Fitting fire hose to barbs

[Will Truitt]

Hi Nick:

 

Your comments are very timely, and I am grateful for having them.  My end
caps are supposed to be 1 ½” (See second paragraph below)

 

I spent part of the day today developing blisters and frustrating myself.  I
dunked the  1 ½”  Nitrile hose in boiling water multiple times and kept
working to expand it.  I had bought some 1 ½” plain PVC pipe, which I
buttered and finally was able to insert into the end of the hose.  I then
was pulling up on it and working it around the sides, the idea to be to
stretch out the hose at the ends enough to get it started on the barb.  As I
kept working it and reheating it in the boiling water, that did cause some
very grudging  (and small) expansion of the hose end.  I then switched to
heating the end with a heat gun and working the PVC pipe around it to
expand.  Some more gain after a long time.  I actually tapered the end of
one of the barbs to make it easier to get on.  Then I used a 1 ½” drum
sander fixture (like you would insert into a drill press).  That tool you
put the drum onto and tighten a nut to secure it in place, which it does by
expanding the sides out into the sandpaper to hold it.  I used that to press
out the sides, which I also did while using the heat gun.  After 2 ½ hours
of doing this on a single end, the most I was able to get was the end of the
barb into the hose about 1/8”, where the taper would prevent it from going
any further.  Oh, and I had been buttering the inside of the hose and the
barb with grease all the while.  

 

At a certain point, you realize that you are beating your head against the
wall, and maybe it’s time to stop.  At first, you wonder if you’re an idiot;
but after you have tried so many things (including those that others have
said they had success with) you can at least say to yourself, “Well, I may
still be an idiot, but I think there is something else going on here too. “
I took my calipers and miked the ends of the barbs, which varied from 1.618
to 1.645 inches in diameter.  The unbarbed shank remaining after the barbs
ended measured out at 1.54 inches.  It was too difficult to get a reliable
inner diameter reading on the hose because it is flexible and of the fold
flat variety.  Whatever it is, it’s obviously smaller than the barb end!    

 

Thanks for your remark about your using the 1.25” stuff for the end caps.
I’ll head over to Lowe’s tomorrow morning and buy one or two barbs of that
size and see if that is going to be a workable solution in a test fitting.
If that seems to be the ticket, then I can go about securing some ones of
sufficient quality.  

 

I thought I was being pretty careful about this.  Jude Reveley has been
extremely helpful to me with a lot of this.  I went to a fantastic local
hardware store in Mass. Near Jude’s shop, and bought the exact same fittings
that he is using with success and with nitrile hose.  I got my nitrile hose
from a local supplier who ordered it from me.  I don’t know what the
differences between my hose and Jude’s are, but there must be some, as he
did not experience the level of difficulty that I have.  

 

Nick, how are you holding the hose to twist and hammer – by hand?  I was
finding that the hose wanted to fold over against the pressure of the barb
against it instead of staying straight on.  I have some large channel lock
pliers, so I will try that too.

 

I happened to stop by my best friend’s house this afternoon.  A plumber was
working on his furnace.  The plumber suggested going to an Auto parts store
and getting a tool that is used to expand exhaust pipe so that one end of
the pipe can fit over the end of another.  You keep turning it to expand it.
I’ll look for such on Monday 

 

Thanks again for your help, and any further comments you have would be
appreciated.  

 

Will

 

 

 

From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Nick Gravagne
Sent: Saturday, October 04, 2008 11:11 AM
To: 'Pianotech List'
Subject: RE: Fitting fire hose to barbs

 

Hi Will,

 

What size are your end caps? Are you able to at least get the barbed
diameter started on the hose, or is it more like trying to stretch a bicycle
tire on the rim? If the latter, I doubt your success in making it work (at
least not easily).

 

I also use 1.5” fire hose (comes with some sort of rubberized inner sleeve),
but trying to mate this hose with 1.5” end caps did not work at all. I found
this out many years ago. The industry protocols of fire hose and related
fittings do not necessarily match those of the plumbing industry. The end
caps that worked for me are 1.25” stuff. I recently purchased more through
Amazon (Genova #31814 1-1/4" White MPT Plug) at 0.92 cents each. 

 

My procedure is to butter up the barbs with gray plumbers putty (also acts
as lube), then twist and hammer on the caps (dead blow) to the hoses. The
use of large channel lock pliers also helped a great deal in “turning” them
on. When they are pushed home and flush, the clamps are seriously tightened
up. I recently did several of these without boiling water or special
lubrication but with a bit of muscle. Fortunately I found that the use of
colorful language and poetic flourishes was not required.

 

Ciao for now


 

Nick Gravagne, RPT

Piano Technicians Guild

Member Society Manufacturing Engineers

Voice Mail 928-476-4143

 

  _____  

From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Will Truitt
Sent: Friday, October 03, 2008 6:12 PM
To: 'Pianotech List'
Subject: Fitting fire hose to barbs

 

To the List:

 

I got my Nitrile rubber 1 ½” fire hose late this afternoon, and at the end
of the day I cut my lengths and started playing with fitting the hose over
the barbs of my end pieces.  The inner diameter is slightly smaller than the
end of the barb.  Even with grease and wanging the barb around the inside of
the end of the hose to stretch it a bit, it looks like it’s going to be a
lot of work to get those suckers on – a lot of screaming, cursing, and
gnashing of teeth.  I was hoping to secure a tool designed for this task at
a hardware store, but there appears to be no such animal.  The suggestion of
placing the hose end in very hot water was made to me, and I will try that
tomorrow.  Does anyone who has experience doing this have any suggestions
that I could use to make my life easier here?  

 

Will Truitt

 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20081004/19db6173/attachment-0001.html