who's building their own hoses from bulk hose?

[Donutboy]

I'd like to hear from anyone that is experienced in building their own hose from bulk hose. Any experience that you have with it that might keep me from making a mistake is appreciated. It seems pretty straight forward.

[mendodistilling]

If you use centerpunch clamps, use the real centerpunch tool from the same company. my chinese one bent after just a few hoses. i had 200 ft broken down into a few 15s and a 25, so maybe 12 hoses, i think i got 7 built.

[PeteB]

When building your own hose the most critical thing is to measure the length of the inside as well as the outside.

When you cut the hose it must be where these measurements are exactly equal.

If the hole through the inside where the water flows, is shorter than the outside, then it is obvious that the water will not be able to get all the way through.

And the opposite is also equally true, if the outside is shorter than the inside then the hose will leak.

Sorry, but I don't understand your question. Surely you just buy the bulk hose and cut it to length then attach the fittings that are meant for that size hose. There must be many hundreds of types of hoses and fittings and combinations from your basic garden hose to high pressure hydraulic. You probably need to be more specific.

[schnit]

Sorry, but I don't understand your question. Surely you just buy the bulk hose and cut it to length then attach the fittings that are meant for that size hose. There must be many hundreds of types of hoses and fittings and combinations from your basic garden hose to high pressure hydraulic. You probably need to be more specific.

I was thinking the same thing. The only difficult hose I've ever encountered was braided stainless but, after I learned to wrap tightly with electrical tape and then cut with a sharp rotary tool it was a breeze. I'd imagine the same technique applies to any hose with a type of braided sheath.

[PeteB]

By far the quickest way I know to neatly cut metal braided hoses is with a sharp axe on a big block of wood. If the braid is on the outside then wrap it with tape as shnit says.

The worst way is with a hacksaw.

[Natrat]

If you have a spiral wound hose (glidetech, plicord, et al) find where you're cutting the hose, and put the wire at the bottom. Then you can make a nice, straight cut to the wire. Pull the wire out a bit, and cut it with something that won't leave a sharp point (I use a dremel with a diamond wheel) and try to cut it IN the hose a little way. This will avoid painful nips and pokes from badly cut spiral. A really good pair of angle cutters will work, but the stainless wire in the hose is pretty tough.

If you use gear clamps (which is sometimes ok) get good stainless ones with plenty of overlap. Punch banding works alright, but has similar drawbacks to gear clamps. I find the hydraulic punch banders work way better than the mechanical ones, but they are 3 times the price.

One other solution is to go to a hose place, tell them what you want, and purchase a roll that you store there. Then when you want a hose, just tell them to swage it on. My local hose guy only charges me for the triclamp fittings, and not the labor...since I bought the whole spool. Phone call, and 30 min later I pick up a hose.

[mendodistilling]

I concur after buying the hose and fooling with cutting it with side cutters/pipe cutter and hand banding, that having the hose supplier do it for me would have been great. The caveat i can provide is that if you bring them the barb fittings you will save yourself a lot of money. I went to matheson and they wanted almost 50.00/fitting for a 2'' x 4'' triclamp x barb. I needed lots of them, the hose cost less by the time i got done adding up 14 fittings almost. I was livid, went online, found them and built it myself and saved probably a minimum of 1500.00 for their 30.00 fee per for banding and 50.00/barb plus the plicord hose @ 1.20-1.80/ft. The reps are all over the place on prices too. I found matheson gas to be the best for me in sonoma county but in mendocino county (very rural) their rep was raping me pretty badly and after realizing the 12-15 quotes i called via the goodyear rubber products rep list, I realized they were the same company giving me two quotes bc they were subsidiaries, the rep in santa rosa even suggested I call him and upon referencing the best price for a price match, I realized he was the same company. Anyways, I'd suggest on this one you shop around is all I'm saying, I easily with 2 hours of work saved 1500.00

[mendodistilling]

Buy a pipe cutter or a band saw and you can cut everything.