Heres a brief description of how to make a pretty accurate Graflex style endcap using stainless steelrefrigerator magnets and lamp tubing.

This only works with the torchiere lamp tubing and won't work with chromed plumbing tubing. The tube had an angled flange caused by the tube cutter I used, so I just took a small ballpeen hammer and tapped the inside edge of the flange until it curved in on itself. Then after alot of filing and sanding, the cap gets inserted in the other end. I might just epoxy it in place since the rounded flange keeps the cap from coming out, or I'll screw it in place, and hide the screws under the grips.

The [torchiere] lamp tube is almost exactly the same outer dia. and IS the same wall thickness as a Graflex 3-Cell. It's not quite the same outer dia. but I'm talking a human hairs width in difference! This only worked because when I cut my tube, the cutting wheel crimped the tube slightly. It was just enough to keep me from putting the cap into the tube, so I got the idea to round it off, and stick the cap in from the other end!

I've only done this with the lamp tubes, the magnets are too small for plumbing tubing.  Anyway, I got the magnets in a 4 pack at Target for $2.99 on clearance.

The magnets were found at Target in with the kitchen utensils. They had 2 kinds, brushed and chrome. The brushed were $4.99 /4 pack and the chrome were on clearance for $2.99.  I used the brushed and just sanded the grain.

I used a standard pipe cutter, the manual kind that you tighten down on the tube with every rotation. It really doesn't take alot to get the curve, it was more "tapping" than "hammering"!!


The angled wheel that does the cutting leaves the end of the tube with an angled flange. The "blade" is a small cutting wheel, kinda shaped like a tiny pizza cutter if you will! It's attached to a threaded shaft which pushes the wheel against the tube. As you rotate the cutter around the tube, you crank the shaft with the cutting wheel into the tube so that with each rotation you cut a little deeper. The metal will flare out a tiny bit into the tube as the wheel cuts causing a small lip. This lip gives the cut end of the tube the appaerance of being thicker than it is. If you have a cap that will fit snug inside the tube, this lip will keep it from coming out when inserted into the other end.  I've tried to show this here:

Once you've cut the tube, begin TAPPING carefully, with the rounded end of a ballpeen hammer, on just the inner edge of the angled flange. eventually it will angle back down into the tube. My diagram shows the egde of the tube and the angled flange, and the cross section shows you where to ith the flange. You'll have to go around the tube quite a few times to get it to look just right. Once you have a basic shape, file and sand the angles smooth.

The magnet has 3 parts to it. The satinless steel shell, a black plastic insert, and the magnet plate. I used the can opener from my swiss army knife to get the 3 sections appart. Don't worry too much about bending the stainless steel cap out of place, it's pretty tough!

This wasn't all that easy due to the type of glue they used to hold all of this together. It is very rubbery and flexible. The magnet comes out pretty easy, but the plastic had to be drilled and pryed a bit more.

The magnet cap has a rounded top edge.  With the flat part of the hammer, tap the outer edge until the top surface is flat. Then sand a grain into the cap with 300 to 400 grit sandpaper. 

There are a couple of ways you can attach the cap to the tube. My diagram shows the easiest way, and what I'll most likely be doing. Place the cap all the way into the tube. Smear a ton of epoxy round the edge of the cap where it meets the tube. Next, insert a section from one of the PVC inserts we used for the Allen Bolt tutorial, and make sure it is pushed as far aginst the back of the cap as possible. 

The insert fits pretty tight as it is and should be enough to hold the cap in place. The epoxy will ensure that the cap doesn't spin. The other way would be to drill holes into the tube making sure they also go through the side of the cap, and insert a few small screws. You could either carve out a section of your grips to cover the screw heads, or you could make the hole small enough, tap the screws in and cut off the heads. This way just the shafts would hold it in place. Either way, your grips will cover this.