander I ran into a headscratcher.
In preparation to paint the bottom I have been stripping old paint and patching minor scratches and repairing one good sized hole in the keel near the bow.
Since all the backing blocks for the through hulls, rudder packing box and prop shaft strut were deteriorating I decided to remove and replace them. After I got the shaft out and started sanding around the shaft tube I noticed some really shoddy looking glass work.
As I looked into this further I realize now that the boat had been grounded hard at some point and noted that the strut was not sitting flat against the hull. It appears as though a new shaft tube was installed out of alignment between the engine and strut and the only way for them to align the running gear was to leave the strut cockeyed.
I plan to fix this by removing the offending tube and install a new one.
One question I have is should I upsize the tube in case I decide to install a larger shaft in the future.
The next question is where is a good source for fiberglass tubing? I'm looking around on line but it seems the only length this comes in is 10 feet. Actually I'm fishing to see if anyone else has done this project and has a short piece laying around.
The current shaft is 1-1/4", I'm thinking I would use 2"ODX1-1/2" ID. That will be a nice strong 1/4" wall.
Any thoughts?

[joanroy]

Make a couple calls and I'm sure you'll find what your looking for. They might even cut it for you. Let us know if you find a good source.

[island time]

I found a couple of sources so far:


Max-Gain Systems
mgs4u.com
2',4' and 8' lengths up to 2-1/2" O.D. with 1/8" and 1/4" wall thickness.

K-Mac Plastics
k-mac-plastics.net
5' lengths up to 3" O.D. with 1/4" and 1/2" wall thickness.

I can find what I need at either of these sources but I'm still looking around and will post updates.

[island time]

Ok, so I went with Max-Gain, just received my material today.
I decided to use 2" O.D. with 1/4" wall netting an I.D. of 1-1/2", this should give enough room for the 1-1/4" shaft. If not I also got a piece of 2" O.D. 1/8"wall which would give more clearance for the shaft but this is also the stub piece that the stuffing box clamps to and I would like to use the thicker wall if at all possible.
I also bought a piece of 2-1/4" O.D. 1/8" wall and a piece of 2-1/2" O.D. 1/8" wall.
I plan to sleeve these all together for a finished tube wall thickness of 1/2"-super strong!

I was able to buy 2' lengths of each size so I will have virtually no waste. The four pieces I bought including shipping was around $70.00. I thought that was reasonable considering I didn't have to buy 5' or even 10' lengths.

Good place to deal with!