Cheap Tubing Bead "Roller"

[coryb]

In the past I've drilled 4 holes in the pipe and put large-head rivets in them. They created enough of a lip - in 4 places - that the hoses don't slip off.

But that tool definitely makes a nice bead on the pipe.

[xb-60]

Originally Posted by Tom Wells

Ugly as sin but beautifully effective! Great tip!

Agreed. It's a nasty looking little sucker, but what a great result.
We should have awards for such simple little gadgets!
Cheers,
Glen

[Rick Parker]

Another option is to take a piece of 1/6" stainless welding rod and tack one end and wind it around the perimiter of the tube cut it off and tack it in several places, the hose will hide it. Effective/cheap

[strictlypersonl]

Cool, but I would change the design a little bit to make it more universal.

Instead of directly welding the half-clamp to bottom of the Vise-Grip, I would weld in a U-shaped cradle that could support a floating half-clamp. That way, you can use the tool on different diameter tubing.

[lovehamr]

Originally Posted by strictlypersonl

Cool, but I would change the design a little bit to make it more universal.

Instead of directly welding the half-clamp to bottom of the Vise-Grip, I would weld in a U-shaped cradle that could support a floating half-clamp. That way, you can use the tool on different diameter tubing.

Since the center of pressure for the tool is in such a small location, most of the anvil (my muffler clamp) could be cut away with almost no effect on the end product or its ease of use. I used the muffler clamp saddle because it's what I had and was roughly the right width. With the set up the way it is now it could be used on anything up to 3" and on the low end, anything that the "hammer" portion will fit into. By removing most of the anvil the upper useful size would be almost unlimited and rounding the lower jaw portion would make it usable on smaller tubes as well. So post pics when you get yours done.