Thinking of getting hydraulic hose crimping machine/fittings for repairing own equipment.

[Garwood]

I know I've said this 100 times on this site in most hose crimping threads, but I'll say it again-

There are two kinds of hose crimpers-

- The cheaper machines use stops and are good for crimping fittings from one manufacturer. These crimpers tolerate operators that primarily breath through thier mouths just fine, but they are useless with any fittings not made for them.

- The good machines are called Crimp to Diameter. They are closed loop using encoder feedback. A user interface adjusts and sets the crimp Diameter in .001" increments.

All fittings have published crimping specs.

If you are crimper shopping try not to buy the crimp to a stop machines. They can really suck and you will spend tenfold the money on fittings.

The fancier crimpers generally don't cost any more to buy used because most sellers don't know the difference. They've been made forever. Aeroquip has predominantly made crimp to Diameter machines for 40+ years.

 

[scsmith42]

For the OP, about 17 years ago I set out to do what you're looking to do. I purchased a new Parker crimper (portable model), and an assortment of fittings.

I have a variety of equipment here on the farm and sawmill. The most standard fitting is a JIC, but I also have various styles such as NPT and o-ring boss used by Cat, John Deere, etc.

Initially I bought an assortment of fittings that I thought I'd need. 17 years in and I still have most of those fittings..... so that was money wasted. Most of my needs are just a few different fitting sizes, and the rest seem to be one-off's that I have to order or go to the local industrial supply anyway.

A few times I've used the portable aspect of the machine to repair a hose on an existing piece of equipment. In these instances the downtime savings paid for the machine. These were instances of an otherwise good hose that was damaged in one spot by getting pinched, etc.

But 99.99% of my use is stationary. I now buy most of my fittings in volume from e-bay (best price). Most of them are a #6 JIC for the sawmill.

Being able to make my own hoses is a "nice to have", but not a "need to have considering that I have four different locations that can make a hose for me within a 30 minute drive. Most of them are competitively priced. Of the hoses that need repair, it's probably split 50-50 between ones that I do here versus ones that I take to the local industrial house to make for me. It all comes down to if I have the right fitting in stock for it. Usually I'll save 30% of the cost if I make them myself, but the real savings is getting the production line back up sooner.

Best of success to you.

 

[Shaybuilder]

I use only the reusable hose fittings and have had good luck with them. All that is needed is a couple of wrenches to assemble a hose.

 

[john.k]

Is Caterpillar XT3 and XT 5 hoses still a thing?......these reusable fittings dont need a crimper,just a simple press ,and dont take half a day to reuse the fittings like the screwup ones

 

[candeservices]

This is what I used as my crimping set up.
20 ton press I already had
hose die 40$ ebay
hose crimp 40$ ebay
50' hose 60$ ebay
assorted fittings for my equipment size only 80$ maybe a little more
went to hi lo auto parts and got one 5' hose made up it was around 75$
I would guess that I have made around 6-7 hoses with my set up all ready.
Now are they crimped to size hell no, have they lasted 3 years hell yes.
Plus I have made air line hoses for the compressor and hoses for 2 tractors. In the LONG run I think it was a good choice for me and I buy specialty fitting as I go along. Non of the hoses are in a place that they would burst/spray into my eyes or body.

 

[john.k]

The last hose I had made a couple of months ago was $200.........should have known better when I saw the huge shop was empty ,and only two dumb kids poking around there .........there was more staff in the office than the shop ..............I always made my own with hose from auctions .........unfortunately ,the hose has all gone hard ,and the rubber is perished .

 

[pcm81]

Full Disclosure: I don't crimp hydraulic fittings.
What i do do is build my own air and water hoses. For my garage use a cheap Chinese hydraulic crimper works fine, but it WILL NOT work your actual hydraulic line manufacturing.

Basically, here is what is going on when you crimp the hose:
The hose wall is acting like a spring which you compress between the ferrule and the fitting. The hose wall has some equivalent of a spring constant that translates to some PSI value applied to the outer wall of the fitting. That pressure must be higher than the pressure the hose is rated for to prevent leaks. Axially the fitting is held by the barbs or a nipple on the stem of the fitting that goes inside the hose. Unless of-course it is a gas line for light or highly reactive gas. Then no barbs on the fitting stem are allowed, to prevent penetration of teflon coating on the inside of the hose. In this case the ferrule is usually welded to the fitting and the ferrule during the crimping process is deformed forming teeth or ridges that dig into outer jacket of the hose to provide axial gripping. Point being is: if you want to build the hose in the correct way, you got to do it using the hose, fitting, crimper combination that some credible supplier has tested.

Crimp to size (set dimension) crimpers are nice, but they require calibration to verify that you are still crimping to size. You can always break out a caliper to check though. if too loose just dial it down couple thou. Over crimping can be as much of a problem as under crimping. Not only you may end-up with wings on the ferule resulting in uneven pressure around the circumference, but you can destroy structural integrity of the hose under the ferrule. Even if the hose wall is strong enough to hold the required pressure, not every hose wall can be deformed enough without losing structural integrity to provide required psi under the crimp.

 

[gregormarwick]

I have a hose crimper (two in fact) sitting in one of my containers. Every hose I've needed in the last year I've driven the ten minutes into town and got it made up there. It costs so little that it's not worth dragging my own gear out of the container.

If you have someone local who does it everyday it's so much easier to just let them do it.