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Suction hose

I’ve seen a number of attempts at hose manufacture both on this site and on others, so it’s my turn to suggest a method of manufacture. First I measured the approximate length of each of the hoses as suggested visually from the detailed drawings supplied by Mike Cummings. The length required was approximately 12” – 13” so the first operation was to source a length of 5/16” x 15” long steel. This was centre drilled in one end so it could be supported with a revolving centre in the lathe and a 1.7 mm dia hole drill across the diameter about 11/2” from one end for the wire to be fed through and secured. The tool post had two felt pads squashed by a metal plate to tension the wire as its pulled through onto the rod, I used the screw cutting feature set at 10 TPI as after a little trial and error this seemed to give the best looking structure to the final covered pipe. One safety point to mention is that the coil of wire, prior to forming should be secured on a piece of dowel e.g. brush handle; this allows it to be freely pulled out through the tool post. I had sourced some galvanised steel wire 1.5 mm dia (large coil) for the job so passing the end through the 1.7mm hole and bending it back so it wouldn’t be pulled out when the lathe is started. The speed was set at 200 rpm and the hose inner is starting to form, keep an eye on the coil so it’s freely rotating and as we are travelling from the chuck to the for the wire coming towards the tailstock centre and be ready to stop. The wire can now be detached from the steel shaft. Using the screw cutting method gives an accurate spacing requiring no adjustment to spacing before the shrink sleeve is applied; however a jig is required to hold the pipes in a circular aspect while they cool. Finally I can epoxy the ends in place first putting 2 bands of red shrink sleeve on the tube to be shrunk at the joints after the epoxy has set.

5 years ago by mturpin013