Surely not. That sounds far too easy. Who would ever think of using real pipe to simulate simulation pipe.
"It's a mad house!!!"
Yes. Buy some plastic pipe. That was my first though also. You can also get black poly or galvanized steel if your too lazy to paint it. Though white looks pretty sci-fi to me.
Also card board tubes. Paper towel, or, if you choose, loo roll. For smaller piping, straws. You could also just roll paper or thin card, hide the join by having it at the bottom (dah). Much cheaper than pipe. Actually free, if you use discarded materials.
Drink cans or even bean cans for huge piping or tanks for piping to lead too/from, also easy to have blasted open pipes (just don't cut yourself on the sharp metal and file to make safe).
Round sprue plastic for thin piping.
Old garden hose or fancy washing machine hose. Thick electrical cables, just make sure none of these are actually in use then you start cutting!
Even bamboo can be used.
Cut some polystyrene packaging into small blocks to sit your pipeline on.
Pipes are one of the easiest man made objects to model, and for free. Save your money for more figures.
Looking at TNE2300's pics, they could be replicated with just drinking straws (cardboard straws may work best). Use some bolsa wood the width of 3 straws to cut the joins from and trim or sand to shape. Then just glue together (card straws and wood, just use pva glue). You could swap the wood for thick card or polystyrene.
Of further thought. There is electrical wiring from most good hardware or electrical supply stores. It's white and looks like 3 cords attached side by side, because it is. Perhaps a few dollars a meter. You can just cut that up.
