What this template is for
A tube cut off at an angle at one or both ends, with a twist between the two cuts. Elbows and bends, chimney and duct sections, model rockets, costume horns.
Also called angled tube · pipe elbow template · mitred cylinder · duct elbow — all the same shape, and this is it.
- Pipe and duct elbows
- Chimney and flue sections
- Model rockets and props
- Costume horns and cones
How to use this template
Set your measurements above, then download the file that suits whatever you are already working in. All four are the same mitered cylinder, drawn to the same size — only the format changes, and every one of them is free.
- PDF printing at home
- Print it at 100 per cent and cut it out. This is also the file to hand a print shop: say "actual size, no scaling".
- PNG 300 dpi Canva, Photoshop, Procreate
- Upload it as an image, lock it in place, and design your mitered cylinder on top of it. Works on the free Canva plan and on a phone. Full Canva walkthrough →
- SVG Cricut, Illustrator, Inkscape, Affinity
- Vector, with the cut lines, fold lines and labels on separate layers so you can style or delete them independently. Cricut and Silhouette walkthrough →
- DXF Silhouette, laser and vinyl cutters
- Two layers, CUT and FOLD. The free Silhouette Studio Basic opens DXF where it will not open SVG, so this is the one to use there.
Putting your own design on it: you do not need any of those programs for a logo or a pattern — add a picture in the panel above and drag it onto the mitered cylinder. It is trimmed to the cut outline and embedded properly in the PDF, and it never leaves your computer. Getting it printed properly →
Printing it
- Type the size you need above, in millimetres, centimetres or inches.
- Download the PDF and print it at 100% — never “fit to page”, or every measurement comes out wrong.
- Too big for your paper? Tick Split across several sheets and it prints across as many as it needs, with overlaps and matching letters to tape together.
How to put it together
These pictures are the mitered cylinder itself, not a generic diagram — change the measurements above and the template changes, but the three steps never do.
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Cut the solid lines
Every solid line is a cut. Scissors are fine; a craft knife against a steel rule is neater on the straight runs. Cut the inside shapes, like a thumb hole, before you free the outline — the sheet is easier to hold while it is still whole.
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Score every dashed line
Dashed lines are folds, and they want scoring first: run an empty ballpoint, a bone folder or the back of a butter knife along a ruler. Card folded without scoring cracks along the outside of the bend. Fold each crease both ways, then back — it makes the shape almost close itself.
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Fold, glue and hold
Curl the sheet over a table edge before you glue anything. Roll it into a tube and glue the lap. Two of these, cut at half the bend angle each, meet to make an elbow.
Glue: a glue stick is enough for paper; use white PVA on card and hold each seam for thirty seconds. Tape works on the inside of any seam if you would rather not wait. Let a box dry standing up, not lying on a flap.
Questions about the mitered cylinder
- How do I make an elbow out of these?
- Two of them, each cut at half the angle you want the bend to be, joined at their sloped faces. A 90 degree elbow is two tubes mitered at 45 degrees. For a tighter, smoother bend use more sections at smaller angles.
- What does the twist do?
- It turns the bottom cut relative to the top one. Leave it at zero and the two cuts lie in line, which gives a flat bend; turn it and the run of pipe changes direction as well as angle.
- Why is the top edge a wave?
- Because a flat cut across a rolled tube unrolls into a cosine wave. It looks wrong on the sheet and comes out perfectly straight once the tube is rolled.
Print your own design on it
Every template here takes your artwork. Add a picture in the panel on the left — a logo, a photo, a pattern — drag it where you want it on the mitered cylinder, and it prints with the template. It is trimmed to the cut outline automatically, so nothing spills over the edge, and it goes into the PDF as a properly embedded image.
No other free box template site will do that, and your picture never leaves your computer — there is no server here to send it to.