Wire Hose Clamp

Intro: Wire Hose Clamp

I use a Sears Craftsman Pop Rivet tool to make wire hose clamps. I use .040  stainless steel wire. You can use mild steel such as electric fence wire, but you have to be careful and not get it too tight or it will break. I have no idea if other brands of Pop Riveters will work or not.  I learned this by trial and error, but now make most all of my hose clamps, especially on air lines and sprayer lines..


TOOLS NEEDED

Sears Craftsman  Pop riveter (another brand will probably work)

Wire cutters

Pliers

.040 Stainless steel wire (Harbor Freight)



MATERIAL

Hose

hose barb

STEP 1:

Cut wire to  approximately 15" long.

Fold it in half

Thread ends through loop

Twist the wire evenly to give the pop riveter a better grip on it

STEP 2:

Tighten the wire over the hose making sure it  is straight all the way around and tightens on the barb.  Click the pop riveter, tightening the wire.  Do not over tighten. or you will break the wire.  Judge the tension buy watching the wire squeeze into the hose.  When you get it tight enough, bend the wire straight out to keep it from slipping when you remove the pop riveter.  Now remove the pop riveter 

STEP 3:

Cut the wire leaving about 1/4 inch sticking out.

Separate the ends so one will go on each side of the double wire. 

Use same cutters to bend the tips 1/8" down to penetrate the hose so they will not cut you later.

STEP 4:

Use pliers to bend down the ends and penetrate the hose.

You now have a smooth hose clamp that will not snag on anything.



I have overtightened and broken the wires many times, but after 15 years of using these,I have never had one fail.

I sometimes use two clamps on a very high pressure application.

Comments

[Uxhamby]

Brilliant! Thanks for sharing this.

[muddog15]

Rivet* autocorrect...

[muddog15]

Works nicely with a arrow pop river tool.

[slaterp]

Focused pictures please.....

[IZNOGOUD974]

Tried it and it worked just fine, thanks!

[graydog111]

Glad you liked it, IZNOGOUD974.

[caarntedd]

I will try this as soon as I get home. Thanks. Great tip.

[graydog111]

ajoyraman & caarnteed:
Thanks for the replies. Let me know how it works with your pop riveter.

[caarntedd]

I used 1.3mm diameter soft steel wire. It worked very well with two different cheap pop rivet pliers. It took a couple of attempts to get the technique right, but I only broke the wire once. Nice work and thanks again.

[graydog111]

Thanks for the reply, caarntedd. I was wondering if other brands of pop riveters would work. I have recently acquired a pneumatic riveter, but it has so much power, it breaks the wire every time. I made up some new lawn sprayer hose yesterday using .040 wire and as usual, they worked great.

[Mihsin]

I,ll vote for it even before trying it.
Looks what I was in need of for many years.

[joen]

Thanks for the instructable. I have already made some repairs with this method. However I am using thicker wire than you are so instead of tightening the two ends together, I am tightening the ends one at a time. By going back and fourth between the ends tightening them, you can get them plenty tight. This will hold when regular screw tighten clamps won't. I am still getting the hang of it and the wire I am using (I am guessing it is bailing wire) is annoyingly easy to pop. But I just fixed a garden hose where the regular screw clamps wouldn't hold. :D

Thanks again!

[graydog111]

joen: Thanks for the feedback. I will try your method. With the smaller wire, it sometimes breaks when I give it that "one more squeeze".

[joen]

Actually your way, tightening them together makes more sense as far as I can see. It is easier to break one wire than two. I am going to get some smaller wire and do it again your way, It should be simpler. However if you need a bigger wire clamp or have bigger wire to use, tightening one at a time while not ideal will still work.

Thanks again for the great idea.

[graydog111]

I made a mistake......the stainless steel wire I use is .040, not .030.

They work great on small diameter hoses. I have never used them on large hoses such as auto radiator hoses. I am sure they would work, but am just kinda afraid. I have tried different methods such as going around twice, but one time around seems to be the easiest and best. On high pressure air lines (120psi), I usually put 2 wire clamps on instead of just 1, spacing them 1/4 inch apart. One thing I really like about them is they have no obstructions sticking out to hurt your fingers when using the air hoses like the commercial clamps do. The small diameter electric fence wire is a little bigger than the .040 stainless wire, but does not have as much tensile strength.

[ajoyraman]

Cheap & Best ! Thanks for Sharing.

[SlickSqueegie]

Great instructable! These little wire clamps work as good or better than traditional hose clamps. Great idea for an instructable.