10x10 cylinder technique v2.0
(For v3.0 click here).
The 3 long rounded slopes follow the exact circumference of a 10x10 circle, making them ideal to create a cylinder with. Unfortunately, a circle of that size has a 2×π×5 ≈ 31.4 studs circumference, and a single round slope covers about 3.3 studs, so you cannot make one using only these: 9 is too few, 10 is too many. If you use 8, you will be ~4.8 studs short, so if you can put ~1.2 studs between them each group of two slopes, you get a perfect circle. 1 stud is 2.5 plates, so ~1.2 studs = ~3 plates! Sounds to good to be true? It is: there's some rounding errors in this calculation, so it is actually slightly less than 3 plates but significantly more than 1 stud. You can make a working cylinder using the technique shown on the top right. The rounded slopes can not be perfectly connected to the inner column because the studs connecting them cannot go all the way in. However, the gap is minimal; they won't fall off and it's not noticeable once it's closed up.
As shown above, you can add nice stripes along the cylinder by using different colored plates.
One way to solve this problem is by recessing the 3 plates, so they are not squeezed between the rounded slopes, as seen on the bottom right image. That does change the aesthetics, which they can be a good thing, but it's no longer a smooth cylinder.
For a better view at how these look in real life, including a cylinder with recessed plates, see this picture.
10x10 cylinder technique v2.0
(For v3.0 click here).
The 3 long rounded slopes follow the exact circumference of a 10x10 circle, making them ideal to create a cylinder with. Unfortunately, a circle of that size has a 2×π×5 ≈ 31.4 studs circumference, and a single round slope covers about 3.3 studs, so you cannot make one using only these: 9 is too few, 10 is too many. If you use 8, you will be ~4.8 studs short, so if you can put ~1.2 studs between them each group of two slopes, you get a perfect circle. 1 stud is 2.5 plates, so ~1.2 studs = ~3 plates! Sounds to good to be true? It is: there's some rounding errors in this calculation, so it is actually slightly less than 3 plates but significantly more than 1 stud. You can make a working cylinder using the technique shown on the top right. The rounded slopes can not be perfectly connected to the inner column because the studs connecting them cannot go all the way in. However, the gap is minimal; they won't fall off and it's not noticeable once it's closed up.
As shown above, you can add nice stripes along the cylinder by using different colored plates.
One way to solve this problem is by recessing the 3 plates, so they are not squeezed between the rounded slopes, as seen on the bottom right image. That does change the aesthetics, which they can be a good thing, but it's no longer a smooth cylinder.
For a better view at how these look in real life, including a cylinder with recessed plates, see this picture.