>>re: tubing types>>
Stainless, Cu-Ni and Ni-Cu are all used in marine environments because of
their corrosion resistance. Copper-Nickel (Cu-Ni) looks very similar to
copper because it is an alloy of mostly copper. The copper is essentially
"corrosion resistant" and the nickel gives it a little better strength and
some more corrosion resistance. But, it will still corrode (it will get that
"green gunk" look that copper alloys get). On the other hand, Nickel-Copper
(Ni-Cu) alloy is also corrosion resistant due to the high nickel content and
this alloy looks very close to stainless ("silvery"). It has much higher
strength than Cu-Ni. Its advantage is that it is less susceptible to stress
corrosion cracking under high stress, high temperature, and corrosive
environment than certain stainless alloys (304 SST for example). The most
common stainless alloys are 304, 316 and 403. These are all pretty resistant
to seawater and should be fine for brake fluid.
This info is from when I used to work on nuclear submarine reactor plant
equipment for 13 years where each of these alloys are used extensively. Now
that you have more info than you probably cared for, I'd go with the
stainless tubing. If the Ni-Cu is cheaper, that would be O.K. too.
Roy Malac
'60 TR3 TS63103LO (in restoration)
techman@metrolink.net
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