| Hours today: | 0.6 | Hours FF: | 43.3 | Hours total: | 779.9 |
| Rivets today: | 0 | Rivets FF: | 114 | Rivets total: | 15 540 |
So I need to find a way to make up the oil pipes. I found a few cool tools online:
The Knuckle Saver Video: here. This is a small hand tool and looks like it works well:
Moving up the scale is the EZ_ON. It is driven by a pneumatic drill, and looks very cool:
If you want to push on really big pipes, then a CC-FP10 is what you want:
Parker, the people who do the hoses, also do an assembly tool.
The only problem with all these cool tools is availability. And saving some money won’t hurt either. So what did I learn?
- I need to hold the fitting,
- I need to hold the hose, and
- I need to bring the two together using some form of mechanical advantage.
I gave the issue way too much thought, and a couple of things came to me:
The CC-FP10 uses straps to hold the hose:
Holding a hose with straps
If it works for a hose that size, it should be no problem to use small straps on a small hose.
Next, I remembered that I have a small vice for a miniature milling machine that can probably hold a fitting securely. It can.
Finally, I figured out that a drilling vice could provide the mechanical advantage. Aardendorff had one for just R315, or about $20 and they’re just 20 minutes away. It has 150mm/6″ of travel. It’s rough and ready, but that is all I need for this job.
150mm / 6″ drill press vice
So here’s the method:
The problem – it’s difficult to push the hose onto the fitting.
So: hold fitting in miniature vice.
Put miniature vice into drill press vice
Strap hose to drill press vice.
This step is the most tricky. I found twice around to be more than enough, and wrapped over the top, as shown, the strap pulls the hose down rather than making it pop up. Don’t wrap too close to the fitting, because the strap compresses the hose and stops it from pushing on to the fitting.
One strapped, turn the vice handle to push the fitting into the hose and viola! If you’re lucky. If not, adjust straps and try again. I found two attempts were needed to get the full push, and pulling the straps nice and tight saves wasting vice screwing on tightening them.
Job done
I know not everyone will have a convenient miniature vice, but I hope this idea helps you think of a solution that works for you. Leave a comment if you have a better idea.
It took about 5 minutes to do each hose, but there are only 9 fittings, so it was quicker to mess around with this ad-hoc technique than spend the time making a better clamp for the hose. DON’T FORGET to put the hose clamps on before you make up the second end!
After a lot of research, a shopping trip, and some messing around, I then spent 35 minutes actually making a hose or two.
sling056 