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source for very flexible welding gas hoses?

metalmagpie

Titanium
Joined
May 22, 2006
Location
Seattle
I am setting up a magnetic tracer pattern burner. I have it adjusted (leveled) so that the arm will move very easily and drift to a stop with almost no rebound. That's without hoses. In this state I can easily trace patterns without difficulty.

Then I drape the hoses over the framework. I cannot find a way to do this so that the hoses don't pull the swingarm more strongly than the magnetic attraction of the stylus to the pattern.

The torch is a 3-hose torch, so the bundle consists of two oxygen and one fuel gas hose. I am using regular green and red rubber welding hose, grade T. I think I have the hose cut about seven feet long. It just seems heavy and stiff.

Is there a type of welding hose that is extra light weight and very flexible?
Or is there some clever way to suspend the hoses from overhead so they don't pull the hoses?

metalmagpie
 
My LWS made up for me some smaller hoses, for an aircraft torch, you only need the larger for the blow O2.
Try also pulling the hoses apart (the conjoined ones if they are)
 
The PVC blue air hose I have is light and can be tied into tight nots and then can be undone. Very tough and does not get stiff during cold months.

If it's just a matter of some welding fittings getting attached then big deal.
 
The PVC blue air hose I have is light and can be tied into tight nots and then can be undone. Very tough and does not get stiff during cold months.

If it's just a matter of some welding fittings getting attached then big deal.

Not "T" rated hose, nor "oxygen" rated hose.....
 
I don't know that much about ratings, but I had a rubber water "welding hose" burst on me. I would bet that a PVC hose would not.

Well then maybe you should read up on "those ratings".....and which hose burst ?
and what were you running thru it ?
 
Well then maybe you should read up on "those ratings".....and which hose burst ?
and what were you running thru it ?

Digger Doug for the win! Seriously though, any kind of fire in a shop can be disaster. Not something you want to
wish on anybody. Sometimes a little safety goes a long way.

Right now there is a thread running on Shop Floor Talk about a couple guys who got caught in a shop fire. One has
25 per cent burns, the other about 60 per cent, They're both going through Hell right now. I'm not saying that the
fire they were involved with was caused by a bursting hose but just that fires do happen and anything that can be
done to prevent them is a good thing...
 
I'm thinking back to my Linde (commerically made) tracer, I'll
see if I can dig up some pix.

IIRC the 3 hose bundle simply was tied under the top arm, and leapfrogged over each elbow joint.

Somehow it didn't affect the arm's movement.

Have you thought of making it how some of the homeshop small CNC tables doo it ?
They put a hook overhead (use the ceiling if needed) and drop the hoses down in the center of the working area.
 
Can you hang them overhead so they aren't pulling from the sides? Oops. Just saw the overhead part at the end of the OP. Light springs on them may help.
 
I had an old Linde magnetic tracer torch. The hoses appeared to be the same as on my hand held torch. I suspect the way the hoses are routed is more important than the flexibility of the hose.
 
I'm thinking back to my Linde (commerically made) tracer, I'll
see if I can dig up some pix.

IIRC the 3 hose bundle simply was tied under the top arm, and leapfrogged over each elbow joint.

Somehow it didn't affect the arm's movement.
That's how my 60" Linde is. I still had to keep my hand on the tracer for security with thin sheet templates.
I've heard of short "Whip hoses" for hand torch use for years, but have never seen them advertised. Are they just short sections of smaller hose?
 
I do side work as a scientific glassblower and have a few hand torches on a glass lathe and need the hoses to be flexible. I recently found this stuff but its only for smaller torches with A sized fittings (which is fine for me). It basically looks like rubber tubing but its super thick to take pressure, and is a twin line. Its T-rated but I doubt it would have enough flow for your application.

Gas Welding Hoses by TM Technologies

I have also used tygon in the past but it gets stiff in cold weather
 
I bought some Tygon hose. Looks like great stuff. I'll post back how it goes.

metalmagpie

Word of warning: Even if it is rated "excellent" for intended gases doesn't mean that it is approved for welding use.
Doesn't really matter in the Sue-happy US as long as your shop doesn't burn down or someone is injured but..

Tygon could be 10 times better than the "proper hose" but insurance companies and lawyers don't really care if it is not approved..
 
Word of warning: Even if it is rated "excellent" for intended gases doesn't mean that it is approved for welding use.

Approved by whom? A large part of general-purpose welding hose fabrication concerns itself with oil proof and abrasion resistant coating. But my tracer machine hoses are never going to drag on the floor of a welding shop or be exposed to spilled oil.

In this litigious-minded country of the USA, I believe that the company's rating of excellent for oxygen, acetylene and propane as published in their own documentation should be enough to cover me from any legal or insurance issues. Should some problem ultimately be traced to be the fault of Tygon hoses, I as the consumer could sue the daylights out of the manufacturer who rated these hoses excellent. The manufacturer knows that and knew that when they rated Tygon excellent for these purposes.

I am assembling these hoses with industry standard fittings from Western Enterprises. Nobody can take exception to that. True, Tygon hoses aren't red or green or blue and they don't come as twin-lead. I'm not convinced that welding hoses specific to one part of a torch-cutting machine have to be.

metalmagpie
 
Don't forget the heat coming up off that torch, and the flames when you first light it off, it sort of
"billows" up all around the torch before you get the oxygen set right.

Also, watch out for pinching at the elbow joints.

FWIW I can't find those pix, I sold the machine, and must have deleted them.
 
Approved by whom? A large part of general-purpose welding hose fabrication concerns itself with oil proof and abrasion resistant coating. But my tracer machine hoses are never going to drag on the floor of a welding shop or be exposed to spilled oil.
If you want to dig deeper to legal bullshit look for federal regulation 29 CFR 1910.253 - Oxygen-fuel gas welding and cutting: "Hose for oxy-fuel gas service shall comply with the Specification for Rubber Welding Hose, 1958, Compressed Gas Association and Rubber Manufacturers Association, which is incorporated by reference as specified in § 1910.6."
 








 
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