Homemade tig cable cover

[LarryL]

Since I recently purchased a water-cooled pencil torch, I decided that I had to make another one of my garden hose covers for the torch's three cables. I know that commercial cable covers are available but I feel that my spiral-cut garden hose covers provide more protection and are more durable than commercial covers. I posted a picture of my first spiral-cut hose cover more than a year ago but did not provide any details about how I made it. Here are the details for any of you that wish to try making such a cable cover.

At a local hardware store I purchased a 50' length of light-duty, 5/8" garden hose for approximately $8. I cut this in half and cut off the brass-plated fittings at both ends. Then I fabricated a cutting block by gluing two short pieces of 2 x 4 together. I drilled a 13/16" dia. hole through the block so that my 3/4+" dia. garden hose would slip through easily. With 1' wide masking tape I wound several turns of the tape at a slight angle (a right hand spiral) over one end of the hose so that the tape lay flat and its edges butted up against one another but did not overlap. After slipping the tape-marked end slightly through the block's hole, with a protractor I measured the angle that the edges of the tape made with the face (or side) of the wood block. I pencilled in a line denoting this angle on one side and then cut off a wedge from the face of the block with my bandsaw. This left me with an angled face that was parallel to the edges of the masking tape. Mounting a box knife's blade on the angled face so that it would cut diagonally through the wall of the garden hose was the final fabrication step. I made sure that the cutting edge of the blade was angled in such a way that the cutting action would press the hose's wall against the wall of the hole in the block. The first photo shows the finished cutting block with blade attached.

With the cutting block clamped in a vise, making the spiral cut in the wall of each 25' length of hose was easy. Cutting just required pulling the hose through the hole with my right hand while pushing and rotating it into the knife's edge with my left one. Most of the time required to spiral cut a 25' length, about 20 to 25 minutes, was occupied with untwisting the hose that was being fed into the block and retwisting the spiral-cut end. There was a tendency for the hose to slip backwards when I stopped cutting. Therefore before cutting again I had to pull the end of the cut up to the knife's edge in order to assure a smooth continuation of the spiral cut. The second photo shows the spiral-cut hose as it comes out of the block. The third and fourth photos show the finished product and how it appears after being wrapped over my water-cooled torch's cables.

My total outlay was $8 and the expenditure of a few hours of effort, but, I believe that I wound up with a cable cover that's superior to any of the nylon or leather covers on the market.

This procedure also can be used to make spiral-cut polyehtylene tubing for use in wrapping bundles of wires. The commercial stuff is expensive but you can make your own with a little bit of effort from inexpensive polyethylene tubing.

LarryL

[Sundown]

That is a cool idea for sure, Too bad I can't use it because then my torch won't fit in the case (Maxstar 150 STL), I will remember it to use for something else though.....

[RcRacer]

****, I love the creativity around here! That's a cool idea. I've got a few applications around the house where I could use that. Thanks Larry!

[hankj]

Very slick, there, Larry!

Hank

[Mike W]

Good idea Larry, thanks.