Light weight strong struts can be easily made by soldering a non insulated ring terminal (stud size 8 - 10 ) to a 2" piece of 3/32" music wire. Use JB Weld to fasten the ring terminal into the end of the streamline tubing. When one end is dry measure, cut and fit the ringterminal for the other end. Bolt in position. Do one end of the other strut and when dry bolt in position. Mark the crossover location and cut the second strut accordingly. (I usually start a little long and trim as needed until I get the correct length. ) Bolt in position with some wax paper underneath the bolt of the first part of the strut (in case of a 'drip' ) and join the two pieces together with JB Weld.

When dry remove the strut and do any additional filling of the gap, then file/sand. I use one coat of a HIGH BUILD automotive primer to take care of any scratches in the aluminum, then paint.

The end result is exceptionally strong and as light as balsa.

See picture for detail.

As an added note. If you have a biplane or parasol plane and insert the wire holding the ring in the wide side of the streamline tubing, you can remove the connector from a servo lead and fish the wires through the inside of the tube and through the fuselage, then put the connector back on. Your servo lead(s) for the aileron servos are now hidden from sight. The smallest you will be able to do this with is probably 3/8" tubing.

Kind of like this? This is 3/8 tubing and 1/16 cabane strut wire.

Les

Yep.

The only thing I do that appears different is that I use the ring terminal/wire setup for all my ends.

It appears that you have flattened the ends and made the rings right from the tubing itself. I really like the ends you made on the straight pieces. Is there a technique for this ? Way back when I initially tried this I found the tubing was deforming further back from the ring area than I liked.

I like the ring terminal/wire setup because I can vary the ring size according to the size of the socket head screw/bolt I am using.

The only downside I have found to my setup is if I am working with 1/4" tubing - I usually have to cut a 'slot' on one side of the tube to provide clearance for the end of the terminal.

In this case, these are the Cabane struts for my Pietenpol. The streamlined tubing are the vertical members, and the straight tubing are the diagonal supports from the top of the front cabane struts to the firewall on the plane. I lay the tubing on an anvil, use a 5/16 square lathe cutter blank, and hammer the end of the tubing flat. This flattens only one side of the tubing. Drill hole, and round to eyeball satisfaction. The straight is 1/8 diameter. The top of the cabane strut wires are fitted with ring lug terminals. I had to mail order them from Digi Key. No one in San Diego carried #2 lugs, so I bought 100. The bottom of the struts fit into tubine fastened into the fuselage, thereby repairable if necessary.

Les

Used the wire and tubing setup for my Fokker D-VII. You haven't had any fun in the hobby until ou try to make all the cabane struts on a D-VII come out even. Because there are 8 cabanes on the airplane I just used plain streamlined tubing for the interplane struts.
Worked very well.